Talking Point: How Are You Finding Mario Kart's Open World?

It's a welcome distraction, after a few minutes I thought "meh"...but then an hour flew by. Looks like you'll need to complete "10 things" in Free Roam to unlock mirror

To be completely honest, I haven't played Mario Kart World at all! 🤣 Even though I have the game, I've been playing other ones. Will prob take a crack at it this weekend and I've heard it's pretty fun so I should have a good time.

Yeah, I thought it would be for me, but it isn't. That's OK. The actual racing is on-point, and I find it to be much more compelling.

I am enjoying the p-switch missions, but they need to mark things that you find on the map (like BOTW).

And give a few markers that I can put down (like BOTW).

Not tried free Roam I mainly use toad & yoshi already unlocked so straight into multiplayer.

As an observer who doesn't have the system or game, I think it looks neat. There IS an appeal to just casually driving around jammin' to tunes on a lazy afternoon. I think the lack of emphasis on the missions or objectives is a deliberate thing to further that "laid-back" attitude to the mode.

I do get why some aren't on board with it though.

I just go to the bottom of the menu and select the free roam option. Simples

It's nice as a cool down after a long day. There's something pleasant about just goofing off and driving aimlessly while enjoying the soundtrack.

The best Mario Kart and it's not even debatable to me.

Being able to connect every tracks make it so that you can make so many custom Grand Prix that I never get bored. There's still so many road that I have yet to try.

It seems quite empty. They spent all that time creating a World, but then there's not much in it. Hopefully may pad it out with some DLC? Also I find it weird that you can't see a map with everything on it, like completed P switches etc..

Anyone not enjoying free roam really isn't trying hard enough. Yes the rewards are lacklustre but platforming your way to hard to reach places is so much fun and some of the p switches are super challenging and rewarding. If you want to race there are plenty other modes for you but I am having so much fun just driving around seeking out those pesky collectables.

So much love and attention poured into the free roam. Outaide boo cinema they took ghost valley 1-3 and somehow made them all comnect on the docks. The p switch missions let you race them with the OG music and everything. Love that kind of stuff. I also am the type to wanna find all the coins and everythind and some are incredibly tricky. 400 p switch mission, 200 hidden coins. Love that kind of stuff. Im still looking gor a hidden Nessie or something

Not played free roam much and while it’s a novelty it hasn’t really drawn me in much so far.

I’m sure Nintendo will improve on it over time with MK8 style updates though.

It's horrible and not worth 80 doll hairs. Bring back MK8 style with revamped graphics.

It's an impressive technical achievement but pretty dull to actually play.

Half-baked, and nowhere near worth the absurd asking price when purchased individually.

I'm so sad that it took us this long to get a new Mario Kart and it's just so undercooked. Free roam is just so boring.

It's fun after a GP or online races and you want a break...or just to find new challenges and race around tributes to old courses before finding the next impossible P-switch to attempt over and over.

At first, I was a little underwhelmed and disappointed, but now I'm really enjoying myself. Some of the P Switches are really good challenges, and I am getting much better at the new mechanics. They absolutely need to add some features to help track things - markers, stamps, zoom in on the map, etc. It could use a bit more variety too.

IMO the conversation around MKW is taking "damning with faint praise" to a new level.

I played around a little in free roam and can't seem to find the point. Knockout mode is where it's at.

It's pretty dull overall, but a few of the P-Switches have been entertaining. I think Ollie had the right idea with making characters unlockable in Free Roam by having a one on one race. Alas, Nintendo wants us to enjoy our coins and stickers instead.

Meh at best. I wish there was a lot more there. Only single player, ? Block panels seem to do nothing when all in an area are collected, no tracking of peach coins or P Switches by area. All of these seem to only give stickers though it also seems like they initially planned more. Why do ? Panels not unlock drivers or something when you finish an area? Why can't you purchase anything with peach coins? Seems like it was half baked, reduced the content and left the price.

@Ooccoo_Jr

"Anyone not enjoying free roam really isn't trying hard enough"

wow that's a really wild take, with quite a heavy dose of judgement for something so subjective.

how hard should I have to "try" to enjoy a videogame?

seriously I've loved videogames since day one, mario bros/duck hunt, when I was 4 y/o, in 1989, and it's never even occurred to me that I might have to "try harder" to enjoy them.

especially in a game like Mario Kart, which is possibly the greatest "pick up and play" series of games ever conceived.

(I mean, it's not Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, is it?) ✌️

Favorite mode so far right there with knockout tour. The most fun I've ever had with Mario Kart.

It is fun when you can find things, but there’s a lot of aimless driving. Incorporating mini games on the tracks could go a long way (not just P’s, but little races or even longer point A to point B free for all races). Also, real split screen in free roaming, please!

Not been tempted. Only interested in online races

Well it’s a day of reckoning. For the first time nintendo fans being honest. Thank you universe.

After 10 minutes, I stopped it and moved to the fun stuff, probably never returning again.

Rediscovering Hyrule in BotW is a whole different experience. That game is pinnacle gaming.

It's great to explore and look at but the lack of a map and markers is off putting. Also the rewards for the p-switches are very lacklustre.

