The Switch 2 was announced the other week in an hour-long Nintendo Direct. In the Direct, we got first looks at not only the console itself but also a whole bunch of games coming to the system either on day one or soon after release. The game that got me the most excited was the next entry in the Mario Kart series, Mario Kart World. I’ve been an avid Mario Kart-er since Mario Kart DS, and I’m always down for more Kart-y goodness. But there looks to be something special about this entry in particular because after watching the reveal trailer several times and seeing the extended gameplay previews on the Nintendo Treehouse livestream, I think this could be the best game in the series.
Arguably the biggest change to this Mario Kart is that WE GOING OPEN WORLD, BABY! Yep, you read that right, we’re getting an open-world Mario Kart game. When I saw this announced in the reveal trailer, I was excited but skeptical if this could work. I mean, how do you make a Mario Kart game open world to begin with? Turns out that it’s going to be done in two different ways. The first is the free roam portion of the game, where you can leisurely drive around the world, including all of the tracks. It hasn’t been announced if there will be activities to complete in free roam, but I’d like to think they’ll take the Forza Horizon approach and have a bunch of different challenges to complete.
The other way this game will handle the open world is in the Grand Prix. In previous Mario Kart games, a Grand Prix was a set of four tracks you race through, and while Mario Kart World has the same concept, it’s been tweaked a little. On the first track, you play it like normal, completing three laps like any standard race. The change comes when the next race begins, because you have to race to the next track. You’ll be racing each other through the open world sections of the map until you reach the new track, where you’ll then only do one lap before finishing.
I’m in two minds about this because, on one hand, it helps to keep the gameplay fresh and also limits downtime between each race, making it feel like one big marathon. On the other hand, you don’t get to do three laps around each track, so it may feel a little anticlimactic when you get to the finish line. This is something that I’ll decide if I fully enjoy when I get to play the game, but I’m cautiously optimistic.
Have you ever wondered if you could parkour with a car? That thought has never crossed my mind, but it was obviously a burning question for Nintendo because in Mario Kart World, you can wall jump, grind rails, and do general parkour during races. This new parkour system looks to be replacing the anti-gravity from Mario Kart 8, as it seems to fill a similar role. There looks to be dedicated areas on each track that will allow you to interact with them by driving over a certain area or jumping onto them. So far, we’ve seen rail grinding, wall riding, and wall jumping, all of which will give you a speed boost as you use them. I can see the last-minute mad dashes to the finish line with every player frantically bouncing off walls, desperate for that last boost to get them first place. I’m curious to see how deep this mechanic goes and what other crazy stuff you’ll be able to do in races and in free roam.
Another big change to the series is that each race will now have 24 racers, double the amount from previous games. This makes sense, given the longer tracks and the new Grand Prix structure, but there is one issue; there aren’t enough characters! Previous Mario Kart games would be lucky to have 20 characters at launch, and now there needs to be 24? Luckily, Nintendo has come up with a fun solution; you can play as a cow. Specifically, the cow from Moo Moo Meadows, as well as various other animals and characters from the Mario series. You can play as a Goomba, the Mario 64 Penguin, or even a Dolphin, the choices appear to be endless. There are some normal newcomers like Nabbit, but the fact that I can play Mario Kart as Monty Mole is just hilarious.
You’ll also be able to unlock new outfits for each character by getting a special item during races. This is neat because while we’ve been able to customise karts in the past, we’ve not been able to change how Mario and co. look. And seeing as they have moved away from kart customisation in favour of a wider variety of pre-made karts, being able to put the characters in different outfits still lets you add some extra flair.
I’m very much excited for Mario Kart World. There are a few things I’m cautiously optimistic about, but if they can execute all these new ideas perfectly, then we may be in for one excellent Kart racer when it releases on June 6th (how am I gonna decide between this and Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds?!)
Have you seen the Mario Kart World trailers and gameplay? What did you think? Are you excited for the game? Let us know in the comments where we can talk about which character we’ll be playing as.
