Round Up: The Reviews Are In For Mario Kart World

It's good but I don't think it's worth that high price in my opinion.

@AllBLK just wondering will you play this a little bit for 8 years?
Honestly I want to look at my hours played in a few years, and it will probably be a few cents per hours played so to me worth my 50 bucks

Hope to see free updates for this game over time. It would be disappointing if they went straight to paid DLC after an $80 price point.

(I know the bundle-ers paid $50, but it’s still an $80 game.)

It's not my favorite Mario Kart, or my second favorite...or third, but it is still a solid game. On the negative side, due to the lack of repeating laps, I barely know most tracks' basic layouts, never mind their shortcuts or how to pull them off. I've hit gold in every race and found a few hundred collectables, and I still feel like I barely know the map or how to play. On the positive side, the new movement mechanics are fun on the rare occasion I manage to use them correctly, and all the characters and costumes add some nice variety. It also might have my new favorite Mario soundtrack. If they'd add a more traditional Grand Prix mode and 200cc, that might be enough for it to pass Mario Kart 7 in my rankings and enter the conversation with Double Dash and 8.

@rvcolem1 I honestly doubt I will play it as much as I have MK8. The free roam mode isn't that interesting to me.

@LazyDaisy I do wonder if that's why the price is higher. Are they going to support it for a couple of years like they do with Splatoon.

Because not a single one of my top three racers made it to World. Black Shy Guy, Lemmy and Black Yoshi. They need to add alt colours!!!! Still cannot believe they added every of the ten Yoshi colours but black lol. Also I do not like how they locked the Yoshi colours to particular costumes.

@AllBLK dude fair, I'm more a solo gamer but to launch with a game my wife and anyone I show my switch 2 can play and have fun with is a good move. I took it to work and people are like "how do I play" and i said how you always play Mario kart! The pickup and play ability is a smart move. Is botw a better game yes, but I think this is a better business move

Maybe I just need this game to absorb for a bit, but I think the game is rated too highly. We’ve gone alot of steps backwards in terms of item balance, free roam doesn’t haven enough of a hook, playing Knockout Tour Online does get tired due to the lack of routes and the standard online play is too dedicated to connecting roads together.

i can already tell I'm gonna be an "8 person."

@Mesozoic_Masquerade dude I miss black yoshi, also white yoshi, orange yoshi. But honestly black yoshi was my go to

@rvcolem1 I'm glad you and others are enjoying it. It's definitely not a bad game by any means, but it's just not really fully clicking for me. I guess because I play mostly single player games. Nintendo did good by focusing on multiplayer for one of their premium titles at launch. It's a system seller for sure for those who want to show off their new console and play with others

@Mesozoic_Masquerade I also want black Pauline but maybe that's me

I'm seeing a lot of Youtubers expressing a lot of frustration for this installment.

@AllBLK dude thanks for disagreeing in a respectful way you rule, I'm mostly a solo gamer so I get you plight. I want metroid ASAP and Dread plays better and that makes me happy

My kids love Free Roam. I think the open world is for them and not for me, a dad Nintendo enthusiast. The Rewind feature is huge for them when exploring around the beautiful world. It doesn’t hold my interest (Knockout Tour is where it’s at for me), but it’s just their speed (no pun intended haha).

Honestly, while the game is fun, I do think it's underwhelming as an $80 game, as a launch title, and as a successor to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (with the Booster Course Pass included). All three of those things set the bar so high, and I don't think it lived up to the expectations.

With so many of those P-Switch challenges in Free-Roam revolving around passing through rings, I couldn't help but think to myself, "this would be a really solid Pilotwings game, but from Mario Kart, I expect a little more."

A lot of people (myself included) were hoping for more. Cut characters like the Koopalings, Kamek, Diddy Kong, and Funky Kong in favor of a non-specific Dolphin and Cow is disappointing. Only two battle modes is also unfortunate, as is the fact there are no bosses in Free-Roam.

In its current state, I honestly can't give this game any higher than an 8/10--which is underwhelming for a Mario Kart title. You can get mad at the fans for saying wre "set our expectations too high" for thinking Nintendo might not have showed their full hand in the Directs. But Nintendo did a poor job at expectation management by--again--making this a launch title, selling it for $10 more than Tears of the Kingdom, and doubling MK8 DX's content in the lead-up to this game.

Even basic features like a ranked mode for online would have made it so much more replayable, where you level-up instead of just gaining VR points, which are (no pun intended) pointless.

I don't know what Nintendo's long-term plans are for this game. Hopefully, they will continue to support it throughout the Switch 2's entire life cycle. But as it is...the game is just "alright." I just hope that any new content will be free for NSO + Expansion Pass subscribers like it was for the last game.

