MARIO KART WORLD | REVIEW | NINTENDO SWITCH 2

''WE ALL LIVE IN A MARIO KART WORLD''

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Developed: Nintendo

Published: Nintendo

Genre: Racing

Release Date: June 5th, 2025

Platforms: Switch 2

Mario Kart World is the latest installment into this juggernaut of a series and is developed and published by Nintendo. With fans starving for an actual NEW Mario Kart game, Nintendo pulled a ''shut up already, here, dang'' annoyance move on us and are now bringing us a game that they promise is not only an evolution of the series, but its biggest entry yet. But does the game live up to that promise or fall short? Only one way to find out so lets race!

''GOT THE WHOLE SQUAD LAUGHING''

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GAMEPLAY:

Skyrim, Grand Theft Auto 5, The Last Of Us, Resident Evil 4 and Mario Kart 8. Seems like a random list of games at first, right? well they all have more in common than you think. All of these games have had multiple re-releases over the span of multiple generations, such as Skyrim moving across XBOX 360, PS4 and PS5, Last Of Us on PS3, PS4 and PS5, Grand Theft Auto 5 going the same route as Skyrim, Resident Evil 4 being on any device possible, including Zeebo. What? Zeebo? yeah, I'm pretty sure most people have never heard of that one, but rest assured, it was on there. While all those games have become a meme in recent years due to the re-release absurdity, Nintendo too has faced its share of controversy as well with Mario Kart 8 seeing a release on their console the Wii U and then once again ported their successor, the Nintendo Switch with a deluxe version of the game. I mean, clearly it worked since Mario Kart 8 on Nintendo Switch pulled in over 60 million sales to date, but it was also pretty disappointing, at least for someone like me because with all the great games on Switch and how major franchises like Zelda, Mario, Pokemon, Kirby and the likes all got evolutions of their franchises that pushed each series forward, Mario Kart was nowhere to be seen on this front. Now we arrive in 2025 with the launch of Switch 2 and with more than a decade later, we finally got our wish for a brand new Mario Kart with Mario Kart World. ITS ABOUT TIME. Promising to build on the larger than life Mario Kart 8 built for the franchise, Mario Kart World, attempts to broaden the appeal of the series by not only expanding its world to a free roam aspect, but also raising racing player counts to 24 racers in order to make things even more chaotic and fun at the same time, whether you're a bonified veteran of the series that has played since the Super Nintendo days, or if this is your first time ever picking up on the franchise, it doesn't matter, it attempts to be the jack of all trades, so to speak. Something many games attempt to do but often fail at, I'm looking at you MindsEye. So what exactly does Mario Kart World do to ''set itself apart'' other than just be ''more Mario Kart?''. Well multiple things actually, such as a brand new way to move about your surroundings, 24 player racing and free roam mode for you and your friends.

Mario Kart World expands on its movement based mechanics with the way you race around each new track, much like the gravity addition in Mario Kart 8, however here in this entry, you're offered multiple ways to get the jump on your opponent to gain speed or an advantage to a shortcut that wouldn't be possible without the new mechanic of Wall Riding. By jumping or driving onto a railing, you're able to bypass the normal sections of a race track and grind like you're Tony Hawk and then jump to do a trick to gain even more speed. But even more advanced than that is the use of Wall Riding by holding down your drift button while you're in a straight line towards a wall you wish to jump on to and then letting go. By doing this, it allows you to reach new pathways and even more extensive shortcuts that you had no clue that was even there, and if you're REALLY good at it, you can keep jumping and hopping and griding back and forth from wall to wall or wall to rail to wall to rail and perform stage skips to give you a few second advantage of your opponent in a close and intense race. Some of the videos I've seen of people doing these Wall tricks boggles my mind because I'm absolutely horrid at doing it and most of the time will manage to get on a railing or sometimes miss a wall completely and perform a very very lackluster wall run that gives me no advantages whatsoever... but hey at least this is one driving related game I don't crash in, so I'll take my W's where I can get them. Purists might be a bit miffed though by the changes to the standard courses now that the traditional format for each course moves away from the standard three lap format and now some races can even last up to 8 different laps, depending on how big the course itself is. But while overall its a cool change up to the format because allowing over 4 laps for some of the bigger courses can make players discover and think of new ways to strategize their way to victory by finding new areas, new rails to grind, faster wall riding, etc etc... it also lead to somewhat a headache in some cases due to the bigger courses to accommodate 24 players and an interconnected world map that relates to the world itself and free roaming. Which we will get to very shortly because boy did I have some adventures and mishaps in this world, not as bad as my driving in Halo Infinite, but its up there.

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''WE ON THAT GRIND''

