Mario Kart World

Mario Kart World
Developer: Nintendo, Monolith Soft, 1-Up Studio, Bandai Namco
Publisher: Nintendo
Original System: Switch 2
System Played On: Switch 2
Rating: 2 stars 

For my 3rd game of The Year of Nintendo Switch 2, I played Mario Kart World! For the Grand Prix Cups, my goal was to perform the same as I did in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and I did! I got triple-star gold all 50cc & 100cc Grand Prix Cups, and I got gold on all 150cc & Mirror Grand Prix Cups. On top of that, I got gold all the knockout cups (I didn't care about stars for that one) on all CCs, I found 10 of each of the Peach Medallions, P-Switch Missions and Question Panels, and I even participated in all the time trials (not once beating a ghost). And I did it all in 35 gameplay hours over 3 1/3 months.

Whatever gameplay mode the gamer chooses to play, the player will first have to choose the driver. For Mario Kart World, Nintendo went for a more cartoony aesthetic for the characters. Most Nintendo gamers welcomed this change in aesthetic. Most Nintendo play thought the previous 3D renders of their beloved Nintendo characters felt somewhere between boring, drab, plain, uninspired and uninteresting. To them, the cartoony aesthetic made the characters look more interesting, more appealing and more fun. To me, I don't see the big deal. If anything, I actually preferred the previous 3D renders, for their felt more realistic while at the same time not hyper-photo-realistic. It's nothing worth fighting over, though. If anything, I can appreciate how the aesthetic in Mario Kart World now matches the aesthetic from their "home games" in their "home franchises." Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Princess Daisy, Toad, Toadette and Yoshi all look like they do in Super Mario Wonder. Donkey Kong look like he came right from Donkey Kong Bonanza.

Let's talk about the roster itself, though. In order to converse about the Mario Kart World roster, a discussion over the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe must happen first. In the opinion of many Nintendo fans, especially the Mario Kart fans, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe had the perfect driver roster. Including DLC characters but not including color variants (for Shy Guys and Yoshis), Mario Kart 8 Deluxe had 48 drivers, the most racers ever in a Mario Kart game (not including the mobile game Mario Kart Tour). Not only is the quantity impressive, the quality is also impressive. Instead of limiting themselves to Super Mario characters, the Mario Kart development team include drivers from other Nintendo franchises. As a result, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe included Link from The Legend of Zelda, Inklings (Boy and Girl) from Splatoon, and Villager (Boy and Girl) & Isabelle from Animal Crossing. Nintendo fans, especially Mario Kart fans, welcomed this inclusion, and it got them excited, for the sky became the limit on who could appear in a Mario Kart game. All of a sudden, the hypothetical, theoretical, future "Mario Kart 9" received the nickname from fans "Super Kart Bros.," for they anticipated that the next Mario Kart game would have a roster similar to Super Smash Bros., encompassing characters from all of Nintendo's franchises. Mario Kart World has a roster of 50 characters, making it the largest Mario Kart roster to date, so Mario Kart World absolutely has quantity going for it. In terms of quality, however, Mario Kart World definitely does not do its roster any favors. Of the 50 drivers in Mario Kart World, only 24 of them can be describe as main characters. Furthermore, all 24 main characters come from the Super Mario series, leaving out other Nintendo franchises. In comparison to the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe roster, this feels like a setback. The other 26 drivers are best described as "NPCs" from the Super Mario series, of which most, if not all, are enemies in Super Mario games. Thanks to this game, I have come to discover that many of these enemy NPCs have boring, common, drab, uninspired and uninteresting names. Such NPC enemies include Cow, Penguin, Snowman, Dolphin and Crab. Come on, at least name the Cow "Moo Moo Cow" or even simpler, "Moo Moo," after the Moo Moo Meadows from which it comes. I know this may sound like a nitpick, but all the main characters are tetrapods, meaning they have 2 arms and legs, making it a simple and sensible explanation on how they can drive a kart. A majority, if not most, of the NPC racers are not tetrapods, begging the question on how they drive a kart. How does Goomba drive with no hands? How does Snowman drive with no feet? Yes, I know in real life, cars can have alternative way to drive them for the sake of the handicapped community, but none of the karts show these modifications. Just like with the Mario Party games, I believe that the best Mario Kart racers are the humanoid characters. If that seems too limiting, then include characters from other Nintendo franchises, like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe did. The 26 NPC racers feel like roster padding, which becomes even more evident when it comes to the costumes.

