Despite its title, the most exciting part of Mario Kart World isn’t its open world, but its blistering new Knockout Tour mode. Twenty-four racers rocket nonstop through six tracks, while at each new checkpoint the field is whittled down and the four last karts are eliminated. The structure obviously borrows heavily from the battle royale genre, and it suits the Mario Kart formula well. The ever-present threat of elimination means the stakes of each leg of the tour start high and just keep ratcheting up. It’s white-knuckle fun, especially with friends, but the mode especially shines when you’re racing against random players online.
Mario Kart World is also a visual delight that retains both sharpness and personality even when the scenery is zipping past at high speed. Vibrant, well-themed tracks abound, with highlights including Shy Guy Bazaar, whose titular Shy Guys bounce excitedly behind the market stalls that are scattered inconveniently in your path, and Boo Cinema, which shifts into sepia tones as you drift across a ribbon of film. Then, once you play through each of the game’s cups, there’s the surprise reveal of another cup featuring a new rendition of Rainbow Road, whose constant and referential shifts in style mark it as easily the most lavish track design in series history.
Perhaps the best showcase of the Switch 2’s tech can be felt in Mario Kart World’s impressively nuanced physics. Vehicles bend from side to side on their suspensions and tip dramatically when bumped. They float so freely while gliding that they can be surprisingly hard to control. They bob around atop choppy waters and duck beneath the surface after cresting particularly large waves. These enhanced physics also open the door for new ways to tackle each course, with nifty but tricky methods for jumping, wall riding, and rail grinding that can be optimized for efficiency or simply used for an expressive dash of player freedom.
With this more open-ended design comes a stronger emphasis on items as opposed to perfect racing lines, and Mario Kart World slots a few different additions into the roster of standbys like coins, shells, and banana peels. The character-enlarging Mega Mushroom can be used to flatten multiple opponents at once. The Cape Feather can be used to bounce over obstacles and reach some of the game’s many alternate routes. And both of these can thankfully be used defensively in order to nullify or avoid the attacks of other racers, counteracting a bit of the heightened chaos that inevitably comes with 24-player races.
Mario Kart World’s actual, well, open world is oddly easy to miss if you aren’t looking for it. Entering it requires locating a button prompt tucked into the bottom corner of the main menu—or, alternatively, you can just exit a track and drive around the large in-between environments for a bit while you wait for other players to drop into an online lobby. The activities here, which mostly consist of a bunch of not-too-tough time trials, are a cute bit of fun. The whole thing is a nice way to accommodate players who enjoy just driving around and exploring—something that was up until now an entirely unintended way of playing Mario Kart games.
In some sense, this is a generous thing to include, and no matter the thrill of the Knockout Tours, it’s the defining element of the game and the most creative change to the Mario Kart formula that Mario Kart World has to offer. Even so, it feels like an added perk for those who purchase this exceptionally high-quality product. It just isn’t quite the kind of inspired invention that marks Nintendo’s greatest achievements, and it certainly isn’t the kind that would justify shelling out for a shiny new console all on its own.
This game was reviewed with a code provided by the reviewer.
Since 2001, we've brought you uncompromising, candid takes on the world of film, music, television, video games, theater, and more. Independently owned and operated publications like Slant have been hit hard in recent years, but we’re committed to keeping our content free and accessible—meaning no paywalls or fees.
If you like what we do, please consider subscribing to our Patreon or making a donation.