It’s a fun game but I feel like I’ve already seen everything the game has to offer in its current state. Worth $50 (bundle)? Yeah, sure. Worth $80? LOL no. I disagree with Doug Bowser on his dynamic pricing explanation. That was just corporate speak for “we are greedy and want to suck all we can out of you suckers who will pay for it time and time again”. I know, I work for a huge global corporation and hear that crap every day.

I'm enjoying it and I do agree that the open world free roam is over hyped.

As the game is expensive, I can only assume that some if not all future DLC updates will be free.

Anyway I can't wait for Donkey Kong in July 😍

It's a good game but feels like a step down compared to 8 Deluxe, and for $80 I expected more (granted I only paid $50 with the bundle). Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is probably my favorite game of all time, so get ready for some heavy but honest criticism.

The free roam is fun for a bit but doesn't offer any real story or sense of progression. It's just kinda... find some hidden medals and 10 second challenges. Other than that... the open world is kinda superficial. It's just there just to be there. They could have easily still had knockout tours without the open world with more intentionally designed sprint tracks.

The visuals are nice but I feel like the open world is severely holding back what could have been a big visual upgrade from 8 Deluxe. Plus the grand prix mode is just not very exciting with most of the cups just being straight highway driving simulators while you get hit by items. And your reward? One lap on 3 of the tracks.

And the online infrastructure is laughable. You cannot do VS races with the original 3 lap structure as 90% of the time it picks highway driving. And your friends can't spectate and wait in a queue, they need to stalk your name and wait for a spot to open up. You cannot play knockout tour at all with friends.

And they finally made it so we can start lobbies with our friends... BUT you can only play against bots when in a lobby???? What is this horrible online system? Microsoft, Sony, Activision, and almost every other company had this figured out back in 2006.

Since 80% of the game is straight line driving, no Mario Kart has ever felt this luck-oriented. It's hard to take a commanding lead with little sharp turns and you're completely at the mercy of items, which seem very aggressive and unbalanced with 24 racers. They made it so you don't slow down to a halt after getting hit by most items, yet this seems like the slowest game in the series due to the amount of items you'll get hit by.

And why do so many characters clip through the steering wheel and parts of the vehicles? That's just embarrassing and inexcusable, in my opinion.

ALL THAT SAID, the core racing is fun and I like the new grinding, wall jumping, and no-turn drifting mechanics. And pretty much all of the tracks are beautiful and really well designed. The character roster is large and fun (despite some questionable omissions). Oh, and the music... it's maybe the best in any Nintendo game. The soundtrack is truly a masterpiece.

It's just a shame the core design decisions (or restrictions) AROUND all of the good stuff hampers the experience greatly. I'd give it a 7.8 or so, but since I can only vote in whole numbers, I'd give it a generous 8. It's still a fun time and a solid kart racer, but it's also underwhelming and a severe drop in game design quality from previous entries.

I’ve only been playing for a day (~3 hours total), but I am loving it so far. It looks and plays fantastic, and just has gobs of personality! I am liking the way they updated Grand Prix, where rather than repeating a track three times, you do three continuous ‘variations’ on the course; keeps me on my toes! Knockout is the standout, for sure, and is INTENSE! Love it! The free roam… is enjoyable, but as others have said, needed more to unlock and enjoy besides getting stickers. Overall though, very happy with the game!

Definitely the game to get once I get a Switch 2. If the Switch 2 Mario Kart Bundle is still around I might try to snag that.

I don't fully get why Knockout Tour gets singled out for praise when it takes place all across the in-between routes that have been criticized. It's not like it's immune to some of the other gripes people have with the game, either, like how easily you can end up falling behind. I like having the more intricately designed courses interspersed with the connecting track over staying solely on them until the final stretch. But I also don't mind the routes as much in general. Plenty of tracks in the series are filled with relatively straight sections; it doesn't matter as much to me that the turns keep you going forward instead of closing the loop. And mechanically, I've been enjoying the driving so much that I think it makes every part of the game at least somewhat fun (and it's mostly been very fun). I didn't even hate playing Desert Hills like 8 times because the Flower Cup was weirdly brutal for me compared to what came after. I do think there should be options to play a Grand Prix or online without having to take the routes, but I'm gonna be trying to go through every single one and enjoy piecing together more of what makes the world tick. Even the stretches between two tracks can differ in notable ways depending on which one you're traveling to, and that scratches a similar itch to why I stuck with Tour for so long (different variants of the same track).

@rvcolem1 You're welcome. There's room for healthy conversations/ differing opinions without being nasty to each other.

Another case of open worlds destroying genres and formulas as well as increasing prices.
They should’ve spent more time designing tracks that aren’t a straight line. The game suffers because of the “interconnected” aspect.
Stop trying to make EVERYTHING open world!

Come at me because I won’t be replying.

