Mario Kart World's new structure is freeing – but hits a few speed bumps
The Nintendo Switch 2's launch is set to be immense fun thanks to all the racing delights Mario Kart World allows for. Just don't expect as revolutionary a jump as the sequel's subtitle suggests.
Mario Kart World definitely marks a bold new era for the classic karting series, with Knockout Tour mode bringing a new level of competitiveness despite the actual 'world' somewhat lacking.
There's every reason to be excited for Mario Kart World on paper. Even without the weight that comes naturally from being the Nintendo Switch 2 's one true first-party launch title, it's easily the best-looking entry in Nintendo 's premier racing series ever and looks to be making a genuine attempt to push the act of driving into directions not seen before. (Literally, thanks to the addition of Freeroam mode).
Alas, after recently getting to play a solid five hours of the colourful karting racer in advance of its release on June 5, 2025, the moments I spent off-road were surprisingly some of the least interesting I experienced. It is, in fact, Knockout Tour mode that is the true jewel in the crown here, primed to become my next multiplayer addiction for all the ways it bottles up and remixes Mario Kart 's fast-paced and frantic action for a new era and generation.
First things first, franchise veterans will know that any Mario Kart game is only as good as its tracks – and World absolutely nails it in this area. From space-themed courses that feature a giant, robotic Donkey Kong launching barrels along the track to a ghost ship speedway that encourages you to boost jump along the storm's rocky waves, at least thematically, this is a new collection of circuits that scream creativity and invention at every corner.
Better yet, though Mario Kart World does lift the names of fan-favourite courses seen before, I enjoyed discovering all the ways the likes of Moo Moo Meadows and Sky High Sundae have been reshaped and shuffled to make way for this entry's all-new racing mechanics.
Easily the most publicised is the addition of grindable rails and walls, only made possible by the Charge Jump mechanic racers now possess. It works like this: hit the ZR button as if you wanted to drift but without turning into a direction on the left Joy-Con's stick, and your character will enter a lower position that will see them jump when released.
Time it correctly and you can grind from rail to wall to platform and back again, fully utilizing all the vertical space present providing you're skilled enough to pull it off. It took me a fair few hours to truly get the knack of the Charge Jump down, and even then getting my racer to land where I wanted wasn't an exact science.
Whereas before most Mario Kart races could be won simply by making the most of every corner, turning every drift into a boost, the Charge Jump now gives players a way to gain extra speed on straight sections of the track. Due to the increased racer count of 24, they tend to pop up a lot more often in Mario Kart World.
The more I played, the more it was made evident that seeking out grindable environments at the edge of the track isn't the way to win; it forces you to move out way too far from the racing line. However, when 20+ racers are trying to share the same space so as to claim an item box? It's good to have this option when pushed to each circuit's farthest edges. It can help keep you in the race.
It's a small world
Elsewhere, Mario Kart World plays just as well as you'd expect in the likes of Grand Prix and Battle mode. Versus also returns to make racing on a specific cup's track quick and easy as before, too, only now it's possible to combine one course with another, provided it's within sensible reach. This means linking the snowy mountains of DK Pass with, say, the skyways of Starview Peak is suddenly possible, rendering the mode almost as an unofficial 'Mario Kart maker' of sorts to pretty much double the replayability of each track.
Where things become less exciting, unfortunately, is the much-discussed Free Roam mode. Touted by some (although crucially not Nintendo itself) as Mario Kart's answer to Forza Horizon 's driveable sandbox, it is definitely true that driving around between the tracks can be a delight and feels especially novel at first.
However, the issue I had in my most recent hands-on is that there's just not a whole lot to do in all these interstitial areas – at least during my time hopping off the track. There's just a large amount of open space to drive through right now, which might be okay for finding a picturesque spot and snapping a few selfies using Mario Kart World's built-in Photo mode, yet doesn't do much to make these otherwise incongruent locations feel like a true, well, world.
The bulk of side activities found in Free Roam boil down to P-Switch challenges, which, when activated, will task you with pulling off a tricky driving route typically denoted by gates or collectable coins. Such tasks are… fine, I suppose, but don't do much to take advantage of the new Mario Kart World racing mechanics I mentioned earlier.
At their best, these P-Switch challenges had me skirting along the back of several brontosauruses in the hopes of beating the timer; at their worst, they me in a tailspin, trying to land an incredibly awkward jump repeatedly. I can definitely see players wanting to seek out every one of these challenges due to the cool stickers they unlock that can then be attached to karts. Luckily, when it fails, it's easy to retry each challenge thanks to the ability to engage an immediate restart.
A lot more successful is Knockout Tour, being Mario Kart World's battle royale style mode where races consisting of 24 racers are slowly whittled down to 20, then 16, then 8, and so on. It delivers on providing an increasingly tense and risky way of racing that perfectly encapsulates the chaos and anarchy that comes from trying to always stay ahead of the pack at the mercy of whatever item the next mystery box spits out next.
Mark my words, this will absolutely become Mario Kart World's standard competitive mode at launch and beyond, trust me. In the four Knockout Tour races I played with other journalists during the preview session, I couldn't help but stay locked in and focused in the hopes of maintaining my pride, as well as my own Mario Kart chops.
Mario Kart World isn't shaping up to be the unabashed homerun most players (including myself) assumed it would be, then. But having said that, living up to the decades' worth of goodwill endured by Mario Kart 8: Deluxe and all its multiple excellent tracks added over time as DLC was always going to be impossible.
As a pure value proposition, despite its best efforts, Mario Kart World doesn't appear to come close to its predecessor. However, the addition of the Charge Jump, interconnected tracks in Versus mode, and a jamboree of cool character designs will still make it a must-play at launch, even if heading off-road isn't quite as exciting as it initially seemed to be.
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