Let’s just get this out there: I grew up with Mario Kart, but in my house, Mario Kart 64 reigned like a crazy uncle-chaotic, unfair, and somehow the life of the party. Fast forward to 2024, and now, with Mario Kart World launching alongside the Switch 2, I came at it with two minds. Is this just another incremental upgrade, a coat of paint on the same madness? Or is it a genuine leap somewhere new? I’ve put over 25 hours into it now, mostly drifting between high-stakes Survival Mode, late-night couch races, and aimless open-world wandering. Mario Kart World isn’t afraid to rewrite its own rulebook, and as someone who prizes both twitchy racing and weird side-quests, I felt every new bump and boost, both good and undercooked. Here’s the unfiltered experience.
The franchise DNA is still unmistakable-you hit the gas and get that same kinetic rush (and occasional rock-to-the-face feeling) you expect from Mario Kart. The opening hour was a nostalgia bomb: vivid tracks, item chaos, a menu riff that immediately reminded me of Nintendo Saturdays with friends. But it didn’t take long for the new stuff to jump out—literally. The very first lap, I accidentally triggered an on-the-spot jump during a tight chicane and barrel-rolled straight into a boost pad, barely saving my spot. My reaction: half “Whoa, did I just do that?” and half “Great, now there’s more to mess up!”
Switch 2’s haptic feedback didn’t hurt, either. There’s a crispness to every collision and drift, a sense that the rubbery handling of earlier Mario Kart games has been chiseled away for something more deliberate. And when I say deliberate, I mean it: the moment you try rail sliding (grinding a glowing rail mid-race, Tony Hawk style), you’ll realize this is not your younger cousin’s Mario Kart.
After maybe 4-5 hours, I started to see just how much these new moves can affect an actual race, especially online. The on-the-spot jump is a simple input—flick up the right stick or tap L1/L2, depending on your controller scheme—but it’s the timing that’s everything. Mess up your rhythm before a tight turn and you’re airborne at exactly the wrong moment, introducing a “did you mean to do that?” panic I haven’t felt since playing Shenmue’s forklift races. The reward? Well-timed jumps let you bunny-hop onto new route shortcuts, dodge shells, or snipe a mushroom floating just off the regular path. There were at least three times I saved myself from a last-place finish with a last-ditch jump maneuver. But it felt earned, not lucky.
Rail slides are flashier, but much riskier. Hop onto a rail (marked with a glowing pulse; easy to spot but, in the heat of 24 racers, surprisingly hard to reach), and you’re rewarded with brief invulnerability and speed—but overshoots or mistimed dismounts will send you tumbling into lava, snow, or worse. The skill cap here is obviously much higher, and during the Survivor rounds I got rattled watching people shave whole seconds off their lap just by nailing back-to-back rail slides. The game doesn’t handhold: it lets you fail, hard, and that’s strangely exhilarating. Reminds me of learning wavedashing in Melee—you choke hard at first, then suddenly you get it and it becomes second nature.
Wall racing is the mechanic I spent the least time with (partly because the tracks are designed so you can ignore it for casual play), but when you do nail it—hugging a perpendicular trajectory and drifting mid-wall—it feels like a stolen Mario Galaxy moment. It’s not just show-off stuff either. In one session, I managed to reverse-Ouendan my position from 7th to 2nd by chaining a series of wall slides while dodging fireballs. It’s clutch.
Here’s the thing: for all the hype around new gimmicks, Survival Mode is the real beast here. If you’ve ever wished Mario Kart would get serious—or at least punishing—this is your jam. It’s 24 racers, everyone dropped into an elimination gauntlet, and after each lap the slowest racers are booted off. Simple in premise, absurd in practice, it feels like Mario Kart and Tetris 99 had an overdue baby.
Those first few rounds? Total chaos. Shells fly, rails get jammed with hop-happy daredevils, but there’s actually a huge tactical layer. Do you play aggressive up front, or slipstream at the back and hope the bloodbath clears before you? In my best run (reaching 3rd in a global lobby), I was heart-in-mouth the whole time, knowing a single slip would get me snapped to spectator mode. The tension is real—the sort of nail-chewing “just one more try” loop I only get from my most beloved Nintendo or fighting games. If you love the competitive Mario Kart scene, Survival is basically your new religion.