It's more of the same for me. Yes it's fun, but then it's meh... Would have loved to see a competitive/ranking system to be honest. I enjoy playing casually most of the time, but this game had the potential for some competitive action

Free roam needs a checklist. If you can’t track your progress it doesn’t feel like you’re making any, which is why its absence is so strange to me. Seems like a massive own goal.

Oh and Grand Prix should ideally have been regular laps only.

A real missed opportunity. It shoukd have had more unlockables tied to it and a map which details all that's been collected. Without that map it is a chore.

It looks nice but there is no incentive to explore, game really needed an adventure mode or something, anything, as it is the open world in itself is pretty pointless in everything but the visual sense and knockout is a cool mode, it works there I guess.

But the online races in particular are strictly worse because so much focus is put on the inbetween tracks and you get to race in the actual set-piece tracks far less.

I think the open world is fun but certainly could do with more content. i kind of enjoy the fact that there's no checklist of any kind, so it feels a lot less like a priority to play, and more of a neat little sandbox to mess around in while chatting with friends! i'll happily take more content, but i'm pretty satisfied with what's already there.

I always take games for what they are. That said, I feel this game is undercooked. It has a lot of potential but still not there yet. It even made my kids to go back to MK8 to play the much superior battle mode.

I really hope Nintendo doesn't take too long to bring the much needes updates in item balancing and free roam points of interest (it's a shame we have panels (?) counter a d no P or Peach Coin ones)

i know most people havent been satisfied with it, but i love it. you can lose hours in the world, and i love looking at all yhe details! clearly a lot of love and effort was put into it, even if its not botw scope. i do think its a missed opportunity to add boss battles/rewards for missions, but i understand that mightve been too much, cant wait to 100% this 😝

My brother and I have been having a good time driving around one map at a time, tracking down the ? blocks and peach medallions and big ol' piles of coins.
It's fun trying to figure out how to get to some of those medallions, and then sharing the route with others, and watching them make something I struggled with look super easy.
I expect we'll do a decent amount of this. Maybe not every inch of the open World, but enough.

Desperately needs a better map to zoom in and see where u are, a tracking system and a better way to do it multiplayer

I found myself enjoying exploring but then the realisation dawned on me that there is really zero reward for your troubles, so i got bored after an hour or so. Stickers? You can't even put them anywhere, what's the point?!

@gavinlane there is almost a "MK64-style on-the-spot spin" option, well, more of a donut but it kinda does the job. A+B+ZR/R

What's the point of controlling novelty vehicles for 30 seconds? The blue speedboat, literally designed like a speedboat, just sloths & floats on the water like a dying whale - no speed. The semi truck is fun, but too short lived. UFO, too limited on control, speed, and time - I will applaud beaming up things. All of these novelty vehicles to posses could easily be more amusing and worth tracking down more than once or twice.

The lack of a tracking system or a detailed map has made this an OCD gamer’s nightmare. I played it for a couple hours and opted to wait for a potential update (however unlikely that might be). I can see them adding to this map in the future.

Free Roam isn't the worst thing about World, but possibly does the most damage overall to the game's design.
Not only is the open world not really utilized at all in the races, the tracks themselves needed to be made wider, simpler, and less visually distinct in order to allow for cohesion on the map.
It's the reason why 80% of this game is straight lines and the other 20% is overall less interesting than tracks made in previous Mario Karts.
There WAS a way to nail this concept, but again, the world map is highly restricted during races. There are no off-road detours to take, no alternate routes or layered tracks or much strategy at all really. It's why I find people praising Knockout Tour so baffling- It boils down to 20 minutes of getting the right item to overtake the next racer in the conga line.

Free Roam itself is underdeveloped, as everyone else already agrees. Lacks content, meaningful collectables, and as charming as everything looks- it's all skin deep with nothing to interact with outside of P-Block challenges. I wouldn't mind nearly as much if the open world added to the main modes of the game, but it primarily detracts.

So overall you have this one concept, which was likely only picked to maximize sales (open world = open wallets in corporate eyes) that spoils the quality of the whole game. That'll be $80 please!

It’s ok but I also don’t think people should lower their scores for the game. It’s just an extra thing added. I’ve seen a few reviews feature it as a main complaint. But if it wasn’t there at all, the score probably would have been higher.

Definitely feel it lacking — agree with the ideas for making it more compelling — better unlocks, better incentive, more understandable sense of progression, etc. but despite all that it’s really grown on me and I’ve been enjoying it a ton. There really is a lot to do and it’s real fun to explore.
I also see the reason they don’t have progression tracking- it feels intentional, meant to be done at a leisure pace. Not about completion, about enjoying the cruise.

It can be fun to drive around aimlessly but it’s lacking. Even that isn’t fun cuz the battery life will allow you to do that for so little time. The numerous remixes are nice though

On a map.

mic drop
I'M HERE ALL WEEK LOL

I mentioned in another comment section that it's fine for what it is (I wouldn't be against more content, given its price of entry), but it seriously needs some Quality of Life updates if it's just gonna be "Find things around this giant map!"

At the moment, it feels parallel to MK8's base game on Wii U: A very solid starting point that's fine if left as-is. But hopefully it becomes more like MK8D with enough time.

I have not even tried it yet. Still doing Grand Prix.

