How do you top an experience that already feels as polished as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe? By stepping into something completely different—like Mario Kart World. For the first time in the franchise’s history, Nintendo’s popular kart racer is going open world, scrapping much of the series’ conventional rule set. It’s also allowing full-on chaos with up to 24 players in a single race, while introducing Knockout Tour, a thrilling new elimination mode.
It’s an obvious gamble. Mention your go-to Mario Kart track to any long-time player, and you’ll probably get a detailed answer (Maple Treeway, DK Mountain, and Waluigi Pinball, for instance). Yet if you ask whether those same tracks were already part of the 96 options in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, you’ll usually hear a clear yes. So where do you go from there? With a lineup this extensive, simply tacking on more tracks doesn’t seem likely. Instead, Mario Kart World effectively does away with the notion of distinct tracks altogether.
That said, different regions inside the game’s sprawling world do have their own names and themes. Still, many areas appear to draw from similar biomes. Some even nod to well-known tracks from earlier games. The difference now is that everything rolls into one connected open world, reachable through the franchise’s classic Grand Prix mode, the new Free Roam feature, and Knockout Tour.
Grand Prix sets the stage and walks you through a few other small adjustments (more on those shortly), but it’s Knockout Tour that truly captures what “open world” means here. Spread across six separate courses, with a full lap on each, the game starts with 24 players and gradually trims the field as you race quickly between areas—20 racers next, then 16, followed by 12, eight, and ultimately four as the closing phase begins. The idea—well, if I’m being honest—feels heavily inspired by battle royale conventions, putting survival front and center as the numbers drop. Whatever its inspiration, it’s genuinely impressive.
I’ve never felt such an urge to stay brutal than when I reached a checkpoint, got stalled by a lightning bolt, and then got taken out by another competitor swinging a Mega Mushroom—while I was sitting in 14th place. And I knew that once the checkered flag arrived, I’d have to place 12th or higher (or rather, 12th or below) to move on. You don’t often hear the sharp, frustrated reactions of nearby racers when they miss the cut by a hair—or the sudden celebration when a well-timed slipstream pushes them forward at the last possible moment.
And if this is battle royale-inspired, there’s no hiding in a bush here. The pace never lets up, demanding constant attention to keep rolling—or to claw your way back—every time Mario Kart, the series’ great equaliser with Blue Shells, Bullet Bills, and Lightning Bolts, throws something at you. Getting to the final four is exhilarating. From the instant each match starts—now with a rolling start even on the opening course—there’s no downtime, especially with 24 players all fighting for position across Mario Kart World’s wide-open roads.
Does this approach come at the cost of less distinctive tracks? To a degree, yes. But even after an hour, I still had plenty of places to uncover across the game’s world. (Though, seriously—what happened to Rainbow Road? It can’t have vanished entirely, can it?) I spent some time in Free Roam, found a few hidden coins, and got some more outfits for my characters by grabbing golden bag pickups.
Mario Kart World seems ready to pair its bigger 24-player limits with an equally widened roster of characters, including some genuinely unexpected additions. Beyond Mario, Toadette, Birdo, and the usual crew, there are new faces like Penguin—finally set on revenge—the duck-like Cataquacks from Super Mario Sunshine, and even the Moo Moo cows from Moo Moo Farm? Why not. Many of these characters also come with extra cosmetic choices. While I played as my usual main, Toad, I unlocked his Captain Toad hat, then later found one designed to look like a burger.
When a franchise nails the core feel as thoroughly as Mario Kart 8 did, major changes to how the cars drive are rare. Yes, you can grind rails now in some situations, though in the courses I sampled they showed up only occasionally. You’ll also see a wider variety of items and weapons, such as Mario Kart Tour’s Ice Flower, Super Mario Kart’s Feather, and the Mega Mushroom that first appeared in Mario Kart Wii. Even classics like green shells and bananas now automatically stay positioned behind you. Aside from that, the game drives in much the same way as the Mario Karts you’ve likely spent countless hours with over the last two console generations—comforting familiarity, even with the bigger shake-ups elsewhere.
Mario Kart World’s reinvention of the series could be risky, but it’s one I strongly suspect will pay off. With multiple route possibilities and the likelihood of spending hours wandering every corner of its highways, deserts, and mountain stretches—whether you’re exploring or trying to outrun the field in Knockout Tour—there’s a nice bit of relief in knowing the game launches with Switch 2. I can’t wait to dig further into what looks set to be Switch 2’s standout release.