Mario Kart World review: A colorful Rainbow Road but with some speed bumps

Mario Kart World is the first major exclusive for the new Nintendo Switch 2. Launching alongside the console, and following up the original Switch’s best-selling game, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (which shifted some 70m copies), it’s pretty much as close to a guaranteed sales success as a video game can be.

With that in mind, it would have been easy for Nintendo to rest on its laurels and deliver a game that was merely more Mario Kart. Heck, I reckon most players would have greeted such an experience with gusto. So, kudos to the development team for instead creating the most experimental Mario Kart experience since 2003’s Double Dash on Nintendo GameCube.

The ninth mainline game in the Mario Kart series adds new features, including a sizeable open world, a new Battle Royale-style mode and a reworked Grand Prix. Plus, it makes some fundamental changes to the on-track experience by adding complex new moves. It’s Mario Kart, but not quite as you know it.

Unfortunately, while some of these new ideas are novel, they don’t all pan out, and the open world in particular is a huge disappointment. Let me explain in my Mario Kart World review why this Nintendo Switch 2 launch title doesn’t quite earn the top podium position (though you’re going to buy it anyway).

Mario Kart World: The Basics

• What is it? Mario Kart World is the latest entry in the long-running Nintendo racing series that sees the iconic plumber and pals take to the track to battle it out. MK: World also adds a new Free Roam mode.
• Who is it for? Nintendo Switch 2 early adopters are pretty much guaranteed to pick up Mario Kart World, and it’s also perfect if you’re looking for a party game you can play with friends and family.
• What’s the price? Mario Kart World costs $79, setting a new industry base price that, unfortunately, other publishers are already replicating.
• What other games has the developer made? Mario Kart World was developed internally by one of Nintendo’s own in-house studios. The Japanese company is bizarrely tight-lipped about which one.
• What games is this similar to? Mario Kart is a pretty iconic and globally loved franchise, but if you really need a comparison point, it’s most similar to the recent Sonic Racing series, which is itself a Mario Kart clone.

The Dark Souls of Mario Kart

You know that seriously worn-out meme where anything even vaguely challenging was compared to uber-tough RPG Dark Souls? Well, I’m bringing it back cause Mario Kart World adds a new difficult edge to the traditionally family-friendly series. And frankly, I love it.

This welcome extra element of complexity comes in the form of two new abilities: Rail Grinds and Wall Rides. These moves are fairly self-explanatory, and each gives you new ways of burning some rubber across the game’s modest but largely solid selection of 30 tracks (quite the step down from Deluxe’s 96).

The former isn’t too hard to pull off successfully, provided you get enough airtime to make contact with a rail or terrain edge, but the latter is devilishly tricky.

Frankly, I’ve lost more races than I can count just by going for a wallride in the home stretch and completely whiffing my attempt. Often, I’ve been left lamenting the fact that I would have been better off sticking to flat tarmac.

Chaining these moves together can lead to some spectacular racing lines, and the dedicated Mario Kart speedrunning community is already creating some routes that are impossible for us regular players. This extra element of skill is very welcome to the series.

The other major change you’ll notice in the moment-to-moment racing is that the player count has been expanded from 12 to 24, which makes an already chaotic kart-racer sometimes devolve into sheer bedlam.

I’ve had races where I’ve been halted by half a dozen items in a row, and the final pacing has seemed based purely on luck rather than any individual ability.

It’s never exactly fun dropping from 1st down to 24th in a matter of seconds, but these race-altering moments are a staple of the franchise, so you have to laugh along.

Let loose in the Mushroom Kingdom

Mario Kart World’s flagship new edition, and the reason for its moniker, is the Free Roam mode. This allows you to zoom around a large, loading screen-free Mushroom Kingdom that contains all the game’s courses in a seamless driving experience you can hop into instantly from the main menu.

I had hoped it would be Mario Kart crossed with Forza Horizon 5, but the mode is disappointingly half-baked. The open zone is sparsely populated with very few unique points of interest, and criminally little to do beyond merely driving around aimlessly.

There are challenges to complete and collectibles to hunt down, but the mission goals are simplistic (most take mere seconds to complete), and without any form of a checklist to properly track your progress, scouring the open world feels remarkably pointless.

It doesn’t help that your reward for completing a mission is often just a sticker, only good for staring at in a dedicated sub-menu. It’s hardly an enticing prize.