Now let's talk about the costumes. Early on, even from the onset of the initial reveal trailer, Nintendo put a big emphasis on advertising costumes for the Mario Kart World drivers. Indeed, Mario Kart World has over a hundred costumes, 103 to be exact. Costumes are unlocked by eating Dash Food, Mario Kart World's version of a fast food bag. The jury is still out on how to acquire certain costumes. Based off my observations, I have concluded that it all comes down to eating certain foods in certain locations. For example, Wario eating a kabob in the desert unlocks the Sultan Wario costume. I have to observe and conclude because the game is never straightforward with how to obtain costumes. This is a completionist's nightmare! In my 35 gameplay hours, which was definitely not a completionist run, I think most, if not every, character had all but 1 costume unlocked because I could not figure out how to unlock that last costume. Fortunately, costumes can be acquired in both races and free roam. Unfortunately, both options will result in gamers revisiting courses over and over again, just in the hopes of finding a new driver + food + location = costume combination! Thus, the better option is free roam. Fortunately for the completionist, and unfortunately for everybody else, only the 24 main characters get a costume. The 26 NPC characters receive a simple boost from eating a Dash Food. Whether a casual gamer, a core gamer, or even a completionist gamers, all gamers are now actively discouraged from playing with an NPC driver, unless the player has some kind of fanboy/fangirl infatuation with the NPC racer of choice, for they will never see their character change costumes. If Mario Kart World really wanted to hype up the costumes, as it did in the advertising, the roster should have consisted of merely the 24 main characters. Yes, it would have felt underwhelming in comparison to recent past Mario Kart games, but now, with a majority of the roster unable to wear costumes, the roster does really feel like padding. On top of that, main character drivers can range in quantity of costumes, with Mario leading with 10 (including his plain original), and Donkey Kong and Paulina tied for dead last with 2 (including plain original). Way to get more gamers to play with Mario, a mid-tier character! Now there is a [conspiracy] theory going around that Donkey Kong and Paulina have the least because Nintendo wanted to hold off on their costumes because they would be spoilers to Donkey Kong Bananza, so they will be released in a DLC package at a later date. Gosh, I hope the [conspiracy] theory is right. Again, the game is encouraging gamers to play with driver with more costumes, while discouraging players to play with racers with less costumes, which should not be the case. Make all drivers have the same number of costumes! Heck, make all racers have the same exact costumes! I know this might sound like a nitpick, but to make matters worse, every single costume has its own slot on the character select screen. This makes the character select screen so convoluted! The game does provide a sorting option, but this doesn't make things better, but rather, it actually feels more convoluted! Mario Kart World should have taken a page from the Shy Guy and Yoshi color variants on Mario Kart 8 Deluxe - choose your character, and then a pop-up screen to choose the character's costume. That or at least make costume choice a second screen after character selection.

OK, the gamer has now chosen the driver and the costume, and now it comes time to choose the kart. Again, understanding criticisms of choosing the kart requires a comparison to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. In Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, choosing the kart meant choosing the kart's body, the kart's wheels and the kart's glider. In Mario Kart World, choosing the kart means choosing the kart. In this game, there is no body, wheels and glider customization. Now, to be fair, in all honesty, changing up gliders in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe did little to nothing stats-wise, so the choice of glider was more of a choice of aesthetic. Therefore, I understand why the developers dropped the glider from kart customization. Gliding still exists in Mario Kart World, but now, the kart simply sprouts wings when gliding. If developers would have simply dropped the glider and kept everything else the same from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe to Mario Kart World, kart customization would have been 2 choices: kart body and kart wheels. When it comes down to 2 choices, it doesn't really feel like a choice. Therefore, I understand why the developer dropped the wheel customization, too. Reducing the choice to just character and kart combinations also does indeed simplify things, especially for the casual gamer. Still, reducing kart customization feels like step back in comparison to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, or even Mario Kart 7 on the 3DS, for that matter. Heck, it even feels a step back in comparison to The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which highlights kart customization it! If Nintendo keeps things up, imagine having to explain to the younger generation that back in the day, a person could customize the kart on Mario Kart! The better solution would have been to make the glider actually have an impact on stats.