Solid 10 for me , several hours in time trial just doing parkour has been enough fun on its own, never mind everything else on offer, don't think the new tech gets mentioned enough!

The free roam mode is pretty constrained shows a willingness to avoid copying what the rest of the genre is doing but if what you like doing is collecting things and completing challenges then it’s not making the most of the large world it has, there’s probably less of them than a single kingdom in Oddsey has. The controls and move set have this feel like Oddsey where they are very fluid and allow to pull off lots of cool combos but unlike Oddsey they aren’t feeling like you’re constantly being rewarding for using them, something akin to balloon world would be a prefect addition.

I can't get into this game at all. I'm sticking with it to get 3 stars on every GP and Knockout Tour, which is a decent challenge, but the purpose of that was to see if there was something about the game I had overlooked, something there that would finally click.
There isn't. The game really is just a slow plodding mess, and I'm finding more issues the more I play, especially with Knockout Tour.
I noticed this time around your actual knowledge of a track and skill at driving it is entirely secondary to item RNG. When the pack splits up you kind of just hover in the position you're in until you get the correct item to overtake whoever is in front of you. It really is akin to driving on a highway lol.
I've had plenty of KTs ended on the spot because there was literally nothing I could do to catch up to first place, and plenty others where the only reason I won was due to a lucky random Blue shell thrown by some cpu 15 positions behind us.
Other Mario Karts, namely 8, have similar interactions with random item pulls, but you always had an opportunity to catch up with some good maneuvers. Not the case here.

So what a successful Knockout Tour looks like is you quitting the first leg of the race until you get the right item combination to pass the first checkpoint in first place (that's required for three stars), then you drive in a straight line for 15-20 minutes and pray you don't get hit by a red / blue shell right before each checkpoint, or God forbid the end of the race! At worst it's frustrating, at its best it's boring.

@The_Nintend_Pedant Once the honeymoon phase is over for this game I bet there's going to be a lot more "8 people" crawling out of the woodwork.

Having sat with it a while, I do miss a more traditional Grand Prix - races feel a little inconsequential when the proper track is only a single lap. Even if it was two laps around the final course, that would make a big difference. Or say one for 50cc, two for 100 and the full three for 150cc.

Also not really feeling the motivation to explore the open world as there just isn’t enough reward for doing so. It’s beautifully designed and I’ve had fun exploring it with my kids on a couple of occasions (they like to ride the train around the map), but when I actually sit down to properly play, I don’t boot it up.

I expect Nintendo are listening intently to criticism and will eventually introduce some additions or changes, but at the moment I’d probably only recommend it if someone was picking up the bundle. On its own I’d feel a bit short changed.

As a game that came in the bundle, I don't know how often I will boot it up. I enjoy doing a couple of races and then I'm done. I heard some people playing it pretty much non-stop and already unlocking everything pretty much. I'm not that type of player...

I believe most of the negativity surrounding the game—and the Switch 2 in general—is closely tied to pricing. The game itself is as fun as any other entry in the Mario Kart series. Some tracks stand out more than others, and an option to play a Grand Prix without intermissions would be a welcome addition (not a difficult feature to implement, especially since it already exists in VS mode).

The game occasionally feels slower than previous entries, likely due to the wider track design. However, that sensation fades once you hit the narrower sections. A balanced 200cc mode—maybe something like 175cc? 😄—could really help here.

I also think comparisons to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe are a bit unfair. That game has been around for years and has received a ton of DLC. The original Wii U version, in terms of content, wasn’t significantly richer than MKWorld.

I agree that the open-world component could use more polish, but—and this is a personal opinion—I’ve always seen it as a bonus rather than the core experience.

Overall, I’d give it a solid 8/10, just like I rated MK8 when it first launched.

After analyzing the past winners at "The Game Awards", its current MetaCritic score indicates it won't be a true "Game of the Year" contender (though it could be a nominee).

I'm a bit surprised, given the huge anticipation of it.

I think it's possible to justify a 7, 8 or 9 out of 10 depending how you spin it.

The open world is a pleasant, chill place to be in, basically a souped up mission mode but it has No structure, adventure or hook to make you spend more than a handful of hours there.

The world design is ace, Grand Prix mode offers variety but the driving between tracks detracts from enjoying actual 3 lap tracks and it feels a bit off.

Knockout tour just works though and is a flawless experience, love the lack of interruption and the tracks flow better into each other than in Grand Prix.

Meanwhile battle mode is undercooked.

I think everyone agrees, sadly, it isn't a 10/10. But boy it could have been with a bit more thought and purpose applied to free roam, dangit Nintendo, you have all the ingredients for perfection but undercooked it slightly.

Mario Kart World is a reluctant 8/10 for me. I'm reluctant because I know, in time, when revealing all the nuances and secrets in the game, it will be a 9. It will never be a 10 because of the usual flaw with the series.

