Mario Kart World Review

My heart goes out to the Mario Kart World team: Kosuke Yabuki (Producer), Kenta Sato (Programming Director), Masaaki Ishikawa (Art Director), Shintaro Jikumaru (Gameplay Design), Atsuko Asahi (Composer/Music Lead) and their comrades. Their task, after all, was unenviable: create a follow-up to the best-selling game on the Nintendo Switch. Here’s what I said about Mario Kart 8 Deluxe in my original review:

“My personal take is that Mario Kart 8 was the best Mario Kart game in years — possibly the best in the series overall, despite its lacklustre Battle Mode. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is therefore a further extension and refinement of the best Mario Kart game in years with the added bonus of being both a great experience on the TV and and full console experience on-the-go.”

Upon release, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe improved on what I now view as the best Mario Kart game since the original Super Mario Kart. And in the years since its Switch debut, Nintendo continually refined and improved the experience thanks to multiple expansion packs. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is one of the few Nintendo Switch games I have played almost continuously since launch right through to the present day. While my full review contains more detailed thoughts, let me just put a flag in the sand here to contextualise my thoughts: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is a distillation of everything great about the Mario Kart series. It is mechanically sublime thanks to brilliantly sharp and satisfying controls, it is still - in 2025 - visually stunning thanks to superb art direction and skilled technical execution, and its track design is almost universally praiseworthy thanks to a combination of thoughtful layouts and broad diversity.

When Mario Kart World was first revealed, I found myself wondering only one thing: How on earth can the developers clear such an incredibly high bar? A conservative approach could be underwhelming no matter the quality, while a more ambitious change to design could represent the wildest of gambles given that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is something close to the platonic ideal for the series.

After spending many hours with Mario Kart World - both pre and post release - I now feel ready to at least approach this question. Let’s dive in.

What is Mario Kart?

Let me establish one important point at the outset: the core Mario Kart gameplay - what it feels like to control your vehicle and use items - remains fundamentally intact here. There are no wholesale changes to basic driving mechanics. This means that acceleration, steering, drifting, and item use feel much as they did in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which is a very good thing. Nintendo has spent years evolving and refining Mario Kart’s core DNA; Mario Kart World benefits from these refinements, making it the most mechanically precise and satisfying iteration of the series so far.

The fact that the core mechanics haven’t changed (and don’t really need to change) could be one of the reasons why Mario Kart World leans into optional additives as a way of keeping the moment-to-moment experience fresh. It is now possible to jump up on certain environmental objects to ‘rail ride’ for brief periods of time. Grindable objects include everything from train tracks and fences to power lines and so much more. The advantage of grinding is, of course, that it provides an all-important temporary speed boost (which becomes even more powerful if you ‘hop’ off a grind rail; you’ll receive an additional speed boost when landing). I appreciate the fact that grinding is a totally optional mechanic for the most part. It’s entirely possible to win races without ever worrying about it, but its existence modestly boosts the game’s overall skill ceiling, which is great news for everyone from casual players to online sweats. It’s also now possible - with some careful timing and alignment - to launch yourself up into the air and briefly ‘wall ride’ (which, again, confers a temporary speed advantage as well as the possibility of avoiding certain incoming attacks if well-timed). Like grinding, it’s up to you whether you engage with this feature or not; you won’t be punished for not doing so, but here again you have another new technique to practice and eventually master should you so desire.

The other all-important chamber of Mario Kart’s beating heart is, of course, items. If racing and gaining a speed advantage is one side of the coin, combat against other players is the other. Mario Kart World adopts a similar philosophy for items as it does for racing mechanics. That is to say, most of the classic/favourite items are here and function as sharply as they always have: blue/green/red shells, banana peels, mushrooms, and all the other items you’d expect make an appearance. They are complemented by a suite of entirely new items that, in my experience so far, feel like great additions to the formula. The hammer (from the famed Hammer Bros.) is one awesome example: you throw a handful of hammers in an arc either in front or behind your vehicle. The hammers spread out in a single line as they embed themselves into the ground. Any kart unlucky enough to run into them immediately spins out. Then there’s the utterly bizarre ability to summon Kamek. Kamek is basically a chaos agent; when you summon him, you never know exactly what he’ll do. Sometimes he transforms all your opponents into different characters, for example. Better yet, he’ll occasionally introduce some genuinely hilarious environmental obstacles that amp up the mayhem in big ways.