Finally, after choosing a character, costume and kart, the player can finally race! The first choice the game presents to the gamer is the classic Grand Prix. As classic as Grand Prix might be, this Grand Prix is far from old fashion. See, the reason this entry in the series is called Mario Kart World is because all the courses exist together, united in a single world. Therefore, instead of a loading screen transporting the driver from a course to another course, the racer now has to race from a course to another course. As a result, the 1st of 4 Grand Prix races is the traditional 3 laps around the course. For races 2 to 4, the race to finish line consists of racing to the course AND racing around the course. Typically, "lap 1" is the 1st half of the highway to the next course, "lap 2" is the 2nd half of the highway to the next course, and "lap 3" is an actual lap around the course. This new take to Grand Prix courses causes problems. See, part of the genius of 3 laps around a course is that you learn the course with each lap, so hopefully, by lap 3, you have mastered the course enough to win 1st place. If you don't, then you restart the course for another 3 laps to learn the course. With Super Mario Kart's new take on Grand Prix racing, the gamer has only 1 lap to learn the course. In reality, the player isn't really learning the course. It's more like the gamer is guessing at the course. This new take on Grand Prix races makes the Grand Prix less about skill and more about luck. That' s good news for the casual gamer and bad news for the hardcore gamer. I'm not knocking on this idea of racing to the course as well as racing the actual course itself. I just think there is a better way to implement it. The best way I could think of implementing it was make racing to the course as like a qualifying lap. In the traditional Mario Kart Grand Prix, the gamer starts off the 1st of 4 Grand Prix races in last place. For races 2 to 4, the player starts in whatever position he or she finished the last race. Therefore, with this method, the gamer too easily could finish the 1st race in 1st place, and then just hold that 1st place for races 2 to 4 because he or she started the race in 1st place. With my new implementation of the highways to the courses, players have to earn their pole position to start off the course, instead of just receiving it based off the prior course. Another noticeable change to the Grand Prix is the additional racers. Grand Prix now has 24 racers, doubling the amount racers, the first racer number increase since Mario Kart Wii increased the racers from 8 to 12. Listen, when Mario Kart Wii increased the racers from 8 to 12, I was skeptical if 12 racers would actually fit or if it would become too crowded. After 88 hours and 48 minutes over 56 gameplay sessions, however, Mario Kart Wii had me convinced that 12 racers was the right move going forward for the franchise. Indeed, Mario Kart 8 and its enhanced port Mario Kart 8 Deluxe continued to prove that theory true. After about 35 gameplay hours over the span of 3 1/3 months, Mario Kart World has yet to prove that increasing for 12 races to 24 racers was the right move. I am not convinced. If anything, I am quite the opposite. If anything, 24 racers once again feel like padding. A decent player starting the 1st race in 24th will pass the back 12 racers quite quickly, and the player will never see them again for the entire Grand Prix. Speaking of padding, I assume that that 24-racer Grand Prix is part of the reason Mario Kart World had to have 50 drivers, but again, this roster of 50 should have been well-thought of Nintendo main characters, not average NPCs. I wish Mario Kart World would have stuck with 12 racers. One last change I noticed, which may sound like a nitpick. Starting with Mario Kart Super Circuit and improved with Mario Kart DS, past Mario Kart installments would separate the retro courses from the new courses with retro cups. In Mario Kart World, since all the courses exist in a single, united world, Mario Kart World does not separate new courses from retro courses in retro cups. Retro courses will be integrated into the 8 cups, with some having multiple and others having none. This integration makes it hard to notice and easy to miss retro courses, like Ghost Valley, for example On the flip side, some are easy to notice and hard to miss, like Mario Circuit.

