@D-Star92
I heard someone say that they got one of the Choco Islands online. It sounds possible but rather rare to actually show up.

Fun that they finally decided to make these tracks functional outside of those terrible timed challenges against computer players.

@Robot99 Ah, gotcha. At least they got to play one of them. Thanks for letting me know! I mean the patch notes did say that they're playable online, but yeah they do seem to be pretty rare. Hopefully I'll get to play them online sometime.

Just want to pop in after trying out all the new update content tonight. Had a good time, of course. Placed 4th and 3rd on the new knockout tours in 150 CC 😅. Also did the time trials for all 10 retro courses, so haven't experienced the item panels yet. Doing the time trials reminded me that I actually really like looking at the times of my NL Switch friends... in a friendly competition way, not like a "I must beat every single one of them!" Way, of course. It seems like I was the first among all my Switch friends to do the new retro courses in the time trials.

This also reminded me that I'm probably missing a few time trials for some of the original courses. Should probably do those soon, the next time I log in.

The new (old) tracks are fun but I don't see myself visiting them often unless I want a bit of a nostalgia kick. I have missed the ? item boxes on the ground though. It'd be cool if that could somehow be a feature on the other tracks.

I saw something online that showed one of the new Knockout Tour cups being essentially the same route as one of the pre-existing ones aside from the first location. I'd have to check for myself to confirm this though.

Fingers crossed for a big update next year.

I need to do the new Knockout Tours. Don't know how much I'll really do the "classic" races or whatever.

Man, they're really slow walking the dlc on this one. I wonder if they're gonna hit us with a massive pack of stuff in like 2028 like they did with Deluxe years after the release.

Been dipping in and out of some multiplayer races over the last few days. I really need to learn some of these shortcuts, man. Some of them look outrageous to pull off but I'm seeing other players just do them with ease.

The one at the end of Whistlestop Summit is mental.

from what little i've played of the new update, i get the vibe the item balance is now a lot less annoying. still probably too many items (make item boxes not immediately respawn again!), but the middle doesn't seem as horribly chaotic as it used to be.

Well, I've spent the past couple days or so practising the Whistlestop Summit shortcuts and oh boy, does it feel awesome when you absolutely nail it. I'm getting the hang of them somewhat consistently now — certainly failing much less than I was before, which is amazing.

It'll be fun when it comes time to try it amidst the chaos of the online races though!

Man, after playing Sonic Racing CrossWorlds for a few hours, it's not even a competition: Mario Kart World just feels so great to play, and it has so much more of a skill ceiling baked into its movement system.

And when you get sick of racing, popping over into Free Roam and leisurely doing a few more P switches, coins, etc. while admiring the craft behind the game... this really is an amazing game. The feel, the animations - it's the poster for that "Kyoto craftsmanship" (I know, gag me, but still).

game, japan... ~~except that doesn't really work because sega is also japanese~~

if nothing else, i definitely will praise the animation and ost and vibes of mkworld. people will say the game lacks charm and i will be horribly confused. honey, this is the most charming video game nintendo has made in ages what are you on about

if anything it makes it more of a shame they haven't used these knockout tour updates as an excuse to give more characters outfits. the fits are sooooo good

Game, Tokyo, Japan 😒
Game, Kyoto, Japan 🤩

I only played the demo for Crossworlds, and I wasn't really enthused by how it controlled (granted, this was just the Switch port running on Switch 2, so being a port for an underpowered handheld may have been a contributor) or the the track design. The brand collaboration stickers also put a bad taste in my mouth; say what you will about Mario Kart World's stickers not being visible, at least they're not an ad for goddamn Hi-Chews. I'll take Mario Kart World over Sonic Racing Crossworlds any day of the week.

Crossworlds is getting better post-launch support andddddddd yeah I just listaed all of the reasons I would ever consider playing that instead of MKWorld lol. I'm sure it's a fun time if you don't have a Switch 2 or a copy of MKWorld but if you have both of those things (like I do) there really isn't a reason not to play World.