I have it but haven't redeemed it yet due to some Switch 2 issues I'm having, but the point is that we did play it on my brother's Switch 2 and it was fun (apart from the 30 FPS limit for 3 local players), but I was shocked to not find local co-op free roam, and no map unless you exit free roam. Sigh.. Nintendo's lack of details. Other companies have really surpassed them.

Folks complaining about not having a map and not having icons on the maps are correct. Look at Lego 2K Drive, it has so much content and a lot of fun collectibles, a lot of random characters to talk to, hilarious ones too, and many mini missions (which is probably the game that Mario Kart World copied), and all of them are on the map once you spot them and include stats and such.

That's without mentioning Forza Horizon 3, 4, 5, and The Crew 2 and The Crew Motorfest. All of those have superior maps and way more content.

It’s mostly for chill, laidback cruising, which is fair enough. I’m sure kids will adore it.

But when I see something like a sign saying “Home of the Rainbow Fragment” at Crown City or the newspapers in the credits heralding the return of Rainbow Road after a long absence, it makes me wish it was something more. Even a simple story, like recovering Rainbow Road from a scheming Bowser, would’ve gone a long way.

The way it is now, I’d have to be in the mood just to cruise around Free Roam. I don’t want to do the missions until there’s an update that adds a basic feature like keeping track of each one. There better be a sticker I really want!

As someone who does not have the game(and by extension a switch 2) the complaints are warranted but I feel like once I get my hands on it I'll most likely forget about the end goal of everything and just have fun with it.

I really like the Knockout Tour mode (I prefer it to Grand Prix actually), and the variety offered by the "between track" courses, but I can't say as I've really spent any time in free roam.

What i am finding is that each time I hit the water I want a modern Wave Race!

It’s nice to jump into every now and then when you want something more chilled. I would have liked it to have been more like Burnout Paradise with tons of time trials and races etc. to trigger across the world but whatever. My main issue is the fact that the map is trash. You move through it all so quickly that it’s hard to get your bearings; I really don’t know where I’ve explored or to what extent.

Hoping it gets updated to be more detailed and to show the locations of P Switches- I want to clear them all but I’m not going to drive around aimlessly to track them down and I’m not pratting about with online guides either.

Its amazing, and I love they added missions, reminds me of the mission mode from Mario DS.

It's all I play, I'm hooked and totally immersed in the world. It's a combination of open world racing and platforming, love it!

@BenAV look, i get the dissatisfaction with the price tags and whatever, and i can understand why you dont like yhe chaos, but why is it boring to you? i feel like this is the least boring entry of the series. like you can literally play as “Cataquack”, ride on a dinosaur, flip up a geyser, squish people with a mega mushroom, and do crazy rail shortcuts. while racing a variety of characters in quirky carts. so im really curious what would make it “not” boring for you 😂

Love the way you all moan about it above yet you still give it a 9*

I tried free roam on afternoon waiting on the wife and kids to get ready (we were going to a family event), thinking "Yeah I'll give it a go for 15m or so".

An hour and a half later, I realized how much I just enjoyed driving around, getting food, and enjoying the music. It's not for everyone, and it's NOT a selling point by any means, but it's enjoyable. We're mainly kickin teeth in the Grand Prix and Knockout modes, though. Might be my favorite MK game yet in that regard.

That said- I'm already hoping and looking forward to some DLC. Either new missions, upgraded FR mode, or some new characters/vehicles. Hoping they support this one for a long time.

It’s fine, but definitely more of a sandbox. Fun to explore if you just feel like cruising. That said, it is baffling there is no tracker for the P Switches and Peach coins though.

Im not sure this mode is fully for gamers. I could take or leave the whole thing, it’s a nice little extra that didn’t need to be there for me, but my 7 year old absolutely loves it. It’s her favorite mode and can spend plenty of time just driving around and exploring.

For me it’s unbelievable that Nintendo sat 2 years on this game without doing anything to it … and it was released uncooked.

Wow….

And the open world dragged the course design through the mud in this one.

I was bored to tears after about 5 minutes and 2 P-Switches. Honestly though, that is not a big deal as I generally do not cope well with 95% of open-world designs and thus this was completely expected.

What I found pretty interesting is the fact, that I couldn't see any design-inherent reason to "bother" (from my PoV) with it at all. It's almost like the designers did not trust their own creation enough to make it in any sense "mandatory" or fomo-adjacent. It is a really odd thing to behold and experience then.

It's there, it's technically fine, it must have been TONS of work, but there is really very little to do in it and no extrinsic motivation attached to do anything at all with it for the player. I don't seen I've ever quite seen this particular combination before.

What bothers we personally, is the wasted potential. Like why are there no battles in the open-world? That could have been exciting using the terrain and all. Why are there no boss fights of sorts? I think Mario Kart - as a goofy KART racer - had oh so many opportunities here to give purpose to it's world. Albeit, the world has - afaik - absolutely zero inherent purpose. It is just there ... kinda, well, accessible from a menu no less.

It all seems like an afterthought to say the least, which is odd given it is part of the title. I never dreamed of saying this before, but ... I do hope they take a live-service'esque shot on this. Imagine you could do like Coop-PvE missions in the world, with carts getting all sorts of abilities to fight, to heal or to tank. I think that could be something truly unique and utterly fun.