My main gripe is that, yet again, the single player is utter garbage due to the lack of challenge. I cleared all Cups on 150cc on the first attempt, winning 6 (two were ties for first) and finishing second in the other two. While you can argue "Well, you didn't win them all on first attempt", the point is I should be failing to complete them, and often. It should take at least a dozen attempts to win a Cup on the "hardest" difficulty, not one or two. While winning the Knockout races are more difficult (I'm 0-5 currently), these are mostly a dull procession until the final checkpoint or two because the CPU racers are spread out too far. Why include 24 racers when half of them are quickly tailed off? It's a joke.

The Free Roam I feared was Nintendo's artificial way to extend longevity for the single player. While I'm actually enjoying my time in it and appreciate learning the tricks that can be used in the races, I feel it really is just there as something extra to do, not a key component of the game.

Most disturbing about the lack of challenge in single player is the fix is so easy: add master or fiendish difficulty CPU racers! All this would involve is tweaking the AI parameters already in the game, so it's not even a difficult inclusion. In fact, in multi-player mode there's a "Hard" CPU setting that could be transferred to the single player game.

As for the multi-player mode, no complains there. The choice to select the traditional 3 full laps as a race is welcome, especially for your favourite tracks or for variety from the connected sections. The Knockout mode is extreme fun and, indeed, in split screen, the CPU opponents that make up the rest of the field offer a real challenge, right from the early checkpoints. Again, why not add this sort of challenge in the single player mode?

I'm pleased the kart selection is streamlined from all the parts nonsense, and it appears you can succeed without the usual combination of light character and high acceleration kart. Despite the 24 racers and the barrage of weapons flying around, MKW seems to have a slight tilt in balance towards actual racing over induced chaos by items. Recovery from attacks as notably faster. Courses all seem good, even without fully revealing their secrets and shortcuts yet. The new charge jump move is likely the key behind many of those.

All up, very happy with Mario Kart World. Nintendo needed to try a few different things and all those new additions work well while preserving the ethos of the Mario Kart series.

Edit:
The $80 price is fine to me. It's $10 more than Zelda TOTK on the Switch, which is the comparable game, not the $60 ones. Nintendo were a bit unfortunate, or remiss, not to have more marquee titles late in the Switch cycle to get consumers adjusted to $70 games. Perhaps Metroid Prime 4 should have been one early this year. Then $80, or $10 more, for the big marquee titles on Switch 2 would be more palatable. Even in terms of publicity, I would have announced the new benchmark prices in advance, and the rationale for them. As usual, Nintendo left themselves in a hole, at least in perception. Reality is that the consumers have lapped up the Switch 2 and MKW, even considering that MKW was $30 off in the bundle.

The game is bursting with character, but the gameplay is severely lacking. The AI is cheap and the Grand Prix is boring 70% of the time. I understand Mario Kart is about that 'random' factor, but between the item assaults and rubber banding being turned up to 11, it's just not fun in single-player.

The open world is structureless, which doesn't hold my attention for more than 10 minutes at at a time. As someone who played MK8 to death on the Wii U and has been excited for a new Mario Kart entry for almost a decade, this entry is a let down. It just feels unfinished somehow.

Whether that's because Nintendo is holding content back, or it just dropped the ball because it had too much development time, I don't know. But it should have been better than this, especially with the cost of entry.

Now if you'll excuse me, I've got to get back to F-Zero 99, which is far more entertaining.

@Anachronism Not having enough laps of the new courses was an issue for me too, but you can actually do it is you go into 'VS' mode and select the tracks. It's not a perfect solution, you're still limited but it'll let you get to grips with the tracks better.

In the past my two girls liked the odd Mario Kart 8Dx race when their friends came over but that was about it. With World they are now obsessed with Free Roam and are on a mission to find everything and this has got my eldest into single player races as well which brings a smile to my face. They need to add 2-player free roam that isn't the online lobby work around.

For me, I enjoy the touring aspect of both GP and Knockout modes but it is obviously more appropriate for Knockout Tour so I'd love for them to add a Classic GP mode which focusses on the tracks - Holy Cow how good is Boo's cinema, Wario Galleon and the new Rainbow Road?! I mean come on these are some of the best MK tracks ever full stop. Anyway Knockout is utterly brilliant, on and offline. Free Roam is a nice change of pace and I've enjoyed the challenge of the harder to reach panels and coins so far although I fear there won't be that many hard ones to collect. The visuals are impressive, the soundtrack keeps me smiling, overall this is a 9/10 for me. (Add classic GP mode and 2P free roam and it's a 10/10 easy).

