What we know about the new Mario Kart World for the Switch 2
Nintendo has shared new details about Mario Kart World for the upcoming Switch 2. The game series is set to receive the biggest changes in its history. Here’s what we know so far.
Over the past few days, Nintendo has revealed a lot of new information about the highly anticipated new Mario Kart game for the upcoming Switch 2. This shows that Mario Kart World remains true to the series but comes with interesting new features, such as an open world. Read on to find out what the gameplay videos have given away so far. Here’s the trailer for the game:
Mario Kart World is set to be released with the Switch 2 on 5 June 2025 either in a bundle with the new console or as a stand-alone game. My fellow editors Domagoj and Phil already had the opportunity to play Mario Kart World and other games at a press event in Paris.
Mario Kart adds open world and day-night elements
As the name suggests, the game is set on a world map for the first time. In Mario Kart 8 there were already race tracks modelled on real cities around the globe. And there have always been tracks in diverse biomes. Nintendo is now pushing this concept further and distributing the tracks directly on a fictitious world map, which is divided into different regions.
The individual courses are connected by main and side roads. Mario Kart now offers a kind of open world, which even has a day-night cycle. The weather can also change quickly. But rain showers don’t seem to have any impact on the driving performance – they just look good.
Rather than being limited to the official tracks, you can also discover the world away from races and battles. In this Free Roam mode, you can explore the world map with your friends. You can still collect items and your journeys count towards achievements, as do the number of kilometres driven. What’s more, the world also looks full of hustle and bustle away from the races. You’ll spot vehicles and pedestrians from the Nintendo franchise, such as different coloured Yoshis and Toads. Photo mode even lets you capture your Free Roam moments.
Changes to the Grand Prix and new Knockout mode
Mario Kart World also features classic Grand Prix cups, each with four races. After completing a track, you don’t start straight on the next one as you traditionally would. First, you need to drive across the road to the new track as part of the competition. The obligatory traffic light start is still on the old track and the race skips straight to the next circuit once you reach the next track.
Depending on how the tracks are connected, a race course may also appear in several cups. For instance, the Mushroom Cup and Shell Cup overlap at the Crown City race track, which is part of both cups.
Unfortunately, Mario Kart World doesn’t display any driving times after the race. I miss getting annoyed about losing out on the gold medal by just a hundredth of a second.
The Knockout Tour is a new competition mode. This race follows predetermined routes across the world map until there’s a winner from the initial 24 players. Along the way, checkpoints thin out the pack of drivers. If you’re one of the last four bringing up the rear when you pass a checkpoint, you’re out of the race.
As expected, there are lots of new vehicles with different features, including a rideable cassette recorder. What’s new is that you now select them ready-built. Unlike in Mario Kart 8, Mario Kart World doesn’t let you just assemble your vehicle from a chassis, wheels and glider. In that version of the game, I gradually unlocked new components and was able to create completely new vehicle designs.
New items
Mario Kart World comes with a whole load of new items that you can collect and use via question mark boxes. In the videos, for instance, you can see a golden tank scattering coins behind it and showering even more coins on impact. Incidentally, you can now collect a total of twenty coins instead of ten to increase your speed.
The hammer item lets you hurl a number of hammers that can really throw drivers off course.
As well as the red fire flower, there’s now also a blue flower that gives you ice balls to throw. Unfortunately, I’ve not yet been able to see a new, big, yellow-red mushroom head and iridescent purple ball in action.
Items you collect are now attached directly to the back of your kart until you use them. Until now, you had to insert and hold them there using a button. In Mario Kart World, you can no longer shoot down newbies with tanks because they didn’t know they could use their own tanks as defence. Damn.
Snacks and full speed wardrobe change
Mario Kart World sees Nintendo introducing a new item category: food from golden, glittery takeaway bags. You’ll find them scattered all around the world next to service stations, restaurants and food trucks. The bags contain different meals depending on the region. In Crown City, different types of burgers rotate through the item window once you collect them.
Apparently, every meal calls for a new outfit. If you eat a snack, your character quickly puts on a new set of clothes, which you also unlock the first time you put them on. We’re not yet sure whether the new outfits will have an impact on gameplay. It could also be that they’re purely collectibles to provide an incentive to explore the world. Fellow editor Domagoj didn’t find out if the outfits had any other purpose during his first playthrough. But what we do know is that you get different outfits for each drivable character.
New vehicle skills
The vehicles become more agile in Mario Kart World, as you can now drive on tightropes, railings and tracks. This gives you a speed boost, which you also experience when you push away from the rail again. In some sections, this can result in jump-and-run sequences when you leap from rail to rail to get over chasms or avoid obstacles. You can also do wall jumps.
Several short scenes show the group of players in boats on the water. In contrast to Mario Kart 8, Kart World no longer has you driving underwater, as your vehicle briefly transforms into a floating version. I can’t tell from the videos whether this changes how you drive and handle the kart, but I suspect not. In Mario Kart 8, controlling the vehicle under water was the same as on solid ground.
Perhaps Nintendo will reveal more information before the game’s release, such as the significance of outfit changes. Let us know: what do you think of Mario Kart World so far?
Header image: Nintendo «Mario Kart World» / Treehouse-Stream
19 people like this article
Feels just as comfortable in front of a gaming PC as she does in a hammock in the garden. Likes the Roman Empire, container ships and science fiction books. Focuses mostly on unearthing news stories about IT and smart products.
7 comments
later