Topic: Mario Kart World

No Mii confirmed, no Story Mode, haha xD

I didn’t watch the Direct as I assumed being only 15 minutes meant that it was mostly a roundup of everything shown before. And looking at the comments on this thread, I was right. I’m not going to go out my way to get this game unless I’m able to get hold of the Switch 2 bundle. It’s a real disappointment but I think Nintendo is too afraid to innovate with Mario Kart to the point where the idea of an open world seems to be just that and nothing really there to do. Just an open world.

I will say, I do think its lacking a bit of that, "Wow!!" factor that was found in BotW, that helped make the barren launch of the Switch 1 exciting. Like World seems super quality but I do wish they could've teased something a bit more mysterious and new.

The medallions and panels are cool, but don't hit quite the same since they're commonly seen in other Mario games. In the end, it's all just marketing, but feels a bit meh from an enthusiast's perspective. Even though it will obviously be quality

Why are people assuming that there's absolute confirmation that the game won't have Miis in it? I saw the direct and they didn't show off all the character roster. Just because they didn't mention it or show them off doesn't mean that they're not actually in it.
(Also I'm hoping the Broodals will make their grand debut in this entry.)

Battle Mode confirmed. Thats all I needed to see. But the Teams Vs Mode is pretty awesome, as is the missions and challenges all throughout the world for free roam. It seems chock to the hilt with things to do which is great.

I also found it impressive that 8 systems can play local wireless with 2 player split screen on each console.

@WoomyNNYes
No 200cc?

You could clearly see when 150cc was selected the arrow to pan right was still present, all but confirming 200cc since Mirror Mode won't be an option

No story mode??

Not sure anyone expected a story mode? The free roam missions are the big single player experience, not even accounting for beating all the grand prix cups and unlocking Rainbow Road.

God this soundtrack's gonna be immense

I haven't watched any of the Treehouse stuff, so that Direct was great for me.

MKW looks pretty fabulous to me and I could feel the urge to rethink my 'No Day 1 buy' decision pretty strong.

I'd like it if things like the trees were a bit more detailed and inspiring though - environmental beauty is kinda big for me since MK8 and Breath of the Wild.

Also had me wondering if we might get more courses themed on other Nintendo IP someday - a BotW/TotK course, a Xenoblade course, a Metroid course etc. The engine looks so nice now that it could really be put to work showcasing Nintendo's other worlds.

Excited about the Rainbow Road tease. Nothing new about that, but Rainbow Road gets me every time.

Whenever I do get this game, I'm gonna spend so much time just collecting new costumes and using photo mode.

A missed opportunity. The open world idea is packed with possibilities, look at Forza Horizon, a game they actually looked at to copy the rewind feature.

Instead, there are bare-bones missions and aesthetic content. The water sections are a great addition, but they seem to be almost identical to solid ground, with the water physics having little relevance. No Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed nor Diddy Kong Racing here. No Wave Race nor a story more like Diddly Kong Racing.

Mario Kart is Mario Kart, I know this as a huge fan of the series. The best thing about Mario Kart is the balance between controls, physics and items, a balance between driving and powerups, racing and luck, but all of this but the items have been toned down progressively to make the series more accessible and easier to play, despite the gimmicks. A commercial success for sure, just not as good as it used to be.

what a direct, even if it told us basic info! i deffo think itll be worth the $80 even without a story mode or track builder. i love the courses, and whoever says the visuals are horrible are out of their mind, it looks crazy good. the costumes, the modes, the items, the tricks will make this such a good entry. gonna waste my whole summer on this haha 😂 boo cinema and the dk map are the courses im most excited to play.
also no NINJI?!!! 🙁🙁🙁🙁🙁😿😿😿😿😿

Having watched the direct, I'll say this:

I think Baby Mario will probably be Kevin Afghani's best performance so far, genuinely speaking. He's already made regular Mario sound like a prepubescent, so Baby Mario feels like a step forward for him.

People are still spamming the live chat with “DROP THE PRICE.”

Yoshi’s, so that’s how you’ll unlock new costumes. I was initially thinking it would be something more where you could get off your cart and go inside to eat or something.

Customizable karts are gone too…

Great character selection but I’m still holding out hope for guest characters and maps based on other Nintendo IP.

With everything connected now we have to race ourselves to the next course. No more slacking off between races…

@Dev-N The game's soundtrack feels like one giant jam session and I love it.
The treehouse/event footage also had a jazzy remix of Waluigi Pinball and Vanilla Lake in the menu to name a couple!

Next thing: Are they adding some sort of shop to purchase upgrades for karts or other outfits?

I desperately hope that character select screen isn't the one we're getting a launch. Every different outfit being listed as a separate character in a seemingly random order is really going to irritate me.

A small gripe but I'm sure I'll get over it with time.

@Kairuuu I would prefer if they handled outfits or alternate colors like how they did it for Shy Guy and Yoshi back in Mario Kart 8.

@Kairuuu Yeah, some of Nintendo's UI designers really need to learn about the concept of sub-menus.

I didn't expect it, but hoped it was there. Diddy Kong racing did this almost 30 years ago - why create this huge open world and not include a story mode? Seems a missed opportunity...

@MrCarlos46 The updated JP website says you just unlock cars with coins, like it was in MK8. You'll probably be finding outfits by collecting those Yoshi Foods, and the Kamek items seem to be how certain characters are unlocked. We still don't know what those Free Roam collectibles seem to do though which is interesting.

The UK Mario Kart World Direct revealed that you need to register your mobile phone number to be able to use GameChat.

It's at 44:44 in the video

That was alright I guess. Not a lot of new stuff, but I am really excited about how this seems to control. Between the charge jump, wall-riding, and grinding this seems to have a higher skill ceiling than 8dx, which is exciting. I do wish the free roam had a little more going on though, and battle mode looks really lame, so that's a little disappointing. Regardless, the standard racing is the most important thing to get right, and it seems like that was the focus, which I'm fine with personally.