Bonus: The online ranking system here feels meaningful for once. Seeing my placement in real-time after every elimination was a delicious dopamine hit, and after losing to someone who rail-slid half the track, I actually went back to practice those tricky lines in local play, which is not something I ever did for Time Trials. This mode’s a masterstroke.
Now for the dead honest bit: “Tour” mode, the big open-world addition, is probably the most divisive feature. The word “open world” might conjure up wild ideas of Forza-level discovery, or endless, emergent mayhem. Here, it’s a relaxed cruise through themed zones—volcanoes, beaches, urban weirdness—picking up Peach Medals and banging out mini-challenges. I suspect for newer players or kids, it’ll be a cozy break from the competitive hurricane elsewhere. For me, though? After a few hours, it felt tacked-on. No clear narrative threads, no significant unlocks—just the gentle, mindless pleasure of “seeing what’s over there.”
It’s not bad, per se. Actually, the rewind system (let’s you undo a botched stunter or missed jump) makes grinding Tour mode surprisingly forgiving while you practice rail slides. But without much in the way of cosmic rewards—think: alternate costumes, major new mechanics—it starts feeling more like a training gym stapled onto the side of the main game. I went back a few times after heavy Survival Mode losses, but only to decompress; not to chase any particular achievement. Maybe future patches will deepen it, but for now it’s the “side salad” of Mario Kart World’s buffet.
I’ve got to give props: visually, the game looks fantastic, especially docked on Switch 2. Lighting pops, character animations are extra expressive (Luigi’s death-stare is still lethal), and the new tracks brim with playful detail: sand gets stuck to your tires, confetti actually lingers during rainbow circuit celebrations. There are some rare frame drops—mainly in local split-screen when four friends are spamming items. Portable mode ran smooth for me, that said, which shocked me given the old Switch’s… let’s say, “quirky” performance hiccups.
Sound-wise? I was less wowed. The music feels… safe. You’ll hear all the “ka-ching!” and banana-peel chaos you expect, but none of the new tracks jumped out like Coconut Mall or Wario Stadium did back in the day. Meeeh, maybe my expectations are too high, but I missed those absolute bangers that make your commute a race just by hitting play. Still—it’s Mario Kart, and the audio fits the mayhem, so I’m not docking major points. (Side note: the menu sound effects are weirdly satisfying. I spent too long just toggling between car parts and hearing the gentle rubbery boings… judge me.)
If you’re the kind of player who lives for Mario Kart leaderboard climbs, online grudge matches, optimizing every corner, or even speedruns—World is a huge leap forward. The new mechanics reward mechanical skill and creativity, and Survival Mode is the “just one more” shot of adrenaline. For families or casual parties? Nothing lost. You can ignore the trickier tricks, play bumper cars, and still have a riot. I do suspect some classicists (and folks who just want couch chaos) might bounce off the harder edge of the deeper modes, but that’s why the Tour exists—to give everyone a chill space to learn without getting shredded by sweats from Japan at 3am.
I’m a fighting game lifer and a core gamer at heart, so I admit bias toward games that punish mastery and reward persistence. By my tenth hour, Mario Kart World had me sweating in Survival, cursing blown rail slides, and screaming at the TV in defeat—just like every great entry should. Yeah, Tour mode underwhelms, and the music won’t make your Spotify playlist, but when those new mechanics click, it’s a genuine rush. Local splitscreen struggles here and there, but polished visuals, crunchy feedback, and online comp keep this thing glued in my Switch 2 slot—at least until the next real genre disruptor lands.
Mario Kart World: Best for diehards and high-skill chasers, but still great for couch chaos. Survival Mode is a blast. Open-world is flavorless but harmless. Overall? 8.5/10—more ambitious than expected, and a must-grab for Switch 2 launch crowds.
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