New to Mario Kart World, Knockout Tour provides an alternative to the traditional Grand Prix. Knockout Tour contains of 6 stretches of race track, consisting of both race courses and connecting highway, with 6 checkpoints interwoven in there. At each checkpoint, there last 4 drivers are eliminated, until 4 racers remain, who will race for 1st place. Again, I imagine Knockout Tour is the reason that races now increased to 24 drivers, which in turn is the reason the roster had to at least 50 racers, but once again, the roster should have been well-thought of main characters, instead of mediocre NPCs. Still, I think Knockout Tour could have worked with just 12 characters. Either split the Knockout Tour into thirds instead of sixths to keep knocking out 4 drivers at every checkpoint or keep the Knockout Tour 6 stretches but eliminate 2 racers per checkpoint (maybe eliminate a stretch to keep the final stretch a final 4). Either way, I wish Mario Kart World would have stuck with 12 racers. The bigger problem, however, is ultimately, Knockout Tour is not fun. See, if you think about it, Knockout Tour is 1 big lap, a sprint to the finish line. It doesn't matter how many checkpoints the driver passes through in 1st place; all that matter is what place the racer is in for that last checkpoint. I can't count the number of times I went through checkpoints 1 to 5 in 1st place, and then in the last stretch of the 6th part to get bombarded with items or cut off by from an unknown shortcut, and end up in 2nd, 3rd, or even 4th. True, someone can argue, "Well, the same is true for a Grand Prix. It doesn't matter if you finish the 1st or 2nd lap in 1st place place; what place you finish the final lap is your final standing." To that argument, I say, go back to my point about learning the race course. With only 1 giant lap, it takes time to learn it. Add on top of that the time it takes to race 1 huge lap. Getting gold on all Knockout Tours on all CCs took me a while. That's why I didn't care about star ratings. I also didn't care about star ratings because the only way to get triple stars is by passing through all checkpoints in 1st place. A run could be ruined by passing through the first couple or few checkpoints in 1st, only for the next checkpoint to be in anything but 1st. At least the star rating gives incentive to try to be in 1st place for the checkpoints in between start and finish. All in all, Knockout Tour left me with a feeling of frustration over a feeling of enjoyment. In fact, after finally finishing all Knockout Tours in 1st place, out of sheer spontaneous emotion, I shouted, "Never again!"

Time Trials is the only part of Maio Kart World that gives a traditional Mario Kart experience. The gamer races their driver around a course for 3 laps. The course itself is the only obstacles, with no other drivers to be seen. The only item the player has for his or her racer is 3 mushrooms, which a good player will utilize once per lap where the racer would benefit from it the most, most likely for a shortcut. The developers' ghost still provide the most challenge for Time Trials. Seriously, only once did I come remotely short to beat a developer's ghost, losing by only 0.03 seconds. Mario Kart World once again allows gamers to upload their best times as a ghost, so racers all over the world can compete, something that has been in the series since Mario Kart DS. Ironically, I would recommend to gamers to begin Mario Kart World in this mode, for this mode allows the player to learn the courses the best.