I will give Sega props that they said (IIRC) that Crossworlds didn't live up to expectations and are actually doing things to have the game succeed instead of giving up immediately (though part of that might be that had too much DLC planned to give up on it).

But as always, I don't think its worth thinking much about the short term for Mario Kart World at all. They JUST did a new update for 8, Mario Kart World is gonna be slowly ongoing for a very long time. Mario Kart World is a long term investment of a game, whether anyone likes it or not. (my hot take as always is that a lot of the older Mario Karts succeeded despite being lacking in content compared to the competition, people just ignore that fact because of nostalgia)

i might buy crossworlds soon with the price drop, but it just makes me feel bad for anyone who bought it before now, spending up to 90 usd on an arcade racer from the start. 40 base game makes much more sense.

of course, nintendo has too much pride to bump the price down of their games retroactively, and so we end up with the kinda game only a small few buy outside of a bundle. i know i just implied i wouldn't like them dropping the price either, but there's a difference between "game stuck at high prices with little alternatives" and "game frequently in bundles that technically make it way cheaper"

The drifting in CrossWorlds just feels… dead. I don’t know. Stiff, lifeless - the feedback you feel when drifting and tricking in World is just heaps and heaps better. Same with using items: the feedback loop in the gameplay itself is relatively lifeless compared to World.

And CrossWorlds has that definite “season pass game” feel to its menus and everything outside of the actual racing. Every time you find yourself back on a menu, you’re bombarded with tickets and XP and challenges and stuff. And I don’t even have any DLC purchased. Exclamation marks on so many of the menus and all that… we know how it goes these days lol

Chilling back in World for a few days has been sooooo nice. I’m over 70 hours in this game now, about 300 switches without using any guides, and I still love hopping back in for a few days between other games, even with no major DLC yet.

While the free update was nice where they added in the 2 knockout tours and SNES tracks added to online, it didn't keep me for long. Honestly I haven't played MK World much this entire year though I wouldn't exactly say it's a bad thing.

The base games are equally good but if I had to compare the 2 games' post-launch support, the Sonic post-launch support has been a lot more exciting than the MK post-launch support.

@Grumblevolcano
I think it helps if you approach World as a game you're gonna play for a little bit every now and then rather than a game you're gonna "main" for weeks on end or something.

For me, World still has tons of content I haven't found in the Free Roam, tons of shortcuts I still haven't even begun to practice to get good at the courses, and the drip-feed of the Knockout Tours has given me a little bit more to get the gold trophies for every time they come out (2 times now).

World definitely needs some meaty DLC in 2027, but I think Nintendo is playing it pretty solid right now.

The huge thing that made me decide to get World over Crossworlds is that Crossworlds just has so much freaking DLC. Also, too busy playing other games to the point where I'm not even intending on getting Kirby Air Riders anymore and am just going to stick with Mario Kart World this Gen when it comes to racing (outside of the very unlikely scenario where one particular series gets a racing spin-off, I'd probably buy that).

Yes, I am aware that Mario Kart World will definitely get DLC at some point, it's a matter of if not when. And it's one of the few DLCs I'd actually maybe buy, especially if it's as good as the Booster-Course Pass and is not, like, Smash Ultimate or Crossworlds level in terms of price. Or I'll just be like "it's fine, not necessary" and pass on it. Not something I would be whining about or anything. Smash Ultimate and any other future Smash games are the only exceptions that I would make when it comes to $50+ worth of DLC, because I just love Smash that much 😂.

BTW I have no regrets about World, it's amazing. I've already played more Mario Kart by myself this year than any other previous year in my life because of it.

if nintendo makes any paid dlc for world, they better make it count for the poor saps who bought it for the full 80. personally i'm not as concerned given i got the bundle at launch, but we gotta throw a bone to them, surely...

also yeah, more than 20 and i will be concerned. it doesn't have to be quite as absurd value as the booster course pass, but nintendo has a tendency to make dlc that's slightly too small for the price otherwise, so...