I think people are getting way too hung up on the free roam mode when it’s clearly not the main draw of Mario Kart and was never going to be

All modes together as a whole make the game feel and play stellar. Need to get away from thinking of MK like MK8DX and before. The series has evolved. Bit like open world Zelda did when BOTW came out. Many were getting hung up on the older dungeon style gameplay (which is absolutely superb in itself).

It's all superb as the 87%-90% average review score indicates. Even if slightly less in percentage than older MK. Still amazing. Enjoy.

@AllBLK high price? It's £35 if you buy it with the console

@Ogbert It's nice that it's an option somewhere, but playing VS to practice for the other modes would have just made me burn out. Open worlds are always so bloated that trying to "complete" them is an exercise in frustration. Since I've already hit my minimum requirement to say I've finished the game, I'm better off quitting before my dissatisfaction starts to outweigh my enjoyment. Hopefully that will leave some room for enthusiam if they do add more worthwhile content down the line.

I think Nintendo really needed a 10/10 here.

They need to do a Classic Mode with three laps of each track, and they need to update the open world with new content, stuff to unlock, missions, events, on a regular basis.

Like treasure hunting with hints scattered around, giant races on the open world, giant battles on the open world last one standing style. Here, just off the top of my head I've got several ideas.

And all of this for free of course. This is a 90€ game for petes sake. Make those customers happy about their purchase. If you're going to go with 90€ games make them say it's worth it. It's actually kind of critical to do so. And several years down the line, but only then, and only after a real good amount of free substantial content, I suppose they can have a major paid dlc or something. Don't f this up.

To make it clear, I quite like the game but I also see what's missing and what needs to be done because of the this special status it has of being the first 90€ nintendo game.

Nintendo calling it an "interconnected map" is probably more accurate than "open world" because it really isn't the latter in the traditional sense of the word. I feel like with the expectation of an open world, it's still great, but with an interconnected world mindset, the setup makes a lot more sense.

In any case, it's gotten great reviews and I'm having a ton of fun with it as I figured I would. My kids and I have played a good amount of the game and we've been enjoying the chaos.

Don't share the gripe of the interconnecting tracks. For me it will give the game more longevity as it's less repetitive.
I preferred the continuous tracks like Mount Wario and Big Blue in 8 anyway, this feels like a natural evolution.

The game excels as a local and online multiplayer experience. What it failed to really do was expand into a satisfying Single player experience as well.
Good thing there are plenty of other games on Switch 2 to pick up that slack.

As a multiplayer title it’s good. Online is fun and challenging. Loving split screen with the camera. And I agree with all the criticism esp for single player mode.

On why no split-screen free roam? It’s almost certainly a memory issue. I don’t think Switch 2 can hold and run the world as-is from two completely separate locations. They would have to put a boundary around player 1 and yank player 2 back in when they go too far away. I think they do something like this for 2-person online. I think for purely local they probably tried it and found it was miserable. Players are naturally not going to stick together in “free roam.”

The more I see and hear about this game, the more glad I am that I have sat out the launch window completely - whilst World looks like its taking a step back to the hectic chaos and technical driving of Wii I loved, the qualms with the open world and general track design, as well as various Nintendo-isms with various aspects of the game's design as a whole, has definitely solidified this as a game I can happily sit out on for a while.

I was never going to pay the £75 entry fee, but that doesn't reduce the issues on display - especially for such a tentpole series that has been in the works for some 7 plus years. Hopefully sales bring the price down to sensible levels (see: £50 or less), and hopefully those come relatively soon. The game seems great, but its not holding itself up very well for the ridiculous price they are asking.

I think I'd just like to see a few additions and this would be a solid 9/10 for me, maybe even 10/10.

• I need to be able to join an online game my friends are playing. Just jump in if there's a space or the option to wait until there is one. Not the 4 person friend room setup thing. Or if it's there already, I need to be able to find it easier.
• Online play needs a few options, like being able to exclude the connecting tracks. A few pre-set modes would be fine.
• Let me construct my own Grand Prix and challenge my friends!
• In the open world, I'd love to drive into a track area and be able to start a race. I don't expect it to be instantaneous, but maybe pull up to a counter or onto a pad for a couple seconds and the race begins.
• The costumes need more balance. It's criminal DK only has one!! Not even his new Dungarees mining look? And all the characters with none deserve at least one. It's disappointing they don't have any.
• The Costumes NEED to be a sub-menu in the UI. Let me navigate to Mario and tap the left and right bumpers or select him and then open a sub-menu with his costumes.
• A way to track P-Switches and Peach coins per area would be great. It's weird I can only see ? Panels.
• A Splatoon 3 style online profile where I can use those lovely stickers I keep unlocking.

I am really enjoying it though. It's definitely different to wht you might expect from MK and that's no bad thing really. Also it looks stunning and runs super smoothly!