Someone might wonder why I know so much about Time Trials when I almost never play Time Trials. Well, I got triple-star gold all 50cc & 100cc Grand Prix Cups, I got gold on all 150cc Grand Prix Cups, and then I got gold all the Knockout Tours, yet I had not unlocked Mirror Mode. I figured that perhaps participating in all Time Trials against the developers' ghosts would unlock Mirror Mode. Nope, not the right answer. I was baffled. With no hint within the game, I went online to the internet. Turns out that to unlock Mirror Mode, the gamer has to collect 10 Peach Medallions, drive over10 ? Panels, and finish 10 P-Switch Missions. Therefore, without further ado, let's talk about Free Roam. Free Roam is the ultimate casual mode on Mario Kart World. Free Roam allows players to just aimlessly wander about this world of race tracks Mario Kart World has invented. This feature is here probably in part for a practical use for the Nintendo Switch 2's new voice chat feature. If aimlessly wandering about sounds too boring to you, Mario Kart World provides 3 things somebody can do in Free Roam: Peach Medallions, ? Panels and P-Switches. Peach Medallions and ? Panels are similar in the fact that both are a matter of just reaching a certain spot. If any difference, ? Panel are more hidden, whereas Peach Medallions are out in the open but a matter of figuring out how to get to it (most often high up). The P-Switches are a test of driving skill, reminiscent of the missions in Mario Kart DS. The driving skills that the P-Switch test will vary in difficulty. In all the honestly, the gamer will end up wandering around Free Roam looking for Peach Medallions, ? Panels and P-Switches, chalking up finding them to accident, coincidence or mistake. Later on, Mario Kart World would receive an update, which would include a map to help discover and record Peach Medallions, ? Panels and P-Switches, but this map gives little to no additional aid. Players of Mario Kart World would best log online to the internet for a better map (I personally chose IGN). If collecting Peach Medallions, driving over ? Panels, and finishing P-Switch Missions to just unlock Mirror Mode, gamers will be looking to do just the first 4 he or she runs into, or the first 4 easiest ones, skipping over any deemed too hard. Oh, and going back to unlocking Mirror Mode, once done collecting 10 Peach Medallions, driving over10 ? Panels, and finishing 10 P-Switch Missions, the player still needs to replay the Special Cup Grand Prix to finally unlock Mirror Mode for Grand Prix and Knockout Tour. At the end of the Special Cup, a custscene will show how to unlock Mirror Mode for Free Roam, which is driving through the Peach stained glass at Peach Castle. This is the most complex way to unlock Mirror Mode, and truthfully, it's overly convoluted. At most, it should all gold trophies on 150cc, and at least, it should all trophies (top 3 finish) on 150cc. That's the way it's been done in the past.

VS Race feels simply like Build-Your-Own Grand Prix. VS Race lets the gamer customize engine class, items possible, computer difficulty (if choosing any CPUs in the first place) and number of races (from 3 to 32!). When it comes to choosing courses, since Mario Kart World's emphasis is on the open world nature, the player actually chooses 2 courses. The 1st lap is the 1st course, the last lap is the 2nd course, and the highway connecting the 2 courses is the middle lap. If the gamer chooses "open" in the course settings, he or she will have to choose 2 courses after every race, and repeat cycle from how many races the gamer chose at the beginning. If the player chooses "connected" in the course settings, the player will simply choose a single new course after every race, and the next race consists of a lap around the old course, the highway to the new course, and a lap around the new course. If choosing "random" in course setting, the computer will randomly select "open" or "connected" and which adjacent courses on its own accord. Even VS Race is not an escape from the open world of Mario Kart World to a more traditional Mario Kart experience!

Battle Mode is not as fleshed out as it has been in previous Mario Kart installments, but what it has is pretty solid. Mario Kart World has 3 Battles to choose from: Balloon Battle, Coin Runners and Bob-Omb Blast. Balloon Battle may be the oldest, but Mario Kart World's version takes the modern take. Instead of last man standing, like the older Mario Kart games, Mario Kart World scores on how many balloons popped, and if the driver's balloons all pop, the score is nullified, and the driver is eliminated. Coin Runners is exactly what it sounds like - the one with the most coins at the end wins. Bob-Omb Blast is very similar to Balloon Battle, but the only item is Bob-Ombs. Oh, and by the way, Bob-Omb Blast was a free update to the game, so there is hope for future Battle Modes, especially beloved Battle modes in prior games, in either free updates or paid DLC. Of course, once again, since the open world nature is at the forefront of Mario Kart World, so the battle areas are simpley fenced off areas of the open world map, most often centering around a course. This works better than the original Mario Kart 8 on the Wii U. That did not work because courses were either linear or circular, meaning it could take a while to run into an opponent, especially considering how hard it was to turn around on these courses. Still, I would have preferred designated battle arenas on the world map. Battle Mode in Mario Kart World only does that once, and it a retro battle arena, too - Big Donut!