At best, this mode seems like a fun inclusion for younger players, as it gives them an open space to drive around without inhibition or being bombarded by items. But goal-oriented players will soon feel a sense of boredom, and post-review, it’s certainly not a mode I see myself returning to very often.

It’s a knockout

The other big newcomer to Mario Kart World comes in the form of Knockout Tour, a new type of race that takes clear inspiration from the ever-popular Battle Royale genre.

In Knockout Tour, 24 racers compete to be crowned the victor as they race to checkpoint gates along a lengthy stretch of road (comprised of areas from the Free Roam mode). At each gate, a handful of racers are eliminated until it’s just four players left dashing to the finish line.

Playable online and offline, Knockout Tour is sheer Mario Kart madness. A middle pack usually forms where items rain down with such abundance that avoiding hits is literally impossible. However, the mode has also provided some of the most high-stakes Mario Kart racing I’ve ever experienced.

Unlike a traditional race, where you have multiple laps to make up for mistakes, in Knockout Tour, you have to be switched on from the start. Slip up in a major way early on, and that can be your race run as the pack in front of you speed towards the next checkpoint, leaving you in their dust. The times I ranked highly (and even won) were exhilarating enough to have my palms sweating.

Racers looking to test their skills will find the undeniable randomness factor that comes into winning pretty off-putting, but if you can thrive in the chaos, it’s an unmissable new mode.

Switching up the old standards

Unfortunately, in an apparent effort to squeeze the most out of the large map created for the Free Roam mode, the classic Grand Prix offering has been reworked, and not for the better.

Rather than three-lap races across a set of four courses, in Mario Kart World, Grand Prix cups ask you to partake in a single traditional race, before dashing to your next course and completing only a single lap once you arrive at your destination. It’s a bizarre change.

For starters, it means that Grand Prix is no longer a great place to get familiar with courses before taking on your loved ones (or hopping online), and also it means that the majority of your time is spent racing on vast, very straight, open roads rather than winding courses full of shortcuts and divergent paths.

The transition between finishing one Grand Prix race and then beginning your drive to the next course isn’t seamless. It’s separated by a loading screen, which makes the whole endeavor feel worthless. The standard Grand Prix format is sorely missed, but at least you can approximate it with the “Vs Race” mode.

Battle Mode has also been downgraded. There are only two types of battle, Ballon Battle and Coin Runner, compared to five in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and rounds play out on standard courses rather than specially designed arenas.

This decision is particularly baffling as it was a common point of criticism in the original Mario Kart 8, released on Nintendo Wii U in 2014. The fan outcry was so extreme that Nintendo reworked Battle Mode for the Deluxe release on Switch in 2017, but has now opted to make the same mistake a second time.

I hope we don’t have to wait for Mario Kart World Deluxe on Nintendo Switch 3 this time for the mode to be restored to its former glory (again).

Looking good, Mario

Whatever issues I have with Mario Kart World’s new open-world focus and the reworking of classic offerings, there’s one thing that always shines through: How darn gorgeous it looks on Nintendo Switch 2.

I recall playing Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the Nintendo Switch at launch and thinking Nintendo would never be able to make a prettier Mario Kart game. I was very wrong. The franchise’s trademark cartoonish art style has never been more vibrant and easy on the eyes.

The developers clearly put a lot of work into the animations as well, with some lovely visual flourishes and each character’s personality shining through (Shout out to my boy, Bowser Jr.).

I also love the more realistic (well, realistic for Mario Kart) reactions to being blasted by a blue shell or careening your kart into a slippery banana skin.

The Switch 2 already has technically more impressive titles like Cyberpunk 2077, Hogwarts Legacy and Hitman World of Assassination, but Mario Kart World is a reminder that nobody does a whimsical art style like Nintendo.

Mario Kart World: Verdict

Mario Kart World is pretty much the Nintendo Switch 2 launch title, so in some ways, reviewing it is a bit of a pointless endeavor. There’s no doubt it’s a game that most early adopters will pick up, and I expect it’ll remain a best-seller for the console’s entire lifespan.

Overall, it’s another solid effort in Nintendo’s enduring kart-racing series, with the fantastic Knockout Tour mode a highlight. However, this Rainbow Road isn’t without some bumps. The new Free Roam mode is undercooked, and it’s frustrating that it bleeds into franchise staple offerings, making them worse.

Ultimately, in those memorable moments of victory when you pip a friend to the finish line thanks to a perfectly timed red shell, you won’t be thinking about all the stuff that Mario Kart World doesn’t quite nail because you’ll be laughing with delight too loudly to care.