Mario Kart World, a bold leap forward or an overpriced misstep?
Nintendo has long been a titan in the gaming world, and the Mario Kart series stands as one of its crown jewels. Since its debut on the Super Nintendo in 1992, Mario Kart has defined kart racing with its blend of accessibility, chaos, and charm.
Mario Kart World, released on June 5, 2025, as the flagship launch title for the Nintendo Switch 2, follows the monumental success of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which sold over 68 million copies. With such a legacy, expectations were sky-high, but so was the controversy surrounding its $80 price tag—a first for Nintendo.
Developed with support from Monolith Soft, 1-Up Studio, and Bandai Namco Studios, Mario Kart World aims to redefine the series with an ambitious open-world approach, but does it live up to the hype or fall short of the franchise’s storied greatness?
Mario Kart World doesn’t lean heavily on a traditional narrative, staying true to the series’ focus on racing over storytelling. You race as iconic Mario characters across a vibrant, interconnected world, competing in Grand Prix cups, Knockout Tour mode, or exploring in Free Roam.
The game’s premise is simple: race, win, and unlock characters, costumes, and vehicles. The open-world map connects courses, creating a sense of a living Mushroom Kingdom where you drive from one race to the next.
While there’s no deep plot, the world itself—spanning deserts, cities, jungles, and seas—feels alive with dynamic weather, day-night cycles, and quirky details like roaming Goombas or Chargin’ Chucks tossing items. However, some find the spaces between races lackluster, feeling like empty filler rather than a cohesive narrative thread tying the experience together.
Mario Kart World is a kart racing game at its core, but it shakes up the formula. You race against up to 23 opponents—double the series’ previous maximum—in modes like Grand Prix, Knockout Tour, and Battle Mode. Grand Prix starts with a traditional three-lap race, but subsequent courses in a cup shift to point-to-point sprints with checkpoints acting as pseudo-laps. You drive across the open world to reach each track, blending exploration with racing.
Knockout Tour is a relentless, elimination-style mode where you race through connected courses, and the bottom racers are cut at each checkpoint until only a few remain. Battle Mode includes classics like Balloon Battle and Coin Runners, now supporting up to 12 vs. 12 team matches.
Free Roam lets you explore the vast map, complete P Switch missions, or collect items like coins and Peach Medallions. New mechanics include grinding rails, wall riding, and charge-jumping, which add flair and shortcuts.
Karts transform into boats or planes in water or air sections, with distinct physics for each. You unlock characters and costumes by racing or collecting Yoshi food bags, and coins let you purchase new vehicles. Online play is seamless, with GameChat and CameraPlay adding social elements, like seeing your face above your racer.
Combat in Mario Kart World revolves around items, a series staple. New additions, such as the Hammer Bros.’ hammer, ice balls, and the Coin Shell (which scatters coins on impact), join classics like green shells, bananas, and red shells. You pick up items from boxes during races, using them to attack opponents or gain speed boosts.
The open-world courses introduce hazards like wild animals, Chargin’ Chucks, or Goombas, which act as dynamic obstacles. In Battle Mode, you pop balloons or collect coins to outlast rivals. The new mechanics—grinding, wall riding, and charge-jumping—require precision to master, especially on complex tracks with shortcuts. These add a puzzle-like layer, as you must learn optimal paths and angles to shave seconds off your time.
Mario Kart World’s new items and mechanics are a double-edged sword. The 24-player races are already chaotic, but the inclusion of the hammer and ice balls seems new and fun. When you are playing that item well, the Coin Shell urges you to collect coins at your own risk.
Certain tracks feel dynamic and reward competent players more heavily because of the wall riding and grinding, which stimulate creativity in shortcuts. However, some things, such as the blue shell, are less threatening because they are a touch too simple to counter with a mushroom.
With wide-open straightaways and straightforward obstacles in place of the constrained spaces of the vintage circuits, driving in the free-roam mode in between race events might frequently seem unnecessary. Although the Knockout Tour elimination structure is thrilling, it is positioned as less complex than traditional circuits due to its focus on the in-between free-roam regions, including charges.
The loss of the 200cc option is disappointing for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe fans, and the lack of a Kart customization feature is a lost opportunity. The costume system, where each outfit is a separate character, feels clunky and limits options for minor characters.
Mario Kart World doesn’t use a traditional XP system. Instead, you earn coins during races or Free Roam to unlock vehicles and characters. Placing higher in races grants more coins, and collecting Yoshi food bags can unlock costumes or speed boosts. P Switch objectives in Free Roam, such as time races and coin collection, give you stickers or a Peach Medallion to personalize your kart.
This feature encourages you to grind for money and investigate and repeat specific races, but the process is shallower than in earlier games, especially since there aren’t many customization options available (I honestly didn’t understand the impact of the stickers as part of the catalog). The grind is essentially cosmetic because there is no underlying growth structure, which may make it less satisfying for gamers looking for long-term success.
Using the capability of the Switch 2 to produce crisper textures, longer draw distances, and more colorful surroundings, Mario Kart World represents a visual revolution for the series. The interconnected world sparkles with details—campfires by rivers, bustling cities, and whimsical courses like Boo’s cinema or prehistoric jungles. Day-night cycles and weather effects add immersion, with rain or dusk changing the mood.
It looks stunning in both docked and handheld modes, though it doesn’t fully match high-end consoles like the PS5. Compared to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the graphical upgrade is noticeable but not revolutionary, and some feel it looks too similar to its predecessor for an $80 game.
The soundtrack is a standout, potentially one of Nintendo’s finest. Each course has a unique theme, and Free Roam and Knockout Tour feature remixes celebrating Mario’s 40th anniversary, pulling from Super Mario Bros., Yoshi’s Island, and past Mario Kart games.
The adventurous road-trip vibe shines through, with crisp sound effects for new items, such as hammers or water splashes. Lively crowd noises and ambient sounds like animals, crashing seas, and other unusual experiences, for better or worse, add to the insane feeling of 24 racers. However, some people find that the new items’ sounds aren’t as powerful as those of the classic things, which somewhat lessens the experience.
Mario Kart World is a daring development that combines well-known racing with an open-world element that is both fresh and unpopular. Its 30 tracks, 24-player races, and new mechanics like grinding and wall riding deliver thrilling chaos, while Knockout Tour and Battle Mode keep the adrenaline pumping. The Free Roam mode, with its P Switch missions and collectibles, offers a relaxing distraction but lacks the depth of other open-world racers like Forza Horizon.
Visually stunning and sonically rich, it’s a technical showcase for the Switch 2, though it falls short of justifying its $80 price for some due to missing features like 200cc and robust customization. If you snag it in the Switch 2 bundle for $50, it’s a no-brainer.
At full price, it’s a high-quality but polarizing leap that may not satisfy everyone. Still, it’s sheer fun and polish make it a worthy, if imperfect, successor to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe; its ambition is great, but it does not quite reach the series’ peak.
