By Isaac Espinosa

April 2nd, 2025 was a banner day for Nintendo fans across the globe, with the presentation of the Nintendo Switch 2 along with the reveal of Mario Kart World. Both were also released on the same day: June 5th. Mario Kart World, which fans have been pining for, is the latest entry in the Mario Kart franchise. Would it live up to the hype? 

Mario Kart 8 was released to the Wii U on May 26th of 2014 and stood as the latest Mario Kart experience for the next ten years. Even as the game was ported over to the Switch in April of 2017, adding new courses, characters, and even a DLC Pass, it was still Mario Kart 8. The meager amount of support Mario Kart 8 has received from Nintendo over the last decade is reminiscent of the company’s treatment of GTA 5; fans were resigned to the fact that a new Mario Kart game would be an unrealized dream. You’d find many claims like this throughout platforms like Reddit or Gamefaqs, with users saying “There’s usually a 3-7 year gap between Mario Kart in home consoles and with the 3ds gone and the switch being the sole big console it’s understandable it’s felt like so long; yet it’s been 7 years since it came out and with Deluxe releasing in 2017 who knows if we’ll get a new one.” (Stated by user claum0y on the r/Nintendo Switch Subreddit). But lo and behold, Mario Kart World would be the launch title for Nintendo’s newest console, and it looked amazing! The art style is a much needed upgrade, being much more expressive and allowing the Mario cast of characters to feel lively and colorful. There’s some awesome-looking tech with jumping between rails and walls, and you can… play as a COW??? How could you not be sold on Day 1? Unfortunately, the $80 price tag put a big damper on the excitement. Would it be worth that hefty cost? 

The short answer is “no,” although Mario Kart World does bring a lot to the franchise. First off, it controls like a dream. Driving feels smooth and responsive, and even though each kart has different stats like speed and acceleration, none of them feel uncomfortable to drive. And the new maps, like Boo Cinema and Starview Peak, are interesting, as are the newly revamped returning maps like Airship Fortress and Shy Guy Bazaar. All have plenty of charm and depth, making the races both entertaining and endlessly replayable. The new wall riding and jump mechanics ensure that every course in the game has a challenging surface to ride on, or a grind rail to bounce onto. This not only allows for player creativity, it also makes World the most enjoyable entry in the series for finding shortcuts. Sure, you can drive through Shy Guy Bazaar normally, swerving in between the food booths and boxes on the main floor. But you can also jump onto a grind rail at the beginning of the map and stick to the wall while avoiding the main track completely! The movement in this game is unbelievable, and it’s easily one of Mario Kart World’s biggest selling points. 

But what might be the biggest boon for Mario Kart World has to be the brand new mode it introduces, Knockout Tour. Since the courses of Mario Kart World are interconnected, drivers have to navigate tons of roads and transitions in order to go from Point A to Point B. Knockout Tour puts these transition points to the test; there are checkpoints at certain sections of the map. Not in 1st through 20th place before going past the checkpoint? You’re out! This mode embodies the chaotic nature Mario Kart has always been known for. It starts generously, with you being able to stay as low as 20th or 16th place and still keep your slot in the race. But once you reach the 5th, and especially the final, checkpoint, you’ll need to be in the top 8 at a minimum or you’ll get knocked out. Thus, you have decisions to make. Maybe you’d want to stay back for a little while to get some boosting items like the Golden Mushroom or the Bullet Bill to speed your way to the top, or perhaps you’d choose to hang in the middle using items like Green Shells to protect yourself, so that you can be closer to the top when it matters most. Considering how competitive Knockout Tour can get online, strategies like this are only the tip of the iceberg.

Not all the changes are improvements, though. The transition features of the map work in the bombastic field of Knockout Tour, but they don’t function as well in Grand Prix. In that mode, drivers have to maintain first place across each course in the particular cups in order to win a gold trophy at the end. In Mario Kart World, driving to one course from another is now half the battle. This doesn’t seem so bad until you realize after the first course that you’re effectively playing only ONE lap of the new stuff, while the transition courses take up the other two laps. That makes the Grand Prix ineffective at showing how engrossing the new courses are and how amazing they look, since most of the time you’re driving on ordinary roads. One way to circumvent this issue would be to have the option to turn these transition courses off in Grand Prix, as you can easily do in  Versus Mode. There should also be an option to tone down Lakitu, who’s meant to save you from falling off the course and taking wrong turns. But he ends up having a hard time deciding where to save you. This is likely because the game doesn’t always define what counts as within the course and what doesn’t. If you see a blue hologram sign telling you to turn the other way, of course Lakitu will pick you up if you don’t heed it. But he’s stopped me from just passing by certain parts of the map that look as if they could be shortcuts. Mind you, I think the penalty of losing your items is a valid punishment for bad driving, but more often than not, we end up punished just for exploring.

The subject of exploration brings me to the aspect of Mario Kart World that feels most disappointing, Free Roam mode. By pressing the plus button on the main menu, you can explore the entire map of Mario Kart World however you wish. No Lakitu to take you back to the road, no opponents to race against, just a casual drive across the world. On paper, this sounds like a great experience, especially since you have the ability to take cool photos of tricks you do, or just play Free Roam with your friends. But it falls apart in execution, because there’s nothing substantial to do. No NPCs to interact with, no truly important rewards to incentivise you to complete the missions, not even an indicator to tell you how many of these missions are in the world! Even the P Switches  scattered across the map, which give you tough missions to complete, result only in a sticker you can put on your car. You drive past so many different cars, finding unique pathways to explore the courses and all the costumes to collect for the cast, but it just… feels so empty, as if Free Roam was an afterthought, meant to pad out the content of the game. This assessment is supported by the fact that Free Roam doesn’t even have a primary menu prompt like every other mode in the game. Considering that Free Roam was heavily promoted in advertisements for World, it shouldn’t be this half-baked. 

As someone who loved Mario Kart 8, and truly jumped for joy after learning there would be a Mario Kart World, I want to say it delivers on the hype built up over the last decade. But for all the steps that Mario Kart World takes toward new and exciting elements of the series, it somehow takes as many steps back. Despite how gorgeous it looks, how well it controls, and how much I just genuinely enjoy playing it, I cannot justify paying $80 for it. As it’s supposed to be a launch title, I wish I felt more comfortable recommending it. But the advertisements for Mario Kart World don’t do a good job of showing how truly empty it can feel at its worst. 

Bronx native Isaac Espinosa is a Member of the New York Videogame Critics Circle. Along with being named the Circle’s first assistant Mentor, Isaac also coaches students for CEI Esports.

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