It’s not much of a claim to fame to say you’ve played Mario Kart World at this point. After countless public preview events, the number of people lucky enough to have had a pop must at least be in the tens of thousands. But I’m special. I’m special because I got to play it for about four or five hours solid.

I had a fair old shake at most of the game modes on offer, and suffice it to say I had a lovely time with the game. Among the various experiences, the newest of them was finally getting a go at free roam, and the missions that exist within the world.

Long before I even found one, however, I was instructed to find and enter an enormous lorry, which fell under my control and allowed me to blast through just about any obstacle you could imagine. We’ve seen it before, of course, but what we hadn’t seen was what happens when you drive under the tractor beam of that UFO that’s been buzzing around key art and promotional material for a few months.

Much like the lorry, you arrest control from whatever was piloting the vehicle previously, and you’re able to float about freely for as long as the invisible timer allows, a lovely change of pace from being all-but glued to the road in a kart or bike, and will no doubt make reaching certain areas or secrets a lot less of a hassle.

But if you think a UFO was my biggest takeaway from my time with the game, you’d be painfully wrong. No, the biggest thing for me wasn’t the modes we’d seen before, it wasn’t the fun little side missions (which incidentally can range from ‘dirt easy’ to ‘quite troublesome’), it was all the unsung stuff that builds the core of the karting experience.

Remember heavy characters? They felt heavy before in Mario Kart 8, but in Mario Kart World it feels like they’ve been sneaking 40 cakes a fortnight into their diets. By comparison, lightweight characters are spry and more nimble than ever, making the difference between the extremes really stark.

And it’s utterly superb, you just feel like you have much more variance, and your choice of character has a much more substantial impact on the way you play. Moreso than that, the new movement options are going to blow players’ minds once they start getting the hang of them.

Driving on walls was possible in Mario Kart 8, but only in very select locations, and it often didn’t do a great deal in practice. World, by contrast, allows you to drive on any vertical wall you wish, even if there’s an obstacle to throw you off 10cm from where you land. Hit such an obstacle and you can be sent flying off course in a manner that feels clunky and erroneous now, but I guarantee the Mario Kart hardcore will be using moments like this to propel themselves into parallel dimensions within days of the game’s launch.

Grinding is similarly freeing, although naturally much more limited. More often than not, it’s a way of taking a corner impossibly tightly, jumping out of the way, or just making best use of an otherwise trickless straightaway.

It’s these new movement options specifically that makes the game feel utterly distinct from previous entries. Yes, the open world is the obvious selling point for the back of the box, but the freedom offered by the new mechanics are undoubtedly going to be the game’s real shining example.

For more of Alex's MKW thoughts, check out his video preview at the top of the page.

The game's out on 5th June alongside the Switch 2 itself (as if you didn't know), so look out for plenty more coverage to come!