I like open world design in theory, but in practice it almost always ends up feeling like a sacrifice of quality for the sake of quantity. With an ever-expanding backlog always pushing me to make progress, I'm kind of tired of playing the guessing game of which far off, hard to reach corner will hold a cool thing I really want to see or do, a forgettable collectable, or nothing at all. The best solution to this would be for developers to only make worlds as big as they need to be to fit all the content made for them, but barring that, I'd take the less elegant map markers or an arrow pointing at the nearest box I haven't ticked, maybe made available after finding half the collectables myself so it feels a bit less like handholding.

I do enjoy the actual missions, but the movement can be very fiddly, especially with how Rewind always takes you back a certain amount regardless of your speed. But I also really haven't dipped my toes into open world much at all, so some of the faults other people have with it probably aren't registering with me. I do really enjoy getting to engage with the tracks themselves in a new light, but some of the P-Switches and Peach Medallions are in really barren areas, and I already know I'll need a guide to track down some stragglers once I finish going through all the main courses and whatnot.

@Kingy To be fair, the actual tracks are totally fine even by the high MK standards and most people or some people - well certainly myself - always thought of MK more like a chaos-driven party game than a serious racer. My favorite mode growing up on the N64 was battle mode all day long anyways. From that point of view, yeah, I really kinda like Knock-Out-Tour as it absolutely leans into that perception of Mario Kart and kinda brings the battling and racing together in a more intense and balanced manner.

I totally agree on your points about the open-world though and I can also see how folks who were actually in MK for the, well, racing primarily might not gel super well with the changes made.

In an odd way, I think that is not too much of a bother as MK8 Deluxe is still very much there on the Switch 2 with it nigh boundless supply of tracks. Also, I think MK World will likely evolve quite a bit over the next couple of years. Curious to see where they will take it given the feedback and telemetry they are no doubt collecting.

If you push B&A together you can do a skid that's quite quick to turn 180

I've tried it on numerous occasions. It's a neat alternative to the conventional racing modes of grand prix, knockout tour, versus etc. Half the P switch challenges are hard in a good way. I actually like going from one track section to another, a real sense of "a world". It could do with a bit of refinement, maybe with slightly more to do in some way, but then you don't want it too cluttered either. They had to do something different as "where do you go from 8 deluxe" comes to mind.

I'm mostly having a good time with it, but I do think it could be improved upon. I think the world they've built is amazing. So many little details and fun features to the living world. Sure, it's maybe not as elaborate as some games, but there is a lot to it.

I agree about the controls; I, too, have been frustrated after missing something and then struggling to turn around and try again.
I love the suggestions about different types of challenges and unlockables. That sounds really fun. I mean, it feels like they could intend to enhance or add to this. I hope they do, but I hope if we get improvements, they come with more content as well. Too often lately, it seems we get updates that make the gameplay much better, but they come after many have already played through the game.
I don't mind the stickers, though other goals would be nice. At the end of the day, most collectibles are silly baubles. I do like the designs of them, particularly the ones for the courses that you get after completing all the courses. They look like stickers you'd see on traveling trunks or a passport or something. But, it would be cool if you could maybe display more than just one sticker at a time. They're kind of bragging rights, too. [Side note: I know that this is evidently controversial, but these are effectively achievements. Let's just do it for real, already!] To that end, I do wish the stickers would say what exactly you did to claim them, instead of for many: "You did a thing!" If the challenges were numbered, you could have an idea of which ones you still needed to complete.
And that is my biggest gripe. Why are the costumes and ? panels the only collectable items that show your progress in finding them? Please tell us how many P Switches and medallions are in each region? Probably a grand total for all the items, too. They've been doing this with Mario games for years, so it's not like they're unfamiliar with that. The ability to place markers on your map would be really nice, too.

Also, everyone that mentioned this: If you push the Y button, it pulls up the big map. You don't have to exit Free Roam to see it. Unless I'm misunderstanding what's being said.

Love It! The world isn't empty if you have someone to drive around and explore with. Anyone creative will have loads of fun in this sandbox.

But if you are normally a spectator and need every action tied to a reward than maybe stop playing those free to play treadmill games that condition your brain that games should be a job.

Maybe they can add a proper stats page and more battle games.

I do wish characters or karts were part of the incentive to exploring the world map. Once I realized that stickers were the only incentive, I kinda stopped playing free roam so much. The P challenges themselves are really fun though, and have taught me some neat shortcuts and tricks. And the way the world map connects all the courses through World Tour mode is amazing. I'd love to see even more routes made available over time.

It's a huge missed opportunity. Fortunately, a lot of the fixes should be simple and could be patched in.

The big problem, though, is that there's no racing in free roam. I was looking forward to something Burnout Paradise style, but there's none of that. And no way to track which missions I've done, how many I've completed in an area, etc? It's crazy.

Couldn't give a ***** TBH. compared to proper open world driving games like Forza Horizon it's a very poor imitation. 10 years behind the competition. But the racing is top tier so I couldn't care less.

All I want is a new game mode for classic GP with 3 laps races (yes, I know Vs exists). Open world is barely an idea, so far from a fully formed concept.

Pretty boring overall.