Speaking of mayhem, Mario Kart World now supports up to 24 players simultaneously. The huge increase in players combined with the new movement mechanics, items, and a far higher frequency of environmental obstacles makes for the most chaotic version of Mario Kart so far. It’s tough to quantify, but I also get the sense that some serious re-balancing of items has occurred here. I say that because Mario Kart World seems to place great emphasis on keeping all players together as much as possible. Players at the front of the grid are never able to pull too far away from the pack while players at the rear are afforded frequent and generous opportunities to blast their way up towards the front. What’s important here is that this feeling of deliberate clustering doesn’t appear to be a result of artificial ‘rubber banding’ (increasing or throttling player speed based on their grid position). Rather, Nintendo seems to have found just the right item balancing solution to ensure that races remain highly competitive right until the end. This can mean that success or failure sometimes feels a bit more like a coin toss than a question of genuine skill. However, I think it works well for the most part; tactics and strategy are still essential, especially because more advanced players can leverage the various new speed boost mechanics to establish an edge. The big upshot is that you never end up with a boring race; the grid is never too far apart and the close proximity of so many other players imbues the experience with a kind of frantic, kinetic energy that keeps you on the edge of your seat at all times. This is peak Mario Kart; Nintendo have figured out how to dial in the excitement factor to 11 and sustain it there through the duration of every race. It’s thrilling stuff.

Nintendo has spent years evolving and refining Mario Kart’s core DNA; Mario Kart World benefits from these refinements, making it the most mechanically precise and satisfying iteration of the series so far.

Roads less travelled

The most significant change in Mario Kart World - and the entire reason for the inclusion of “World” in the title - is the shift to an open world format. Courses no longer exist in isolation; they are, instead, embedded seamlessly within a much larger world. What this means in practice is that whenever you are racing on multiple courses - regardless of the mode you choose - you’ll need to physically drive between each course through the open world. The implications of this vary depending on the mode though. In Grand Prix mode, for example, each race begins with a rolling start as you arrive at each new course from the connected open world segments in between courses. This means that the open world segments do impact your game somewhat, although you aren’t awarded any points for improving your rank outside the courses themselves. In Knockout Tour, which is new for the series, you’ll participate in one long continuous race across multiple courses and open world segments, where you’ll periodically encounter gates that knock out the bottom four players. This elimination-style experience is the bag of popping candy Nintendo has added to Mario Kart World's finely-tuned soda formula. The result is a deliciously explosive surge of laughs, screams, and trash-talking, which is precisely what Mario Kart should be.

The transition between courses is awesome and feels very natural, in the sense that courses feel like they have been built within a pre-existing connected world. As you seamlessly exit one course and hit the highway, you’ll physically see other courses on the horizon and you’ll experience the continuously shifting environment (from frozen peaks to grassy plains to rainforests to volcanic hills - just to name a single example). Not only this, but the time of day and the weather will change too, giving you a genuine sense of moving across a vast landscape dotted with all manner of interesting sights and diversions. The highway segments between courses are quite different from the courses themselves in ways that are both obvious and delightfully good fun. Most courses are circuits, whereas the highway segments are naturally linear in nature (although there are plenty of bendy bits to enjoy). The compensation for this linearity is the utter bedlam of the Mushroom Kingdom’s peak hour traffic. It’s all here, folks: Koopa commuters in cars and buses, trucks transporting Bob-Ombs, wild animals (and classic Mario enemies) jaywalking with reckless abandon, and so much more. When combined with the constant belting you’ll give and receive from items, the highways are just as hectic as the courses, if not more so.

This elimination-style experience is the bag of popping candy Nintendo has added to Mario Kart World's finely-tuned soda formula. The result is a deliciously explosive surge of laughs, screams, and trash-talking, which is precisely what Mario Kart should be.

Undiscovered country

I think it’s fair to say that all of the things I care about in a Mario Kart game are here in their best ever incarnations. These are the best courses the game has ever seen. The core mechanics are brilliantly sharp and satisfying. And the balancing, always dialled in to maximum chaos, is just right.

But wait, there’s more!

