Mario Kart World - Hands-On Preview
With a huge thanks to Nintendo Australia, Paul headed to Nintendo’s Australian office, and was given several hours to play Mario Kart World. Join him as he shares some thoughts on the experience.
If you’re anything like me, the upcoming 24 hours cannot possibly come quickly enough. The Nintendo Switch 2, 2025’s big console launch is now upon us and the wait is getting painful, especially so when you’ve been fortunate enough, as I was, to go hands-on with the blockbuster launch title, Mario Kart World, in the lead up to the June 5 release date. Across 4+ hours I got to experiment with all that the game had to offer, and simply put, it is hard to see this being anything other than the most defining moment for the franchise to date. My Mario Kart World experience was segmented off into four sections. I had the opportunity to check out Grand Prix, some Free Roam, the Knock Out mode, and of course some Battle mode. Join me as I break down my time with all four of these elements of the Mario Kart World experience.
Grand Prix
The tried and true Grand Prix returns in Mario Kart World, and while at face value it is more of what you’re familiar with, some hard-to-miss twists make the experience feel wildly different to other entries. The fact that Nintendo has increased the capacity of each race to 24 racers is significant not just for the levels of chaos that will be injected into the race with additional items whizzing around, but for the scope and size of the tracks. While the number of racers has doubled, the space players have to race both feels tight and familiar, but simultaneously vast. The tracks are wider than ever, and yet, the sheer level of detail injected into each track by Nintendo in many respects makes the space feel more intimate, and closer; It’s wonderful design.
Another interesting element is that with many of the tracks being less of a loop and more like a point A-B trek, Nintendo have put some hard yards into the theme of the overall cup itself. I had the opportunity to check out the classic Mushroom, Flower, and Star Cups, and in that time, I was impressed to see a theme emerging that connected the courses to each other. Its only a minor touch at the end of the day, but as you see subsequent races in the Cup begin as racers approach the beginning from what seems to be the end of the last track it creates a cohesion and connectedness that I really appreciate in this new entry.
Beyond all this, Grand Prix feels much like the standard fare with items both new and old flying everywhere, your momentum poised to change at any moment for both good and bad reasons, and I can’t get enough of it. It may not be the flashy new thing in Mario Kart World, but Grand Prix is, as always, going to command many of my hours.
Free Roam
I never knew that I needed some zen in my Mario Kart experience, and yet, Free Roam delivers just that and I was hooked. The ability to teleport to a part of a sizeable play-space and see where the road (or often lack of it) takes you is such an unexpectedly liberating feeling in your Mario Kart experience. The fact that for those still looking to extract a bit of challenge from the experience, the world possesses a range of P-Switches, each unlocking a different challenge to attempt, is wonderful added bonus that is sure to add several dozen hours to the gameplay experience as you try to check out every nook and cranny concealed in the game to ensure that every challenge is mastered. Even during my playthrough I rattled through a range of them. I felt pretty good about myself, only to hit one particular objective, where I needed to jump from a grind rail, to a wall jump, and back to the grind rail, all in a matter of a second or less. Suddenly I’d hit an obstacle I couldn’t immediately overcome and Nintendo’s devious designs had me hooked. Attempt after attempt and I still couldn’t chain these together, but you can rest assured that I’ll be returning to this one in a day from now when we can rekindle our rivalry.
While Free Roam may not possess the same PvP that many are used to and love about Mario Kart, it’s a wonderful addition that is going to be great for laid-back play, for kids and newcomers learning the ropes.
Knock-Out
Okay, before Mario Kart World comes out, I need to take the opportunity for some self-congratulation because soon the weight of millions of new players will come crashing down upon me. From two races in Knock-Out mode, there is no journalist, influencer or other games media personality to have beaten me in Mario Kart World’s newest mode. Come at me, world, for I am your champion!
Alright, with that out of the way, let’s discuss how the mode ticks. Much like how I could never have expected the success of Fall Guys, so to could I never have expected the brilliance of injecting Battle Royale elements into Mario Kart, and have it feel oh so good. It’s fairly well documented at this point that your competitors will, with each segment of the track, gradually fall down to a pool of 16, 12, 8, and then a finally flurry from 4 racers to the finish line, but it’s the way we get there that feels so exhilarating. On a mechanical level, there’s not much to see here that we’re not seen in the typical Grand Prix or Versus modes, but it’s just the length of each section, and the gradual whittling away of the competitors (rather than cutting the crowd in half with one fell swoop) which allows you to always feel like you’re in with a chance, or within seconds of disaster. In both of my races, despite the success I experienced both sides of this with there being occasions where fellow racers overtook me at the last minute, and I barely survived the cut-off, or I snuck over the line just overtaking someone to steal their place and another crack at the overall victory.
Emotionally, you’re going to be in for a bit of a rollercoaster ride experiencing the ups and downs of Mario Kart but on a never-before-seen new level, and I’m right here waiting for it.
Battle
Finally, I got to check out some Battle mode. In this section I was able to check out some classics in the form of Balloon Battle and Coin Runners, going head-to-head with the much loved Skill-Up for some friendly competitive play. We also experimented with the Nintendo Switch 2 Camera, something that added a lot of unexpected fun locally (and presumably online as well)
Both modes function exactly as you remember them, and if anything, given the various changes, improvements or additions present in every other facet of the Mario Kart World experience, I was perhaps a bit underwhelmed by the familiarity of the Battle suite. Either way, we took each other on in a series of matches experimenting with both modes, and experienced varying levels of success in doing so. Balloon Battle is a classic, adored by millions worldwide, and in Mario Kart World, I expect everyone with revel in the same joys. Coin Runners is doesn’t really possess the same thrills though the challenge itself is varied. The largest issue actually came from the arenas we had available to test our mettle on. There was in particular, one snowy space, DK Pass, that, despite the number of competitors vying off within the space, felt way too big, and it was easy to navigate the space without happening upon your friend/s. It might simply be a case of some spaces being better suited to some Battle modes and not others, or it may have just been luck of the draw, but not everything was as rosy in this element of the experience. Balloon Battle will always have my heart, but Coin Runners was lacking, and I was really hoping that something new might be coming to the Battle mode vertical of the Mario Kart experience as well, but it seems that is not to be (at least for now)
Final Thoughts
I guess calling these thoughts final is a bit of a lie considering we’re not even at the game’s launch yet, but I cannot stress enough how impressed I am by the big three pillars of Mario Kart World. Battle mode needed a bit of extra TLC, but it is still going to win the hearts of many, but really, save your time for Grand Prix, Free Roam, and Knock-Out. You’re going to have an amazing time.
