The Massively Interconnected Open World
Mario Kart’s biggest new addition centers around a huge, new Forza Horizon-style world filled with tons of courses to race against friends and enemies on. Instead of just having a series of tracks you select from a menu (although you’ll have that option too) Mario Kart World features a massive playground you can explore at your own pace on your own or with friends. You use this place to cruise around for fun or launch into races, Grand Prix tournaments, and more. It’s also packed with collectibles and hidden secrets and areas, and while we don’t know just yet what the rewards will be for finding things hidden throughout this world, we’re hoping it’s stuff like karts or costumes, or that you’ll be able to spend coins in some kind of shop for cool cosmetic stuff. Poking around here between races led me to what looked like a strange Peach-themed coin, stacks of smaller, regular coins, a huge evil cloud, a ton of grind rails to practice on, hidden back alleys and pathways, and so much more. It’s grand, utterly gorgeous, and incredibly smooth. We got used to how great Mario Kart 8 looked, but this one is even prettier and more stylish, with better draw distance, more detailed characters and environments, and generally just a ton of stuff happening at once.
Mechanically, everything felt really tight and satisfying so even if there isn’t a ton of reward for exploring it’s still really fun to explore. But knowing Nintendo, they’ll definitely be reasons to poke around here. In general, the gameplay feels like a slightly tighter and more forgiving version of Mario Kart 8, so if you spent a ton of time there you’ll feel right at home here. When your kart gets smashed by an item or another player, your recovery time is snappier and you’re back in the competition quicker than in previous Mario Kart games. When an opponent cuts you off and steals an item box right before you can get to it, don’t stress it because they respawn almost immediately, giving you a chance for instant green shell vengeance. Gliders have been replaced with planes, underwater sections have been replaced with Wave Race-like boating areas, and you don’t customize your kart anymore, at least in the version I played. There were a lot of preset kart options to start with and presumably many more to unlock, though, so it seems like having lots of ways to show off your kart or character won’t be limited.
Characters, Costumes, and Crazy New Power-Ups
You can play Mario Kart World with up to 24 human players at the same time and there are tons of returning characters from the Mario series, although none from other Nintendo games like Mario Kart 8 had. It’s safe to say that Mario Kart World will be THE Mario Kart game for years to come, though, so who knows which characters from other series will show up here eventually. My favorite new character was Cow from Moo Moo Meadows, who is here to get revenge for all the times you drove into his family on the N64, probably. Most characters have different costumed versions you can choose from the character select screen, but where things get a bit more complicated is that you can also change their costume mid-race by finding certain power-ups that appear to alter your stats. Lots of these items are food-based so you’ll get to see Cow eat a burger. Look, it’s his first time driving a kart and it’s crazy out there. Go easy on him.
We also noticed a bunch of characters that appear as racers against you but you can’t choose yourself just yet, like the Piantas from Super Mario Sunshine and the Conkdors from Super Mario 3D World, so we suspect they’ll be unlockable and the roster will only get bigger. There’s also some great new items like throwable hammers and a question block that gives you a ton of coins in a row. Some classic items even have altered functionality, like lightning not lasting as long or blue shells having cartoon phrases pop up when they hit you, but the coolest new upgrade we noticed is that every throwable item now automatically drags behind your kart without you having to hold down a button to do it. It’s one less thing to worry about, which is nice because you now have so many new things to worry about!