Mario Kart World Review - An Expressive New Benchmark For The Genre

An open world Mario Kart should be a dream come true. Ever since I was a child, I’ve played this series and looked wistfully at not only the Toad and Shy Guy bystanders on the side of a track, but the scenery beyond them and what secrets it might have in store. Since it originally burst onto the scene decades ago, Mario Kart has been about isolated tracks each with their own distinct vibes and style; but with 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Mario Kart World, that identity changes forever.

Now, instead of each Grand Prix taking you through four individual locales and calling it, the starting line is the beginning of a road trip that only comes to a close once you’ve landed on the podium or found yourself caught in the dust of a fellow competitor. Each race evolves into another in ways that feel like a profound paradigm shift from Nintendo, even if the free roam mode that emerges as a consequence fails to live up to its full potential. Even with its flaws that surface more and more as you play, it’s hard to walk awa♕y from Mario Kart World without feeling like you’ve just played the most accomplished kart racer ever made.

Pedal To The Mega Mushroom

The first thing I noticed about Mario Kart World is how much more playful it𝓰 feels than past entries. Each vehicle can veer around corners with precarious glee as the entire frame lifts off the track to accompany a perfectly executed drift, while being hit by hostile items sends you hurtling forward into a flurry of funky flips, rather than stopping you in your tracks. There is an increased sense of chaos to each race - largely thanks to 24 people on the course at once - that makes you want to get stuck in, even if it means eating tarmac within seconds.

World is just as approachable as anything that came before it, but, thanks to new additions, it also comes outfitted with a skill ceiling that players are only just beginning to hit. You’꧙re now able to grind on rails found across the ground, on buildings, and even on the side of the road. The slick moves can be chained together to perform tricks, earn speed boosts, and stumble upon shortcuts that cannot be reached in any other fashion.

These work in tandem with driving along walls, adding a mixed sense of verticality to the open world and individual tracks that I’ll be d♌igging into for months. Drifting around a tight corner only to grind upon a rail, execute a trick, and send yourself to a wall that allows you to literally fly over the competition feels incredible. It’s a true feat that an entire open world and dozens of tracks have not only been framed around these myriad new mechanics, but also manage to feelಌ so natural. Even if you aren’t interested in these tricks, since they do take some getting used to, the moment-to-moment gameplay still shines.

In order to execute the new jump ♍command, you need to hold the drift button while making sure you♏ aren’t pushing the thumbstick in any direction but forward, which isn’t the easiest task.

Kart customisation has been removed entirely in favour of several different bespoke rides, each with their own distinct stats, with World putting aesthetics ahead of attributes without compromising o💯n overall strategy. Besides, you’ll be too busy staring at the gorgeous cast and their fabulous outfits to care. Everyone is playable here, from Princess Daisy to random Do♏lphins, and the absurdity of the roster feels reflective of the childlike wonder the game does such a killer job of expressing.

Free Roam Until The Cows Kart Home

Rosalina, Peach, and Daisy in Mario Kart World

Mario Kart World isn’t the Forza Horizon rival I was hoping for. Whiꦬle🌼 it’s awfully impressive that you can delve into free roam whenever you like from the main menu with the touch of a button, and it being the lobby for online multiplayer, it’s unfortunate that, aside from exploring the world itself and taking in the sights, there isn’t a lot to do. You can collect coins to unlock new vehicles and collect mysterious Peach Medallions to earn stickers. I also spent hours speeding around the open world, eating up a range of different snacks purely to unlock new outfits, because there isn’t much else found across free roam worth doing.

Similar rewards are earned by completing challenges across the open world such as collecting blue coins and navigating obstacle courses as a timer ticks down, encouraging you to use your skills in a variety of different circumstances. These are fun, but aside from the satisfaction of winning and earning a cool decal, they’re also superfluous. With few of these having any real impact on gameplay, they’re all jus🦄t purely aesthetic.

So after going on a couple of road trips and taking in the scenery, I naturally left free roam behind. A shame, because the foundations here would have been perfect for NPCS worth interacting with to take on missions or even a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:fully-fledged campaign. Perha🔜ps one day we will see World tackle such a thing, but right now free roam feels like a mere shadow of what it could be. Thankfully, the shortcꦆomings of free roam seldom take away from all the other things Mario Kart World does so perfectly. If anything, it complements them massively.

Speaking of Forza Horizon, you can now press a button to rewind time and fix any m꧅istakes you might have made in a race. Keep in mind though, time only stops for you.

Grand Prix is largely unchanged, but it does feature the intertwining track layouts I noted earlier, where, after finishing one track, you’ll be racing to another by means of a rolling start, before arriving at your final finish line. It’s a compelling twist, while those ༒who love things to be a little more traditional can tackle the tracks in their entirety in versus mode. It’s the best of both worlds, and the number of potential track variants on offer when jumping onto the world map is staggering.

Down But Knockout Tour

Forget everything else though, because Knockout Tour is the future of Mario Kart. It’s pretty much battle royale for kart racers, with 24 participants competing to race through checkpoints and stay ahead of the competition. Each checkpoint will eliminate a handful of racers until only a select few rema🤪in, ratcheting up the tension right up until the very end. Like Grand Prix, this mode mixes together tracks in a distinct way that in most cases spans huge parts of the open world. Knockout Tour has that “just one more go” feeling that’s going to turn it into a classic.

There’s a frantic nature to making it through a checkpoint by the skin of your teeth, only to realise you need to do it all over again if you want to survive. It emphasises a need for top-no♔tch skills like drifting, grinding, and tricks, alongside a willingness to fight dirty even with friends and family. Yes, I will throw this blue shell at my nan and I don’t care if she’s gonna cry about it. 🎐Knockout Tour is not for the weak, and I adore how it’s an encapsulation of all the things this series has done well over the years. It takes the concept of battle royale and spreads it across a lovingly crafted open world filled with several decades of gaming history.

Daisy does a star jump during photo mode in Mario Kart World.

I’ll never get over the cute 🐓little dances🙈 every character does on the selection screen. This is arguably the most expressive Mario game ever made and bodes very well for future titles.

As the only first-party exclusive title for 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Nintendo Switch 2 (does Welcome Tour count?) there are also lofty expectations sitting on the shoulders of World.🦂 Is it good enough to justify $400 spent on a new console, and does it feel lik❀e a true step forward for Nintendo? If I’m brutally honest, it genuinely does.

Tꦬhere is no way a game this visually and mechanically ambitious could exist on the original platform without significant compromise, while it also represents a mechanical step forward for the company and proof it's willingness to experiment with a formula I and many others consider sacred. The level of detail across its characters, world, and all the tracks is astounding, and it’s hard not to feel equal parts curiosity and nostalgia looking at everything it offers.

Daisy rides a jetski against Waluigi in Mario Kart World

Mario Kart World isn’t quite the full🔜 package I was hoping for, thanks to its lacklustre free r💟oam mode, but that doesn’t take away from the most accomplished kart racer in decades. It is clear that Nintendo looked at everything that worked in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and sought to both innovate upon and reinvent it at every turn.

World is more playful, more unpredictable, and more willing to give players all the toys they need to have fun and put the pedal to the metal. Even days after launch as the only proper exclusive🍰 title for Nintendo Switch 2, there is a foundation here I cannot wait to see iterated upon.