I LOVE it! this made Mario Kart a game I can enjoy. MK never hooked me beyond playing with friends (so N64, 7 and 8 not 8DX) and while 8 DX is my favorite that is because the final product gave you so much to do. I am a solo gamer so that isn’t a selling point. Even with gamer friends I don’t want to game with them (talk about games, sure) as I prefer to do more fun things with friends. Now with free roam I don’t have to hope for DLC to keep me busy with the game.

I love the personality (the koopa troopers flying around was so cute) and all the nooks and crannies to discover that I don’t spend a lot of time on the courses themselves. Also why is the water so pretty? I spend an absurd amount of time boating around. I get for people that require structure that this mode might be empty, but for a solo explorer like me, there is always something to do. Oh and the racing stuff too. I haven’t even started doing the structured stuff like the p switches yet.

It’s all the fun of a road trip (I love them) in game format. Brilliant!

I do think some people forget that simply driving around wherever you want is really appealing to a good number of people.

I showed the free roam mode to my mum the other day, and she had a lovely time just driving round and taking in the sights. Couldn't give a hoot about any sort of 'mission' to complete.

But for me, while I do like it and think the missions, coins and panels themselves are fine, it's the incentive to do them that's the problem. Stickers...really??

I think it’s great. It’s all optional. It’s just a fun single player kinda experience, which I feel like we’ve been wanting them to do for a while.

The concern is that they maybe could’ve added some fun unlockables to it. Like getting special vehicles or even some other characters. Would’ve been nice to unlock them like that instead of Kamek RNG which is super annoying. We should be able to find the specific Cow that join us somewhere in free roam kinda thing, same for the other creatures

Erm... unless you mean in movement, you can spin... hold a+b whilst still and turn the stick...

But on topic, I've only done free roam to unlock mirror mode... only 4 knockouts to go and im done - loved the racing, not so enamoured woth the world - needs something else to spice it up.

It should be more like pokemon of old. With people to talk to, random encounters and like someone said - races to be started by going to a stadium for example. To have a narrative would’ve been cool too. Something as in Need for speed underground or whatever. Something cheesy but at least something that gives a direction.

Really, really boring. Need to fix GP to allow both open world and heritage (3-lap) races. Then, a true interactive world map with more interesting missions, ability to race other characters when you cross paths or when you enter a race track (mimicking burnout paradise would be a start) with better rewards (characters, karts, courses, modes, etc). These patches are a bare bones minimum to fix an $80 game…

It's right there, when you start the game. Can't really miss it. 🤷‍♂️

I find it pretty lackluster, to be honest. The entire map just felt like a mish-mash of areas without much in the way of cohesion and a lot of its "challenges" (namely P-Switches) felt too similar and simple to each other that I ended up losing interest to even find more than 50 of them.

And of course, all of that is on top of Free-Roam mode's only true incentive being to earn stickers, which isn't all that rewarding outside of "...oh, hey! Check out this sticker on my Kart/Bike!" and feels less satisfying than even the stickers from Super Mario Party.

But on a more serious note: I really like it. Just cruising around, maybe tackle some challenges on the way, unlock characters/outfits, discover neat easter eggs.
Also without it, there wouldn't be K.O. Tour possible and the new (and cool) form of Grand Prix.

@Nintoz
You do them for Mirror Mode and the satisfaction you cleared them.

I am not a fan, personally. I agree with Gavin in that it needs to be more platformer-y. I feel like the exploration and world as a whole is held back by the fact you're stuck in a vehicle. Like dude, let me get out and run and jump around a bit. Kart controls are way too clunky to explore with, in my opinion. I'm finding the challenges rather frustrating as well, and the hitboxes are annoyingly precise. I'm not super great at the game yet, though, so maybe I'll get more out of the mode if and when I improve. As it stands now, I'm bored and miss 8's tightly crafted individual courses.

@TheBigK
You are aware, it's Mario KART? 🤔

Oh wow, collecting all those amazing tracks like you do in Super Mario Odyssey would be amazing, and would be a great motivator for exploring!

So far I'm mostly playing it when I'm in the mood to unwind with some mindless driving in a relaxing open world with beautiful visuals and great music. It's actually very underrated, the idea of making a big open world with very few, if not zero, enemy NPC's present. For years I've wished for a post-game no-enemies game mode for BOTW or TOTK. It's actually a very attractive prospect to me to boot up a huge 3D game and not have to worry about hardly any combat whatsoever.

In Mario Kart World I wish you could catch up to an NPC character like Peach or Yoshi and tell them to tag along with you, and slowly build up a road trip crew of whomever you happened to meet along the way.

And in TOTK I wish you could ask Zelda, Impa and many other characters to tag along with you as you roam through Hyrule, taking pictures and sightseeing. Different combinations of characters could share unique dialogue with each other while our little party adventures around Hyrule. It sounds so simple, but it would be really nice.

Biggest thing missing in Mario Kart World in my opinion is simply the ability to go up to NPC's and talk to them. It felt so natural in Mario Odyssey, and somehow such a small thing is the biggest reason for me why MKW's world feels a little empty.

They really need to add more to it. It's great. But need more to do. Like I really want more mini games that are too be found. I really enjoyed the race I find on the old track in front of the boo theater. Need much more stuff like this.

