"Mario Kart World" on the Switch 2: WAHUUUUUU!

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Generally speaking, "Mario Kart World" for the Switch 2 is simply another "Mario Kart". The principle is familiar, it's already 33 years old after all: All the well-known and less well-known inhabitants of the Mushroom Kingdom whizz through the landscape in small and large vehicles, throw explosive turtle shells at each other on roads, on the water or in the air and slide elegantly through bends to charge turbo boosts. It's all familiar.

And if you limit yourself to the already familiar game variants in "Mario Kart World", such as "Grand Prix" or "Battle Mode", then you will inevitably feel like you are playing a graphically enhanced update of "Mario Kart 8 Deluxe" at first. But as soon as you take a closer look under the hood, you quickly realize that "Mario Kart World" is much more than that.

Familiar at first glance

The last major "Mario Kart" installment was a whopping eleven years ago – It has never taken Nintendo this long to create a new spin-off of the main series. Nintendo could have made it easy for itself and simply offered a graphically enhanced super duper deluxe version of "Mario Kart 8". But Nintendo didn't. Firstly, because "Mario Kart 8 Deluxe" also runs natively on the Switch 2. And secondly, because it really was time for a breath of fresh air under the kart.

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"Mario Kart World" auf der Switch 2 (14 Bilder)

This breath of fresh air is also the reason why the game is not called "Mario Kart 9", but "Mario Kart World". The basic "Mario Kart" experience remains untouched: You grab the Grand Prix, select one of eight cups such as "Mushroom", "Flower", "Banana" or "Star", the difficulty level in the form of three cc classes and, of course, driver or rider – and then you're off: the countdown counts down. If you press the acceleration button immediately after the "2" appears, you start the race as usual with a small turbo boost. You race and slide and fly over 32 tracks, some of which are inspired by familiar tracks, but most of which are completely new. Players can either compete alone, against up to three fellow racers in local split-screen mode or 24 racers online.

The big chaos

But then the innovations begin. Compared to "Mario Kart 8 Deluxe", the number of drivers has been doubled, which has a noticeable impact on the game design. Because twice as many drivers also means twice as much action on the track, which is not necessarily good news. The feared traffic jams and jostling are not even a problem, as the regular tracks are now wider than before, which means that the field of drivers is spread out a little better.

What is much more strenuous is that there are now potentially twice as many items whizzing through the area at once in online races. This was already a tough test of nerves before, with constant red and blue turtle shell homing missiles, poor visibility due to octopuses, banana peels causing slips, shrinking lightning bolts, voracious piranha plants or unerringly thrown fireballs. And now there's twice as much of it.

Sure, "Mario Kart" has always been pure arcade fun and the chaos is part of the gaming experience. But in "Mario Kart World" we have the feeling more than ever before that skill has little influence on the final ranking – and luck all the more. Especially in an online race, the free fall from first to 24th place is often only a second or two apart.

Grinding and sliding

The longer you play, the clearer the differences to its predecessors become: Cups no longer consist of wildly thrown-together individual tracks, but are organized thematically. The Leaf Cup, for example, begins in an Asian setting, then moves on to a water world, before becoming increasingly darker. Players pass through a spooky haunted castle where the ghosts present watch a black and white horror movie before the grand lava cave finale.

It is no longer possible to change the appearance of the vehicles. However, there are significantly more pre-built cars and motorcycles to choose from, which, just like additional characters, are unlocked by continuously driving and collecting the gold coins scattered everywhere. We can now also use them to grind along some of the railings and drive along special walls, just like when sliding around bends, to recharge energy for the turbo boost.

There are also many smaller improvements to the gameplay: for example, the current item is automatically packed behind the kart without you having to hold down the left shoulder button, which is a noticeable relief. Just like the fact that the rainbow-colored item boxes now reappear much faster after they have been picked up.

Mario Kart Horizon

The most important innovation, however, is that "Mario Kart World" has now become an open-world racer at its core. Not as consistent as in the "Forza Horizon" competition, and not in all game variants. But the Nintendo developers have moved away from the concept of individual, self-contained tracks: The tracks are now no longer individual structures, but always part of a large world that offers sometimes more, sometimes less freedom of movement, depending on the game mode.

Nowhere is this more evident than in "Free Ride": The background in the main menu is not a video, but a real-time rendered drive of the last selected kart racer through the game's vast landscape. By pressing the plus button, players can take the wheel themselves at any time and continue racing straight away, without loading pauses or restrictions. But also without really having much to do. While "Forza Horizon 5" overwhelms you with tasks in the open world, in "Mario Kart World" there are only "P" buttons (which usually start very short driving or skill challenges) and collectable Peach coins. That in itself is a nice change; the classic races take place in the back seat, the exploration of the huge surroundings takes place behind the wheel. But the big, wide world loses its appeal surprisingly quickly.