As soon as the Nintendo Direct wrapped up, I was led into a room full of Nintendo Switch 2 demos, and unsurprisingly, the first three that I got to experience were Mario Kart World, and even though I got to spend almost an hour with the game and play it in a number of different scenarios including the new Grand Prix mode, the free roam mode as well as the new Knockout Mode, I feel like I was only just scratching the surface for what Mario Kart World is.
We were all expecting this to be Mario Kart 9, but it’s very, very clear why this has a new title – it is a totally new experience, and whilst it feels familiar, it’s totally re-built from the ground up both in how everything controls, to the courses, to the modes.
I’ll need more time to speak to this definitively, but from my short hands-on time, it does feel like the core racing experience has been totally re-done. In terms of the drifting, it felt like it had more weight, with the karts steering with more purpose than they have in recent times.
Nintendo Switch 2 Hands-On Preview – Big Improvements Across The Board
Something I noticed is that when you get hit my an item or run into an obstacle on the course, it actually matters where you hit it and at what speed to determine how much it knocks you forward, back or side to side, rather than the stock standard motion where you get knocked directly in the air. This adds a much more dynamic and unpredictable nature to the race.
My first demo were set within the Grand Prix world and whilst I didn’t get to experience courses linked together (where you’ll seemingly get to drive from world to world), I did get to play a number of different courses both in docked mode with a Pro controller and on the new console itself, on that gorgeous new LCD screen.
The two courses that I got to play were Dandelion Depths and Salty Salty Speedway, although we know there’s at least 30 courses with a bunch returning from other games. From the two courses I played (and others I’ve seen online), it seems as though every lap is different rather than the laps repeating like in previous Mario Kart games. Whether this will be the case for all of the courses is yet to be seen, but I personally love this change as it makes the courses much more unpredictable and less repetitive.
You can also now grind on rails, wall jump and there’s new water surfaces where your kart will turn into a hovercraft, and whilst I didn’t get a heap of time testing these out due to time, they’re absolutely going to add another level of challenge to the game for those that want to take their racing to the next level.
Something that I noticed about the courses as well is that they just feel so alive. Previously in Mario Kart games, there’d be one or two repeating obstacles, but in these courses, I feel like it was constantly changing, with moving platforms, Mario Kart enemies popping in to attack you and this with the addition of there being 24 racers made the game even more chaotic in the best way possible.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say that there will be more items in Mario Kart World than any game that has come before it. Whilst there’s familiar items such as the bananas, green shells and red shells, there’s returning item such as the Mega Mushroom (a personal favourite), the hammer, coin box and the feather, and all-new additions such as the coin shell, the crystal ball and a new food-based power-up that changes your outfit and might be how you unlock new outfits.
Speaking of outfits, there’s 50 characters that we know about so far, with 30 returning and 20 new characters including legacy characters such as Goomba and Penguin and lesser known characters (but just as iconic) such as the Cow.
After spending some time with the Grand Prix, it was time to play the new Knockout Tour Mode and this is going to be extremely popular. It’s a Battle Royale mode that takes place along a set number of courses (with no stopping) where after each lap, the four last players are eliminated until there’s only one player left. It was absolutely frantic and again with the addition of the new items, ever-changing courses and 24 players, things could chance incredibly quickly. Playing against 23 others in the room, I came second which I was pretty chuffed about.
Personally, I’m not somebody that has played Mario Kart for the life of a console (although I know people do), but this mode will absolutely give longevity to the online portion of the game.
Whilst waiting for a Knockout Tour match to start at the event, I was able to take part in Free Roam, which literally lets you drive around the entire Mario Kart World universe as one inter-connected world much like Forza Horizon.
You can visit parts of every course that you’d never be able to see during a race, and whilst I feel like there’s more to be revealed about this mode yet, it’s one that I can see a lot of younger gamers having fun with, and just in general it being a really chill experience when you’re racing around with friends or taking photos.
I was really unsure how Nintendo would improve Mario Kart going forward, but Mario Kart World has absolutely blown my expectations out of the water, and I can’t wait to learn more and go hands-on with it at launch.
Mario Kart World is out on June 5th exclusively for Nintendo Switch 2. The author of this article travelled to New York as a guest of Nintendo.