Quite possibly, the greatest strength of Mario Kart World is its soundtrack! Mario Kart World's soundtrack has 277 songs! Of the 277 songs, 108 songs are from the Mario Kart franchise, 102 songs are from the Super Mario series, 10 are from the Yoshi games, 2 from Mario Paint, and 1 from Donkey Kong Country, Flipnote Studio, Luigi's Mansion, Wario Land (1): Super Mario Land 3 and WarioWare, Inc. The songs can either be the original as-is or a modern remix. The purpose of this huge soundtrack is probably to keep the music fresh on long gameplays in Free Roam. The irony is that the game's greatest strength might be also its work weakness. The game itself in no way advertises, explains or promote this. The only way to catch on to this is to just be in the know. The only other way is to pause the game, whatever game mode you might be in, and the pause screen will have the track title and the game from which it came. It could not have been that hard for a pop-up in the corner of the screen with this information with every track change. Heck, even Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit does this when changing the radio stations!

As I draw closer to my conclusion, let me make some last random observations before drawing on my conclusion. Mario Kart World added a new mechanic allowing karts to grind rails in order to gain small boosts. This mechanic was obviously implemented to combat Fire Hopping and Soft Drifting, which means a buff for casual gamers and a nerf for hardcore gamers. At first, I worried that adding this new game mechanic would require a tutorial, but it did not, for it was that smoothly implemented. I also come to realize that grinding rails was not worth it, for the traditional drifting boosted better and controlled better. I miss the fact the 1st place indicator on the HUD was gold, the 2nd place indicator was silver, and 3rd place was bronze, for that is the medals commonly associated with those places. Now, instead, Mario  Kart World gives random color gradients. There are changes in items, with some additions, some subtractions, and some changes, but none of them trigger a strong emotional response. At most, I will say Mario Kart World does slightly improve on the items given to 1st place. Decal stickers add little to no value, but I can appreciate some of the puns and wordplay used, combining the Super Mario universe with the real world. Mario Kart World has these Ride Trucks, which can be hijacked to drive with a speed boost. They are very underutilized, but when one can be found and used, it does give a feeling of a power trip.

In closing, I will conclude the same way a Price Is Right game concludes - with the actual retail price. The actual retail price of Super Mario World is $79.99, or simply put, $80.  Needless to say, Nintendo fans felt sticker shock when Nintendo revealed the price. I get why it is $80. With 50 drivers, 103 costumes, 40 vehicles, 1,056 stickers, 30 courses, a single world to tie together all 30 courses, 277 songs and a brand-new gameplay mode, Mario Kart World needed a large development team. In fact, best estimates count about 300 developers! To pay 300 developers a comfortable wage requires hiking up the price. Therefore, in terms of all the designers, programmers and artists needed for all the features available in Mario Kart World, yes, I get why Mario Kart World is $80. In terms of fun factor and desire to play the game, however, I don't get it. Despite its massive scope and undeniable ambition, Mario Kart World ultimately left me conflicted. I appreciate the sheer volume of content—50 drivers, over 100 costumes, dozens of vehicles, a sprawling interconnected world, and a gigantic soundtrack—but quantity alone couldn’t mask the game’s deeper issues. The bloated roster, the uneven costume system, the stripped‑down kart customization, the luck‑heavy Grand Prix structure, and the frustrating Knockout Tour all chipped away at the fun I expect from a Mario Kart title. Even unlocking core features like Mirror Mode felt needlessly convoluted. In brutal honesty, if family or friends came over to my home, and said to me that they wanted to play Mario Kart, I'm taking out Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, thanks to the backwards compatibility of the Switch 2, not Mario Kart World. Up to this point, I've always felt that Mario Kart games have overall gotten progressively better, so much so that every new entry was my new favorite game in the series. For the first time, I can't say that. For the first time, the newest entry in the franchise is my least favorite game in the franchise. I can't say and I won't say it's a step backwards, but I rather play the frustratingly hard Super Mario Kart than Mario Kart World. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is still my favorite Mario Kart game, and that had only a $60 MSRP. If Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is worth $60, then Mario Kart World is not worth $80, or even $60 for that matter. Since Nintendo doesn't typically do sales, especially on their bigger games, I would recommend buying this game used, and if you do, pay no more than $50, but aim for $40. It's not a bad racing game or kart game. I would absolutely play Mario Kart World over M&M Kart Racing or Garfield Kart. It's just that, if given the choice of playing any Maro Kart game, Mario Kart World would be my last choice.