All those vistas you see flying past as you dash from course to course are actual places you can go. While you can’t really explore off the beaten path during a race (other than taking advantage of shortcuts here and there), it’s also possible to jump into Free Roam, a mode that gives you completely open access to the entire world. This is where things get weird. The thing is, I think the ability to drive between courses in Mario Kart World is really a genuine game-changer. It adds incredible variety to the game and the way it intersects with time of day, weather, and environmental obstacles gives Mario Kart World a sense of genuine novelty. But these additions also work in part because they are curated and guided; your path between courses during a race is pre-set (which makes sense, otherwise you’d have players getting distracted and completely abandoning races all over the place). In Free Roam, however, there are no such guardrails. You’ll explore a surprisingly detailed world - it turns out to be far more dense than I’d originally anticipated - in search of P-blocks, question mark pads, and other collectibles.

The P-blocks are the most interesting part for me, because each one triggers a particular challenge. The challenges themselves are reasonably varied, although I personally find many of them thoroughly uninteresting; I’ve never cared about collecting a batch of blue coins before the timer runs out. Sorry. It’s boring. On the other hand, some P-block challenges involve cross-country races in areas you never directly visit during regular races in the other modes. I enjoyed these bits and wished I knew in advance what kind of challenge each P-block represents (in reality, you have to just find and hit them and see what you get).

Generally speaking though, as much as exploring the open world can be an enjoyable diversion (and is a must for completionists), it’s not really for me. Free Roam is the mode I’ve spent the least time with. When it comes to Mario Kart - and racing games in general - I prefer a more curated, fast-paced experience. That’s why I’m here. Free Roam really doesn’t offer this at the moment. Although I can absolutely see how Nintendo could do a great deal through future DLC (for example, seasonal open world events, timed challenges, additional multiplayer experiences, and so on). But this is a review, so, I won’t speculate about what may or may not happen in future. For now I’ll just say that Mario Kart World could entirely do without Free Roam and the overall experience wouldn’t be greatly impacted. The fact that it exists is nice, perhaps, for gamers who are into this kind of thing. Nintendo have also wisely marketed the idea of Free Roam being an online social space, which puts Mario Kart World well within the gaming zeitgeist (I’m led to believe that younger folks are increasingly turning to online gaming spaces as social experiences that don’t necessarily need to include traditional competitive elements).

All those vistas you see flying past as you dash from course to course are actual places you can go.

Fun with friends

Very few video games reliably summon a crowd around the TV like Mario Kart. Just a few weekends ago, on a chilly Melbourne evening, some close friends came over to cook a Nepalese feast for all of us. I thought a few rounds of Mario Kart World might work up our appetites, and so, we all congregated in the lounge room for a couple of races. It's worth pointing out that two of our guests had never played a video game before in their lives. After a quick tutorial, we dived into a Grand Prix. I think it's fair to say that friendships were tested that night (in the best possible way) as our home rumbled to life with a cacophony of belly laughs and excited shouting. Our individual experience with video games - and with Mario Kart itself - was really irrelevant. The point was that we were having fun together.

All game modes can be played with up to four players locally. And two local players can go head-to-head with anyone in the world via online play. Interestingly - and I can only say this anecdotally - but the online experience in Mario Kart World is noticeably more reliable than in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. I would occasionally get 'communication error' problems in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which forced me out of the online lobby and back to the title screen. I've played many - dozens, at least - of online sessions in Mario Kart World and never once experienced an issue. Not only that, but matchmaking appears to be super fast and smooth in general.

The one experience I haven't tried yet is GameChat; I'm keen to give this a shot once a few friends pick up the Switch 2 Camera. It's fair to say, though, that Mario Kart World builds on an already solid base when it comes to the multiplayer experience. It's not just that the online connectivity is better, it's also that modes like Free Roam offer a unique new social experience that feels especially suited to an online context. The ability to pose for photos with friends and share your memories is the cherry on top.

Final thoughts

So, how does Mario Kart World fare both as a Mario Kart game and a follow up to the remarkable Mario Kart 8 Deluxe? It's a big question, to be sure, and one that I felt required some broader insight to approach. I am joined by two SUPERJUMP colleagues, Jahanzeb Kahn and Cat Webling, to summarise our overall thoughts on the game from multiple perspectives. Thank you for reading.