I was expecting Diddy Kong Racing style story mode.

I've heard that some podcasters with really really little kids that their kids like it. So that's good. But honestly the open world feels slapped on to market this as a bigger deal than the game would be without it.

@Michael0916 Fair point, forgot about mirror mode tbh.
Gotta get on that.

Unrelated to Mario Kart but I was wondering if you guys saw the news Borderlands 4 was confirmed to cost $70?

It feels more like an afterthought but it brings such a fun cohesiveness to the whole game. It’s really cool to be racing in a Grand Prix and see another course in the distance, or briefly be on one on the way to somewhere else. It also makes a really fun distraction in between online games.

I find it meh. There isn't much to do, and for some reason it's easy to get 'stuck' in the same area. I hope they add something more to it over time.

@N00BiSH On my end, I just wish there was even more optional stuff to do. Like coming across other characters on the map and being able to challenge them to a race with a randomized challenge attached, or even challenges that focus on mastering the game's mechanics in some way.

Just... optional stuff you're not pressured to do, but it's there if you want it.

The other main thing I want is for Nintendo to give the other characters outside the big names some more costumes.

@Michael0916 I know I know, the open world just doesn't feel super conducive to exploring through driving. Kart feels like you're driving through glue when you wish you could immediately stop and change direction on the fly.

Free roam has actually been my favorite part so far—I’ve already spent way too much time in it. Beyond the collectibles and the interesting world design, the driving just feels really good. Once you understand the kart controls you can move so freely and get anywhere. Sometimes all it takes is a great song and a beautiful sunset, and I find myself getting completely lost in the vibe. It kinda reminds me of skell flight mode in Xenoblade Chronicles X. I would always run out of fuel because i was enjoying flying around too much. I think some people are disappointed because they wanted a new Mario platformer in thier heart, need a checklist or need tangible rewards to explore rather than just for explorations sake.

I find it kinda chill and relaxing and I guess in a way it's what a lot of ppl asked for - a glorified mission mode.

Just wish it had a structure, a story or that you could drive up to tracks or characters to start races or Grand Prix, now wouldn't that make sense Nintendo?

Not only I'm loving it, but I also find it addictive. Whenever I don't feel like playing something that demands too much attention, I often start playing this game and I end up on being unable to stop!
I'm trying to collect 3 stars for every grand prix and knockout tours at 150cc, but I also love wandering in the free roam mode and discovering secret challenges, it's relaxing and still stimulates my curiousity.

Nonetheless, I still think that we need some kind of a legacy mode with all the Booster Course Pass + MK8 tracks. There's no need to create a map to connect them all with each other. I mean, I find it unthinkable that, among the NSO subscribers, MK8 owners get that DLC while MKW owners don't.

“ I do think that this game is crying out for a MK64-style on-the-spot spin - so often I want to just 180 degrees, but no, it's a slow arc…”

Holding accelerate and brake together turns you around and does a 180 so quickly!

I have pretty much only played knockout tour. That mode is the highlight of the game by a wide margin.

I love all the music - so many deep cuts! I am really enjoying it, even though it's pretty light. It might be nice to have a little more to do, but it's still pretty fun. I would like to have some kind of completiion checklist or something.

I returned mine! including the Switch 2! The hype dried so fast! Staying with switch lite! Will wait when they got better titles.

Maybe im the odd one out, but ive only tried one mode, grand prix. Ive cleared it on 50cc and started now on 100cc.

No multi, no free roam, no battle, or online.

And yes, Im liking it a lot. Its good simple fun.

It reminds me a lot of Go Vacation, which I love, so it’s been fun for me.

Mario Odyssey doesn’t quite mark things in the same way as BOTW, but it has a checklist for the moons. So you could see how many were left in an area.

I thought I was going to not care for it based on what I read but I actually enjoy it a lot. Could have a little more going on but I don't think it's as bland and boring as others do either. Grand Prix and Knockout Tour are what I play the most but I enjoy just driving around exploring the open world and enjoying the outstanding soundtrack.

I'm bored with the open world. Why aren't there tons of characters to talk to? Why aren't characters giving out missions? There needs to be a story. Heck, the P Switch missions should be read by a talking character head. They dropped the ball with this big time and they aren't coming out to assure us they are going to make it interesting.

@N00BiSH
Yeah it definitely scratches that chilled-out itch and i enjoyed how it gave "context" to the tracks along with being a good place to practice the games movement but can also definitely see the issues people are having with it along with things such as the rewards from P-switches not being the most interesting and the lack of a checklist making hunting down those p-switches not as satisfying as it could be (as cynical as some can get about it there is something inherently satisfying about things like ticking objectives off a list or seeing numbers going up)

honestly wouldn't mind seeing them return to the idea and expand upon it though since some of my fave nintendo games came from them returning to an idea and refining it rather than trying something and then moving on to the next idea when the initial one still feels like it has a lot of untapped potential.

It's underwhelming but I've had fun in it.
It's basically just an opportunity to vibe with the beautiful visuals and Mario series remixes.
Absolutely should have NPC interactions, quests and better rewards though.

