I played Mario Kart World – it might be the best kart racer ever

Nintendo Switch 2 launch title Mario Kart World reinvents the formula in what is now a madcap 24-player open world adventure.

Since Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was essentially a remaster of the original Wii U game, there hasn’t been a brand new Mario Kart game for almost 11 years now. A new entry was inevitable for the Switch 2 and since what has now been named as Mario Kart World was the only game to be shown during the console’s unveiling in January it was fairly obvious it was a launch title.

What wasn’t obvious, from that seven seconds of footage, was what exactly distinguishes it from the previous games, although suspicions that it involves an open world map and 24 players online have proven to be correct. All that was revealed in Wednesday’s Nintendo Direct but immediately after we got to play the game and as far as we’re concerned it’s the most exciting entry in the series so far.

There are multiple different modes in the game and probably a number of others that haven’t yet been announced, since there’s a dedicated Mario Kart Direct planned for April 17, but we got to play the standard Grand Prix mode, the elimination themed Knockout mode, and Free Roam – and they were all fantastic.

Grand Prix is the standard game mode for all Mario Kart games and we played a bunch of them in single and two-player mode, both on the TV and using the Switch 2 as a portable. The first thing that strikes you is the dizzying array of playable characters, that goes well beyond the usual crew to include obscurities like a snowman from Super Mario 64 and a cow from the Moo Moo Farm/Meadows track (always one of our favourites and one that is homaged throughout the game).

Each character also has multiple alternative outfits, from Bowser in biker gear to Toad dressed as a hamburger, and many vehicle variants, although we’re not clear which of these were specially unlocked for the purposes of the demo.

Playing the game, it becomes clear that everything, not just the character selection, has been turned up to 11, with computer-controlled traffic on seemingly every course, that includes everything from Piranha Plants on the back of a van to Spikes chucking spiked balls at you, and giant Donkey Kong barrels that can shoot you in the air.

With 23 other players, races are wonderful chaotic, although given the tracks are all generally much wider than usual, and you can go off-road, it never became overwhelming (although maybe we’re just saying that because we won most of our races).

There are multiple new items, including a ? Block that generates coins, a gold shell that drops them in its wake, an ice flower that shoots ice balls, a giant mushroom that… turns you into a giant, and no doubt many others.

You can now grind on rails with your cars and speed along the wires between electricity pylons. You can wall run if you get the angle right on a jump, plus you can stay in the air, and on the water, for extended periods – with more than one section having heavy Wave Race 64 vibes.

We played a course where it started snowing halfway through, one filled with dinosaurs to avoid and drive over, and there was the stage featured in the reveal video that segues from desert to city. One course was heavily influenced by the Boo houses from the original SNES games, there was an ash-covered volcano level, one based on the original Donkey Kong arcade game, and according to the Nintendo reps many more beyond that.

are nintendo doing their best to ditch physical games? pricing details for mario kart world have just dropped and in the uk, there’s a pretty big discrepancy between the cost of the digital and physical edtions of the game – will this dissuade you from picking up a physical copy when it drops on june 5th? #mariokart #nintendo #nintendoswitch #nintendodirect #switch2 #gaming

The other competitive mode on show was Knockout, which is an elimination mode where you have to stay in contention until there’s only one person left, with players being knocked out as they pass (or don’t pass) a series of checkpoints.

This seems a welcome addition to the series but where the game really impresses in Free Roam mode. This allows you to drive wherever you want in a giant open world environment, filled with secrets and challenges. We didn’t understand at first, the relationship between the finite tracks of Grand Prix and Free Roam, but it seems the tracks are just sections of the open world turned into traditional courses.

It’s clear when you’re playing Grand Prix and Knockout that the courses are filled with shortcuts, alternative routes, and hidden features but Free Roam allows you to uncover these at your leisure, including between races in the other modes – not unlike Forza Horizon 5.

The world is massive, so we only saw a small part of it, but driving around near a Donkey Kong themed space centre we ended up speeding across the ocean, jumping on jellyfish, and taking control of a ferry for a short time, before discovering a warp pipe on the other side of a building, along with a new outfit that gave us a stat boost.

Entering the warp pipe we were transported to the top of the building, ready to make a jump onto a grind rail and up the length of the rocket launch pad. At that point the game began to become reminiscent of Jet Set Radio, of all things, and in the best possible way.

After the near perfection of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe the series needed a Zelda: Breath Of The Wild style reboot and this is very clearly that. It’s the perfect launch game for the series and if bought alongside the console, in a hardware bundle that gives you £33 off the digital price, it seems an absolute bargain.

Mario Kart 8 was the best-selling game on the Switch, and arguably the best entry in the Mario Kart series, and there seems every reason to believe that World will enjoy very similar success on the Switch 2.

Formats: Nintendo Switch 2
Price: £74.99 (physical) or £66.99 (digital)
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Release Date: 5th June 2025
Age Rating: 3

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