I think the game is all right. But honestly, there’s so many things in this game that make me think oh actually they could have made they say nine instead of a 6.5.

It’s just very repeating and not very memorable. I find free roam very disappointing.

@Matl The chaos is still there believe me. Knockout Tour is mayhem at its peak- not only are you trying to win but you’re trying to stay in the race at multiple points which ratchets up the intensity not just at the final hurdle but throughout the race.

I can see where Nintendo World are coming from.

I sometimes feel like I live in a different universe when reading others opinions on free roam and on other changes in this game. I've put in about 30 hrs, 80% in free roam, and I'm only now feeling like I'm getting a good grasp on the mechanics of charge jumping and grind rails. I think a lot of people are not appreciating how high the skill ceiling is here and just want to drive in circles. To me, there is a lot more strategy and skill involved. Free roam is perfect for practicing tracks and shortcuts. Searching out the collectables is the perfect way to learn the tracks in great detail. Many collectables require learning the tracks and alternate paths. All this knowledge makes the racing part of the game that much more enjoyable. The world is so lively and cartoonish. Hundreds of things to do in free roam. A lot of challenges take many many attempts because of how they make use of advanced skills. I don't know. I mean people will feel how they feel, but it seems to me that many players have lost the plot. What are you trying to get out of the game? To me the most important thing is how driving feels and they absolutely nailed the driving. Since it is so enjoyable to play, I love having the ability to drive outside of races, where the competition and frustration can sour the play session. Free roam is what I always wanted, a mode to just enjoy the mechanics of the game without the competition.

Also, in regards to the price. To me 80 bucks is a dinner for 2 at a mid restaurant, less than an hour of enjoyment and food I'll drop in the toilet the next morning and never think about again. I'm gonna be enjoying this game for years and obviously offers way more entertainment than other things. Relatively speaking, this game is "worth" a lot.

I'm not a Mario Kart enthusiast, but I got really excited for this one. I likened it to Mario Kart 64 when I was talking about it (the last Mario Kart I thoroughly enjoyed). The game doesn't suck, it's just complicated to me with all the racers and vehicle choice, only for almost none of it seeming to matter on these courses. Free Roam feels nice to me, because I never realized MK was basically four buttons to control. I have yet to grasp the driving mechanics. I did buy Fast RMX and that game has a better hook, not gonna lie. Every mechanic is easier and for some reason, you can fuse all the vehicles together two at a time. I'm quite interested.

The reason I got the Switch 2 was to tackle my backlog with greater ease, and I'm proud to say it succeeds in that metric to a high degree. I just started Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen, and I can already tell this one is special.

I enjoy the game, and the Free Roam is fine...but it just doesn't feel like there's any REASON to Free Roam.

Yeah, there are the P Button "Missions," but to what end?

Yeah, there are Princess Peach Medallions, but do they do anything?

Sure, you can unlock costumes, but that's just by eating food.

And Question Mark panels that don't...unlock anything?

It all seems half-baked, at best. A very cool way to explore the World, but one of the points of an open world game is unlockables that make you feel like you're accomplishing something. Just collecting things without any real reward seems...empty.

I'd have LOVED for you to be able to unlock characters by completing missions, or by finding and hitting every Question Mark block.

EDIT: Oh! I forgot that you get "Stickers" for your kart.

Why?

Because they're stickers...that you don't really see.

@rvcolem1

I thought of that too when I first read of the price increases. However, Mario Kart (for me) is not a deep, engrossing forever experience. It's a pick up and play here and there experience. Not worth $80 to me. If they charged $80 for Smash, I'd be okay with that, as I'm up to 850hrs for that game. Same for Animal Crossing. It's a hard call to price games, I reckon, as each game offers a different experience to each player. There needs to be consistency, but I'm not sure how that can be achieved. I just hope $80 isn't the new norm.

I understand the criticism here and yet I find none of it bothers me. Perhaps as I get older I am more forgiving or just know that nothing will ever be perfect when it comes to video games. However, I am really enjoying it. Then again I am not trying to get through it with any sort of speed or urgency. I am after all still trying to finish TotK.

Mario Kart World is very nice to play a few rounds with my wife game, or pick up and play for a bit when I have a shorter amount of time. It is a perfect companion piece to a bigger game. It will likely rotate in and out for the entire Switch 2 lifecycle, especially if they add content and make tweaks. Based on 8 Deluxe, I would be surprised if it is not refreshed a few times over the next several years.

@mjhopkins81 medaillons are needed to unlock mirror mode

@shonenjump86 One thing you can be sure of, nintendo always will keep producing mario kart bundles;)

Free Roam may be a bit flawed, but I believe it will have many updates making it better and better.

Something I feel hasn’t been mentioned properly is how the difficulty went up with much better AI and also that the items were better balanced. MK World’s free roam has potential but needs updates, everything else though makes it the very best Mario Kart so far.

