The first new Mario Kart in a decade is packed with stuff.
The first new Mario Kart in a decade is packed with stuff.
A new Mario Kart is usually built around some kind of notable feature. Double Dash added co-op play, while the DS iteration let you play other people online. With Mario Kart 8, it was gravity-defying tracks and, later, the idea of expanding the game through DLC courses. With Mario Kart World, perhaps the biggest launch title for the Nintendo Switch 2, there isn’t one single innovation that sets it apart. Instead, it’s the overwhelming chaos created by all the new features — and it’s a blast.
You can tell World is different right when you start a new race. Instead of beginning from a stopped position, your kart is already in motion before the race begins. That’s a small detail, though. What struck me when I played the game is just how much is going on. The tracks are larger, with wider roads and more alternate paths, and there are lots of moving pieces. Here’s a small sampling of the obstacles I faced during a few races: a road with towering giraffes and speeding ostriches getting mixed up with traffic; goombas that not only walked around but charged as soon as they saw me; koopa troopas that tossed things to knock me off course; and thwomps that would block the road but also fall over to create a temporary ramp.
There are also some new ways to navigate as you can now drive across water — and those waters are often choppy — and grind on certain rails like you were playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. I even saw some destructible elements, like guardrails that went flying when crashed into. Oh, and and races now include 24 drivers at a time. At one point, when I was close to taking the lead in a race, a pair of Bullet Bills whipped past me at the exact same time, sending me tumbling toward the back of the pack.
Perhaps the best example of this chaotic mindset is the new “knockout tour” mode, which is a bit like a Mario Kart take on battle royale. As you make your way through a course, you’ll come up against gated sections that only certain racers can get through. So, for example, the gate might only be accessible for those in 20th place or better, meaning all those trailing behind will get knocked out. The placement for subsequent gates will then increase throughout the race until there’s a winner, and it becomes a mad dash to stay on the track as long as possible.
There are also just a lot of neat, little details in World. Racers get squashed flat when run over, and you can spot tiny details like Mario’s poncho ruffling in the wind or Boo plugging his ears when a bomb detonates nearby. The rain, the water, the racers’ eclectic outfits — this is a really fun game to look at (which, of course, is extremely hard to do in the middle of a race).
Throw all of these elements together, and you get an experience that is filled with chaos and presents more opportunities than ever for exciting, emergent moments. That’s saying something considering how wild Mario Kart has been in the past. Mario Kart 8 and its Switch port are a tough, best-selling game to follow up, but World might end up topping it through sheer excess.
Mario Kart World launches alongside the Nintendo Switch on June 5th.