It’s a testament to Mario Kart World’s quality that I’ve spent over 35 hours with it since launch less than a week ago, yet I still can’t wait to play more. The first brand-new Mario Kart in over a decade is a breath of fresh air, but oddly enough, the biggest reasons it works so well aren’t actually its shiny new features. When I’m racing through one of World’s excellent traditional courses, dodging shells while trying to hang onto the lead, it feels like a worthy successor to the immaculate Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. But when I’m somewhat mindlessly roaming around its pleasant but fairly one-note map or puttering down the lengthy straightaways that often separate its Grand Prix tracks, World doesn’t make a convincing case that going open-world was the boost Mario Kart needed. Thankfully, it still thrives on the same foundation the definitive kart racer series built its legacy upon: incredible polish, a phenomenal soundtrack, precise controls that are deep but easily approachable, and a timeless ability to generate local multiplayer magic.
World looks, sounds, and feels marvelous. As the main launch game for Nintendo Switch 2 (sorry, Welcome Tour), there was definitely pressure on World to run well and look amazing, and it delivers. The framerate is a rock-solid 60fps in single-player either docked or handheld, and its performance holds up when driving across the entirely interconnected map with no loading screens. The graphics aren’t mind-blowing or anything, but the slightly more exaggerated art style looks really nice on both a 4K TV and the 1080p Switch 2 screen itself, and World benefits from the improved resolution of Nintendo’s new hardware. To quote a famous Miiverse poster, World’s “amazing-looking water” (which reacts to items like a Blue Shell explosion!) really makes me want a new Wave Race.
Racing on 150cc feels outstanding mechanically, and while the drifting isn’t quite as tight as in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, I started to really enjoy the new feel once I got used to it. I also don’t miss customizing my kart at all; the wide selection of karts, bikes, trikes, and sleds look great and save everyone some time compared to having to choose a body, wheels, and glider. There’s an understandable adjustment period after 11 years of the same Mario Kart, but I’m already happy with how World feels and excited to dedicate this console generation to mastering its intricacies. It’s also filled with delightful little details, like the way your kart wiggles around when you move the control stick, how rain begins to fall after someone uses a lightning bolt, or the adorable animations each character performs when tricking off a jump.
The Nintendo charm is here in full force, and the clear standout of World’s atmosphere is its remarkable soundtrack. Nintendo promised over 200 brand-new arrangements for Mario Kart World, and every note helps write a love letter to Mario history with nods to classic scores from the SNES like Donkey Kong Country and Yoshi’s Island, odes to pretty much every past Mario Kart, and great, fresh tunes to accompany the new courses. We don’t know if we’re getting a proper Mario platformer this year to commemorate the original Super Mario Bros.’ 40th anniversary, but even if we aren’t, this soundtrack is a dream come true for a longtime Nintendo fan like me and a great celebration of our favorite plumber and his friends.
This is also where the first of many strange decisions Nintendo has made arrives. Various selections from the soundtrack play when driving around in Free Roam or during the highway segments of a race, but there’s no way to listen to specific favorites. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe didn’t have that at launch either, but eventually added a music player so you could listen to its big band soundtrack. Super Smash Bros. historically gives you control over which songs play on each stage, and even Super Mario Odyssey eventually let you pick what you wanted to hear, so it’s baffling that World doesn’t provide this choice at launch.
Nintendo calls its music selections a “Jukebox” in World, but in practice it’s more like a radio with only one station: if you fall in love with a song you hear once, you just have to hope the DJ eventually plays it again. Of course, there’s always the chance that Nintendo adds this feature in an update or drops the soundtrack on its official music app – or you could just go on YouTube to listen to an upload of it (Quiet! No one tell!) – but it’s a huge missed opportunity to not let us set our own road trip playlist right from the start.
