>>FULL REVIEW
Put four people in front of Mario Kart World and most of the complaints about it temporarily disappear.
Someone gets hit by a blue shell.
Another person somehow goes from first to twelfth.
Nobody remembers that the open world is underwhelming because everybody is too busy yelling.
That part still works.
Nintendo knows how to make Mario Kart feel good at basically every skill level. Drifting is easy enough for casual players to understand while shortcuts movement tricks and track knowledge give serious players plenty to work with.
World adds twenty-four racers and turns that controlled chaos up even further.
Sometimes that is hilarious.
Sometimes you get hit by so many items that you are not entirely sure you participated in the final thirty seconds of the race.
The strongest addition is Knockout Tour.
Racers stay on one long route while checkpoints slowly eliminate the people at the back. There is much more tension than a normal race because you are constantly trying to survive one more section.
It feels like Nintendo actually found a new Mario Kart mode rather than rearranging existing rules.
The connected world is where things get messier.
Driving directly between locations sounds like a perfect evolution for the series. The environments are beautiful and it is cool seeing tracks exist as actual places instead of separate menus.
Then you spend time exploring and realize there is not enough happening between them.
There are challenges collectibles and secrets but the world rarely develops into something you desperately want to explore.
It often feels like extremely polished space connecting better content.
The price makes that harder to ignore.
World was positioned as a premium Switch 2 release and the community reaction reflects that. Critics generally loved the ambition while normal players have been much more divided.
I understand both sides.
This is gorgeous. The soundtrack is absurdly good. Racing is still excellent.
It is also completely reasonable to wonder whether any of that makes the open world worth paying significantly more than you did for previous Mario Kart games.
Mario Kart World is still an easy recommendation if your Switch gets pulled out whenever friends come over.
Just buy it for the racing.
Do not buy it because someone told you Nintendo made Forza Horizon with mushrooms.
WHO THIS IS FOR
Switch 2 owners who want a great party racer and care much more about actual races than exploring the connected world.
SKIP IT IF
You expect a deep open-world racing game or already feel satisfied with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