The open world is amazing. Beautiful vistas, fun challenges, exploring each circuit to find question mark blocks and peach medallions and an incredible soundtrack. I've enjoyed all of the 100 or so P block missions one fine so far and some have been incredible, shout out to rescuing through the city. I seriously don't get the general apathy to this mode. People keep mentioning burnout and forza (I love both games) but I don't know what they do that this doesn't. This is just a slightly more chill version. I'd suggest the latest episode of the back page podcast for people who are tired of all these bad takes from people who have probably only spent about half an hour in free roam and given up. They give this game and the switch 2 in general a fair shake and don't follow the general consensus who like to complain.

@BenAV Those tweaks alone would probably improve the game by a lot, yeah.

They needed more unlocks as a reward for doing the open areas rather than just stickers.Should have added quality of life so you could track everything and then had a few secret characters and more vehicles that would have warranted the price increase but I don’t see how this game warranted a higher price… hopefully it will get patched and with any future dlc it will feel like a more complete product.

@The_Nintend_Pedant People have a really hard time understanding that their taste is subjective, so don't worry about it. It's definitely annoying though.

Personally Free Roam has been fantastic. I always wanted a relaxing mode on Mario Kart to enjoy the stages. On top of that, this one included challenges and costumes to unlock so it's much better than just receiving the average practice/free mode. The map is so charming and full of details and it has been a great way to relax and take my time to enjoy the game when I'm too tired/stressed for racing.

It just needs more varied, better rewards!otherwise I love it

I'm enjoying it very much. I don't feel stressed while driving, it's exciting discovering new areas you've never visited, the challenges are fun, and I love jumping in the backs of trucks and smashing things. Take a ride on a boat, and enjoy the scenery!

@Ralek85 It's hard for me to say, because it could be the intermissions poisoning the well. But every track in this game hasn't really made much of impression on me, a lot of them are extremely wide and blend right in with the same straight lines and gentle turns the intermissions have.
I don't necessarily need every track to be something crazy like Neo Bowser City, but it's hard not to notice the significant amount of dead air in World's races. A good example I think is the Faraway Oasis track. Where the intermissions will have a bunch of Zebras and Ostriches running on the road in place of traffic (pretty neat), but get to the actual race and the track is completely barren and devoid of anything unique or interesting. Like it seems for whatever reason they thought the intermissions were more important than the tracks themselves, to the point where I feel like the only reason they made it a hassle for you race on them alone is because most of them aren't much fleshed out on their own and require the intermission as a sort of "full package".

As for Knockout Tour, I was more excited for that than anything during the pre-release footage, but the way it is now I think just showcases all of World's biggest issues:

• Not a lot of interesting ideas outside of making every rally essentially a super long Toad's Turnpike.
• Open World doesn't factor into the rallies, you drive on the singular road you're told to, makes the concept seem pointless.
• Comeback mechanics suck. You start every race spamming mushrooms and backdrafting through the pack, but once the pack splits apart you'll spend most of your time meandering in a single file line. Items typically become the only thing that matters from there.

You get it, at this point I'm repeating myself. Essentially I find any single race in 8 Deluxe more chaotic and engaging than anything I have played in World. None of World's flaws on their own would be so bad but all of them together just make it flat out boring to play for me.

I hope they improve the game with updates, or at the very least 200cc is a bandage for it. There's potential for really cool things to be done with this formula, but Nintendo's dedication to DLC is kind of a coin toss, so we could also be in for a free character every now and again and an overpriced track bundle that adds an island with four or five tracks to the game. We'll have to wait and see.

But yeah, I think for the time being 8 Deluxe is going to remain the reigning Mario Kart for myself and many others.

My 2.5 year old niece likes "playing" Maruo Kart World for a few seconds then she's on to the next thing. It's nice having all the auto-play features although the steering just keeps her going straight until she hits a wall. It would be nicer if it helped to keep her on the roads.

Personally, I find it boring. I don't see a point to the open world; like BotW and TotK, the rewards are seriously lacking. I don't care about stickers, so the missions and collectables have no purpose except their own existence. The only useful part of the open world is grinding for alternative costumes, even though it is very boring.

Not a huge fan. The rewards are lacking, there is no tracking system, and the world itself feels very lifeless. Other racing games have done the open world much better. Hopefully Nintendo adds some updates down the road to improve this experience. The racing itself is very solid. I'm working my way through all the trophies before jumping into multiplayer.

I think it’s fun to drive around some areas, but there definitely should be more of an incentive to explore the areas. Definitely more fun than I thought it would be, regardless.

@TheBigK
"Kart feels like you're driving through glue when you wish you could immediately stop and change direction on the fly."
Now we are getting a little bit silly, aren't we? 🤨

Idk what can I say about MKW…
I mean it looks fun, but not 90€ fun. I am an early Switch 2 adopter myself, but I chose to spend the money on Cyberpunk, as I never played it before and it justified its 70€ price tag, being very polished and has tons of stuff to do compared to Mario Kart.
I still don’t get it why Nintendo thought it would be worthwhile to introduce people to a more powerful Switch with Mario Kart, while OG Switch had BOTW on release day…
I am expecting to be blown away by Donkey Kong Bananza next month to be honest, as that game seems much more worthy to have been a launch title than MKW!
I will buy it eventually SH, until then I have MK8D to entertain my friends

The open world is dull. MKDS, DKC, CTR... There are already examples of things that can be done to expand a kart racer, but they didn't implement any of it here. Just free roam with little buttons to press and some mini-challenges that give you... Stickers. It's great that some people are entertained by this, but I don't understand the people who use their enjoyment as a way of running defense. There's no reason Nintendo couldn't step it up and make a large currently dissatisfied portion of players enjoy it by making the mode much better.