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During each race, instead of going to a cutscene or transitioning to the next screen to load the next course, here in Mario Kart World, all tracks in the game are interconnected seamlessly and you, in the literal sense, drive from one course to another in real time, hence why some courses have more than 4 laps since there's an actual journey involved in between course changes. However there is downsides with this as well, because while its awesome to have bigger courses to race on and new tricks and moves to discover, sometimes... there's a bit of downtime on the bigger levels you race on and even with 24 players, there are some courses where you're just driving in a straight line, no ramps to jump and do tricks off of, no walls to grind, no turns to drift on, just a huge open area during the Grand Prix races that has you going in a straight line until you reach a specific destination, and that can be a bit of a bummer at times. Man, If I wanted to go in a straight line, I might as well go play Final Fantasy 13 again at this rate, come on Nintendo, the fate of my boredom needs to be in MY HANDS. Uh oh, My Hands.. nope, were not singing it again, nope, no way, not doing it. Even so, with the straight away racing , the overall course gameplay is as hectic as ever with now having to fight against 23 other people. This is both a blessing and a curse because my god can you get your world absolutely wrecked while you think you're dusting the competition, only to be met with a blue shell that knocks you into 10th or lower place at the last second. DANG IT BLUE SHELLS, I HATE YOU. The tracks in this game are absolutely gorgeous and look better than ever before, with races on courses that have dinosaurs, racing across bowsers airship and into his lair, a Donkey Kong homage level where you drive up the old Donkey Kong Arcade game, getting your sweet tooth on by driving through an ice cream track, sail through a beach resort, travel through Peach's castle and experience one of the best versions of Rainbow Road this series has to offer - these courses are all just top notch and a ton of fun. Unless you keep getting bombarded by EVERY ITEM KNOW TO MAN. LEAVE ME ALONE!. As per usual, traditional Grand Prix modes return with 50cc, 100cc, 150cc and Mirror Mode, but 200cc is surprisingly absent and I'm not sure why, maybe it will be part of a future free update or something, but for now its a bit of a head scratcher as to where it is. But.. the mode that's even MORE confusing is Mirror Mode because you have to be a rocket scientist or something to figure out how to unlock it. Yes, its even more confusing than standing against a wall while holding a crystal and kneeling while waiting for a tornado to come by and swoop you up. Unlocking this mode can be SUCH A HEADACHE and makes me feel as brain dead as my poor boy in Adventure Of Link.. ''I AM ERROR'', me too bro...me too. Nintendo even had to come out themselves and give out an official statement on how to unlock it, so that's how you KNOW its mad confusing, yikes.

Besides the Grand Prix you still have your Versus mode, Online mode and of course Battle mode, all of which remain fun as ever due to the smooth online play this go around. I don't recommend playing online though if you're easily triggered though, because with 23 people doing their own thing, it gets a bit messy and rage inducing with all the shells and lightning flying around, so be warned. But for me, the two last modes of this game that truly stand out are Knockout Tour and Free Roam. In Knockout Tour, you race against 24 other racers and as the race goes on, a large chunk of them is gradually eliminated until only four remain, and the last one to pass the finish line is of course, the winner. Ok clearly I am not THAT good at the mode and constantly get my butt handed to me due to how chaotic and hectic it is, almost making me get Vietnam flashbacks even though I wasn't even born at the time for Vietnam. Yes, its that traumatizing. So EXCUUUSE ME Princess, if I'm not as good as you, but rest assured, I WILL at least take you out with a shell at one point. Finally we arrive at my favorite mode, Free Roam. In Free Roam, you do just that, travel across this open interconnected world by yourself or with friends. This mode for me personally, floored me due to the level of detail and how alive the world feels. Characters that have NOTHING to do with the racing are going about their day, hanging out near a restaurant near their car, working at the gas station or other food joints where you can get food to unlock new attire, paddling down a river and making you wonder where theyre headed, watching Toad's sit peacefully at a camp fire at night but get jealous that they didn't invite you so you ruin their whole night, YOU SHOULD'VE INVITED ME. All courses you play during the regular Grand Prix are here and in real time, you can drive from one corner of the world to the other in what I call Mario Kart's Breath Of The Wild moment because if you see it, you can go there with no loading screens or slow downs, just...drive. Besides exploring and being in awe of the world, there are things to do in it of course besides gawk at it, which comes in the form of P-Switches and Peach Medallions. Collect Peach Medallions to grant you Kart stickers, but...with over 300 plus P-Switches to find, all of which add their own mini games like collect blue coins, race and fly through rings, try to jump on a train to get ahead of it to get to the goal, finding new areas of Bowers Lair to reach a goal and hundreds more, makes it extremely addicting, especially for someone like me who loves collect-a-thon type gameplay and a completionist for items like this, luckily with no reward of golden poop this time, thanks Nintendo. It also allows you to goof around the world and just find new stuff to do like collect all characters new attire for clothes, stickers and even pull off lucky as heck tricks like I did quite a few times during P-Switch missions that made me feel both highly skilled but extremely lucky at the same time, barely making it to the goal by sheer luck.

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''HIT ME ''ONE MORE TIME'', I SWEAR YOSHI''

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OVERALL:

At the end of the day, Mario Kart World ended up a fantastic time and a game I am not quite done with just yet. Its a no brainer that even with as much as I like it, that there are still some issues with it too. Some of the issues have to do with my favorite mode of free roam having lack of split screen multiplayer, and also no proper tracker for P-Switches collected so you never know which one's you've already gotten due to the fact they don't show up on your map, which is an issue. Another gripe I can see happening besides the $80 price point is the item balance being off, especially online, having players get hit by 4 to 5 shells before they can even get up can be quite a bit annoying. However with collectibles like karts being given via coins, characters unlocked in grand prix, new costumes thanks to diners, free roaming a huge vibrant world solo or with friends, new movement mechanics allowing for some sweet wall and rail riding tricks, creative and gorgeous courses in Grand Prix, lunatic hours in Knockout Tour with how intense and fun it gets - all of the positives for me outweigh the negatives, yes, even the $80 price tag due to CONTENT OFFERED. So with all that having been said, my verdict is clear, GameNChick says BUY NOW

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