Knockout Tour online is so perfect!! It’s like an interactive real-time version of that Hanna Barbera racing cartoon, pure chaos and fun!

First of all, I'm 100% certain Mario Kart World will get more content through updates. Donkey Kong and Pauline only have ONE costume right now! I won't be surprised if they get free costumes to celebrate Donkey Kong Bananza's launch. Regardless, we're going to see more costumes, gameplay tweaks and modes like 200cc at some point. I even think actual DLC for more characters and tracks is still likely a couple of years from now.

As it stands, there's no question that it's a highly polished game with charm. It's a rock-solid 9 no matter what happens. It has its flaws from the price tag that should be $70 instead of $80, the free roam lacking certain basic elements like keeping track of collectibles, no story to make this big world even more interesting, messy character select screen and the game's hidden dynamic difficulty system silently messing over players. But the gorgeous visuals and tracks, the oodles of personality and the total ear candy that is this game's OST all help to make this so good that I'll feel awkward whenever I revisit 8 Deluxe.

There's still a way to play traditional Mario Kart races without highways and Nintendo can always change a mode or make one to fully feature them. I'm actually glad the kart customization is gone even though there's still a little bit of a meta. Too much of that somewhat spoiled 8 DX's online for me. I know I'll play World much more than I did 8 Deluxe. Just being new and refreshing must mean something after we've technically had the same game for over a decade.

I'm a huuuge MK8 fan. I've been hooked since it launched on the WiiU. I would get first in multiplayer 9/10 times.

MKW nails it. MK8 feels antiquated now. It's basically everything I loved about MK8 but improved, and then tons of exploration and unlocking in single player. I couldn't be happier.

I genuinely feel like most people who are saying they'll stick with 8 are only there because they're adverse to change. MK8 was released so long ago that it'll be hard to pull them away in that sort of "something needs to be 9x better to get people to switch" kind of thing.

My nitpicks: I wish some MK8 save data carried over. Just for fun! Also, I wish the item hold button still existed. It's a different strategy and I'm not sold. Lastly, I agree that free roam should have a split screen mode.

I have really been enjoying Mario Kart World so far! It is definitely a new take on this series, but it still builds off of some of the best parts of the original games. The Grand Prix mode is very fun (like usual), and I also love that they brought back unlocking new characters/costumes. However, I think that the new Knockout Tour mode is without a doubt the best part about this game. It feels a lot quicker than a grand prix but is still very competitive and fun! With all of these features, I would say that this is definitely one of the best multiplayer games across Switch and Switch 2. I have yet to play the singleplayer Free Roam mode, but it looks pretty impressive from what I've seen. However, the main improvement I would like to see with this game is more battle modes. They only have balloon battle and coin runners, which are probably the two weakest battle modes in the franchise. I really hope they bring back Shine Thief and Renegade Roundup, which are a lot more unique and engaging. Additionally, some of the character redesigns (I'm looking at you Donkey Kong) were poorly done and unnecessary. Minor changes are fine, but many of them don't even feel like the same character anymore (most notably DK and Lakitu), which is very disappointing.

Also, this may seem like a minor complaint, but I really think Luigi needs his own map. There hasn't been a map dedicated to him since Mario Kart 7, despite the fact that he is easily one of the four most main characters in the Mario universe. It was especially ridiculous in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe where there were 96 courses (Wario had 3 and Waluigi had 2...a slap in the face to Luigi). Please give Luigi the respect he deserves.

@Ogbert I completely agree with you that the characters need to be more organized, the Character Select is kind of a mess.

@Anachronism Completely unrelated but I love your icon! Skyward Sword is the best!

@larryisaman Totally agree, I‘m positive if they left out the free roam completely a lot of people would complain less. I never expected too much from this mode, saw it as a fun little distraction and that‘s exactly what it is.

To balance out the negativity in these comments I want to say that i have enjoyed my time with the game A LOT. I think the new mechanics add a lot of depth and make the gameplay much deeper. Same for the chaos with 24 players, at first i also thought that it makes the game much more random but then i started to develop strategies to best handle the chaos (e.g. Drive on the sidelines, hold onto items, stay in the back and pick up coins), turning the chaos again into a skill issue.

I was at first disappointed by the interconnectedness of the world. One reason is that the first cup is in my opinion also the weakest one. But I also started to enjoy the world more and more the more i played. After a while it clicked and the interconnectedness makes the single tracks much more monumental in my opinion. Like I don‘t think bowser‘s track would be as impressive by itself compared to how you first drive up the volcano to get there. It‘s hard to explain but i enjoy the concept of intermissions way more now than i did in the beginning, hope other people will have the same experience

Such a disappointment. If Mario Kart 8 is a celebration of all things Nintendo, World is a major regression. No defending this. Sega did the same with the follow ups to All Stars Transformed, though the latest entry looks like it is going to take the crown - especially since the latest reports have said Sega took all on board from the fan feedback! Nintendo have dropped the ball.