Bosses, battle arenas! Gimmicks! Mission tracking! Would anybody cut it this much slack if it didn't have the Mario branding?

And a side note. The colours are too muted. I hate when things are too grey or too brown. Why are people scared of saturated, clear colours?

All in all, I preferred MK8 by a lot.

I'm enjoying Free Roam and finding the P Switch challenges mostly. The open world of connected tracks is very cool and I really like the knockout tournaments. But I do wish there was an additional 'classic' Grand Prix mode where I didn't have to drive between the courses and I could just enjoy multiple laps of them.

Aside.from that though this is a great new Mario Kart, trying something different with mostly success.

I think anyone who doesn’t love the open world is a Scrooge on the road to perdition.

@Kingy Good points. I can only add, that I feel this design must have been intentional. I did notice that a) Smart Steering was on for default for instance (as for a previews from what I read), b) they literally added a major feature that basically forces you to go drive on rails and c) (as you said:) 200 cc is missing in action.

Maybe it is one big coincidence, but taking your points about the tracks - and I won't argue there is a overabundance of driving a lot of straight lines on wide roads - it seems they wanted to de-emphasize racing in favor of chaotic item battles.

I mean, the goal was obviously do not just to a reskin of MK8 Deluxe, which I think most of us would agree had the Kart Racing formula pretty much nailed down and perfect. That is supported by the shoehorned in open-world, that just exists as a separate mode with nothing justifying the tons of resources it must have eaten up.

I think there is hope in terms of updates: not necessarily in way of fixing the shortcomings you laid out, but rather given the whole design shift - assuming I am not wrong about this - a purpose. As I said, I can see appeal in a more "action"-centric Kart racer, I really do, but it needs to be a holistic approach then.

PS: To point out something positive, I do really like the water physics though. To the point I hope some future tracks will lean into that and give us a game-with-the-game waver race experience (or they re-use the tech for wave race, but that seems unlikely with all the racing content already present and Kirby in the pipeline). Also, it is really nice to FINALLY get a Mario Kart game in HDR

I hope it gets some updates. I am deliberately not playing it much bc I want something to do when the magic of the new tracks wears off. It’s cool and I am glad they developed it, but it really needs a little more umph.

I'm loving the open world... The challenges are fun and I enjoy using the rewind feature to practice until I get it right. I'm sure they'll add a lot more stuff in the future... but even if not, I'm really pleased with it.

One of the 'advantages' if MKW being so expensive in a physical form is that most of it have it on our switch2s now... free roam is great for a quick session, and i am using it like that... challenges are nice and sometimes a bit original (like the odes to old courses), but agreed here that a few bosses (ds had those) , a tracker, and some more unlockables (10/10/10 for mirror is quite easily done without trying)... would be very welcome in an update..

"I do think that this game is crying out for a MK64-style on-the-spot spin - so often I want to just 180 degrees, but no, it's a slow arc"

You can turn around very quickly if you hold A and B. I also saw a video of someone turning around by doing a jump in reverse but I haven't tried that myself yet

I made the mistake to get it day1 digital because I hadn't preordered the console and the physical separate game in case I would be disappointed. As I expected, it's not a flagship in my mind. I'm fan of open world but it's very strange to explore when you can't jump or climb like we have been used to in so many wonderful games.

I'm also surprised about the lack of options to track the unlocking of everything. No pinning, no tracking.

Online is fun but being a big Fzero99 fan where skill is all that matters, I can't accept that random items can change everything.

Ironically, I'm having a blast with discounted No man's sky, which I should have started years ago. I'll stick to Cyberpunk, Outlaws, surely RDR2, surely Mario Odyssey 2, solid open worlds.

I think it's great. Free Roam is more a side mode than the main course like, say, Zelda's open world. I like to chill out in it between races and do a few missions, etc.

This might be my favorite Mario Kart.

If you wanna trully enjoy the open world you have to remap controls so you can use the camera (right stick) while you accelerate (or you can use the hori wheel + joycon hack)

https://youtube.com/shorts/TtHnuN52nDw?si=8x5bXOk3trLZek2m

I knew I would love this, and I absolutely do. They've almost given us a 3D Mario platformer at launch after all. I've longed lamented Mario Kart's lack of a sense of space, but that's mitigated now. Then again, on MK8DX, the first thing I would do on each track is explore.

If you liked driving around Peach's Castle in MK64, then you should love this. The world is its reward. You shouldn't need incentives. Explore. Go people or train watching.

I differentiate between intrinsic and extrinsic replay value. The former is how fun a game is aside from its structure. The latter is its structure: the various carrots they can dangle and convince you to care about.

With that being said, the homogenized sticker prizes are a disappointing design choice (and that it doesn't tell you how many there are or that you have). Collecting music tracks like in DKB would have been better, as stated earlier, and the map could be improved a lot.