Since the Nintendo Switch 2 is backwards compatible and they are also offering enhanced versions of Switch games for the new system, everything that comes out on the Switch 2 will have to compete with what's in the existing Switch library. In case of a new Mario Kart, it will have to compete with the popular Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and its 96 courses, which is a tall task.
The best way to do so is by making the game more unique and also offering an experience that wouldn't have been possible with the Nintendo Switch. Mario Kart World tries to achieve this by turning this into an open world racing game, where the main courses are all part of an interconnected world. In addition, your kart will now transform into a boat when on water or into a plane when flying, instead of driving underwater or utilizing a glider. Nothing of this is innovative, since there have been a number of racing games set in a gigantic free-roam environment, like Need for Speed Underground 2, The Crew series, the Forza Horizon series and more. And the vehicle transformations are straight out of Diddy Kong Racing and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed.
It is something new for Mario Kart, however, and it will certainly make it distinct from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. It's also of note how the selection of retro courses really aims at the stuff that has been missing in the previous title, including most of the more popular tracks from Mario Kart Tour that didn't make the cut for the Booster Course Pass:
- N64 Koopa Troopa Beach
- N64 Wario Stadium
- GCN Dino Dino Jungle
- DS DK Pass
- DS Airship Fortress
- Wii Toad Factory
- 3DS Shy Guy Bazaar
- 3DS Wario Shipyard
There always was speculation that they might leave out some of these courses in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe purposefully and it looks like this was on the money. I personally didn't see it as a hindrance, because the iterations from Mario Kart Tour will be vastly different in the end, since anything in Mario Kart World will have to be much wider and spacier to offer enough room for the 24 combatants... But of course it makes these courses feel fresher if they haven't appeared in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe already.
From what we have seen so far, there are 29 courses on the world map and there will be seven cups with four courses each. This makes one course an orphan somehow, unless there is a cup with five courses in total. However, some courses may be used twice with different routes, like all the cities from Mario Kart Tour, and there also will probably be an eighth cup, the Special Cup, which is going to feature the traditional Rainbow Road somewhere.
And all these courses are connected, where the parts in between may even resemble or contain other classic race tracks. But that's also where I see the greatest weakness of Mario Kart World so far. Each cup begins with your usual three-lap course, but then you will be driving to the next course, which works like a sectioned track, similar to Mount Wario or Wuhu Island. Laps 1 and 2 are the road to the next course and lap 3 is the course itself. So, you're only going one lap on the other courses in a cup, which cuts this very short. It detracts from the actual courses and the roads between the courses feel like a lot of filler, where you're also just following a line. Not a straight line, but still a line.
It adds a lot more variety to the cups, that's for sure, and nearing a course also looks quite impressive, where they are the clear highlights in this open world environment. So, it's certainly a new experience for Mario Kart, but it also feels watered down. You spend so much time going towards these highlights, these landmarks, but then only have a very short race on them. It's like a cup is now 50% meaningless filler.
The courses look like they will loop normally, however, so I suppose that you can still get the traditional Mario Kart experience when playing custom cups in Versus Mode, probably also when playing online. I tend to play the normal cups in singleplayer only for as long as it takes me to get all starts, so I suppose it will be fine. This flow also works very well for the new Knockout Tour, which is basically like F-Zero 99 ("Mario Kart 24"), where it's really cool that this makes you go from one end of the map to the next over six courses.
Another important topic are the drivers and karts. And I love how unanimously the internet reacts to the cow being a playable character now with "Oh, now I need to get this game. Screw the open world or the graphics, I want playable moo moo." Well, I'm personally more hyped for the penguin, but generally I'm loving how they are going all-in with the character additions. Finally, there is a playable Goomba in Mario Kart! And they are doing some really outlandish stuff, like the Coin Coffers from Super Mario 3D Land.
Character costumes are also a thing and it looks like you will be unlocking them via food items while racing through the world. Many of the outfits are returning from Mario Kart Tour and Super Mario Odyssey, which is lovely. And maybe you have to drive with the corresponding characters through certain areas in order to obtain them, which gives you a reason to explore more.
There even seems to be a connection between the playable characters and the courses. For example, we have the cow and Moo Moo Meadows. Or you have the Cataquack and Peach Beach. You get Pokeys and Desert Hills. Most of these also acted as obstacles in the courses in question. So, maybe you will unlock the characters by visiting all these courses and recruiting them as new drivers, which would be a nice change.
However, with all these odd additions it will be hard to swallow any missing characters at the end. We have yet to see the Koopalings, for example. Ad the other Kongs are also absent again, though here it's understandable, because they are basing Donkey Kong on his new Bananza design. And maybe they don't want to go for redesigns of Diddy Kong and the others just yet. But this makes it all the more tragic that Dixie Kong didn't make the cut into the Booster Course Pass.
As for karts and bikes, we are back to choosing individual vehicles, instead of parts, like it was in Mario Kart Wii. So no more kart customization. While this allows less freedom and will miss creative combinations, it does have its merits. Whenever I play Mario Kart 8 Deluxe with friends or family, who aren't all too familiar with the game, the kart selection process tends to take forever, because there too many options and too many variables. This will simplify things. It also allows the comeback of stranger vehicles, like something that has chain wheels. In one part of the trailer we could see Rosalina riding a snow mobile, for example, which wouldn't have been possible in Mario Kart 7 or 8.
On April 17th we will get a Nintendo Direct for the game, which will probably teach us everything we want to know. But I'm also curious how the game will handle DLC, since Mario Kart has proven to be a game that is the perfect candidate for additional contents.
Maybe this is where all the crossover stuff will go into... again. I could see them making a second world map, where all the other Nintendo franchises have their home, maybe as individual islands. One island could be Hyrule, and there could be Wuhu Island as a whole on the map, maybe neighboring an Animal Crossing: New Horizons resort. If you're unlocking characters on a course-basis this would make all the more sense. But that's just a thought, I'm also fine with them focusing on getting as much crazy Mario stuff into Mario Kart World as possible.
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