My family and I have been enjoying the hell out of it.

Extraordinary game in my humble opinion.

Tom's Guide is the fairest here. Intermission sections take up too much of the playing time. The open world should have more in it to do, especially since character unlocks are walled behind some terrible Kamek RNG.

The hard part is building the beautiful world and they did that, filling it up with just abit more to do should've been the easy part? Hell there is a mission where you have to hit a chargin chuck with a green shell and rather than having this be the way to unlock him you instead have to rely on RNG. It's crazy.

The game is good but the potential for it to be so much better is right there and for the life of me I can't understand why that is being so easily forgiven in the scoring.

I love it. It’s amazing. I think some thoughtful dedicated updates, based on player feedback, will make it even better. Just like MK8 was for Switch 1, will likely be my favorite game for the new Switch.

So far it's a solid 8.5 from me. I really hope they add more in Free Roam mode and more cources. Part of the problem is 8 Deluxe was so complete with the DLC. I hope we get a roadmap for World updates soon.

To me this is a classic Nintendo high quality feat in important areas - driving mechanics, animation, music, the sheer amount of drivable routes. But it suffers from a few confounding, stubborn Nintendo choices which these reviews have all noted. Mostly the rarity of 3-lap racing and worse grand prix format, and lack of free roam incentive beyond stickers.

I’ve come to enjoy puttering around in free roam, but it’s an acquired taste and matter of expectations. I never thought it was the main draw - there’s not even a splashy main menu button for it. It feels like a packed in debug mode. But there’s also exclusive races and some nicely twisty roads that ONLY get used in free roam, and Nintendo certainly marketed it heavily. I can see why it has a mixed response.

Genuinely one of my favorite parts of the game is exiting a mode and sitting on the main menu, where the dynamic camera shows my dumb little coin cougher or cataquack take a starry nighttime drive while jazz plays. There’s a touch of the profound to it, and it makes me think they were right to make the world so spacious. But I don’t expect that vibe to be captured in most reviews or player impressions.

It’s Mario Kart 64 levels of disappointment all over again!

The next mainline Mario had better be amazing and coming this year.

For me, it’s a solid 6/10. It’s fine, but has some major problems. When we get a (free) patch allowing both “legacy” (3 lap) and open world Grand Prix (solo and online), I’ll bump it to a 7. If they do something with open world/free roam (how about an interactive map like BOTW where we can zoom in, see the roads/landmarks/coins/switches (both the ones that we collected and the ones that we have located) so we can go back later. A burnout paradise vibe would be great (get to a landmark…have the option of doing a race/time trial etc). A story mode would be great too. Make some rewards to keep us engaged besides stickers (characters/costumes/karts). Do all that, and it’s an 8/10. Add course in FREE DLC packs (MK8 gave us 96 tracks for $85 total. Here we got 30 tracks for $80. That will get a 9/10. I don’t think this is unreasonable for a $80 launch title…

Mario Kart these days is just not fun to play if you're playing well. Being in first place and getting pelted w shells etc over, and over, and over is a miserable experience.

I have a minor gripe in that winning in single player mode doesn’t feel very special. You get a ceremony and an award, but there’s no nice screen to show off and keep track of your progress. All you get are stars under the course icons. That doesn’t feel very Nintendo. Also, after completing all the 50cc courses I couldn’t believe I got the ‘game over’ credits. Surely you should only get them after doing the 150cc courses? Oh and I like the stickers idea, but there’s nowhere to use them? Another missed opportunity.

I'm loving this game, it's a good exercise to staying positive and keep having fun after unpredictable stuff happen lol

It's hilarious that people actually think that the DLC will be free. Zero chance.

I feel like the reviewers and the fans aren't even playing the same game? This is easily the worst Mario Kart and is awful in nearly every single way.

They couldn't even manage to get the controls right, somehow? And they removed tons of stuff from MK8, including a proper Grand Prix, which is actually all of the content of Mario Kart, in my opinion. They don't even let you unlock things like a normal racing game would, which defeats the entire point of playing every track more than once. I genuinely can't believe how bad this game is.

@AllBLK True, even as someone who’s played the heck out of it these past few days. I don’t think any game should have such a high price tag.

@pichuscute0 Which fans are you talking about? Because a lot of people really love the game. Maybe you mean the kind of fans who moan and whine about everything they don’t enjoy like with Star Wars fans who endlessly complain about the sequels (and those who STILL whine about the prequels)?

@tobsesta99 All fans. Real criticism isn't "whining". Opinions exist, sorry.