Review: Mario Kart World is so much fun its borderline sadistic

Mario Kart World, the lone original flagship launch title for the Nintendo Switch 2, is as much defined by what it is as what it is not. 

What it is is a tremendously fun Mario Kart game that hones the franchise’s trademark fun to a hilarious, borderline sadistic, and nearly scientifically perfect degree. What it’s not is a revolutionary open-world epic on par with the Switch 1’s biggest launch title, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, or even other open-world racers like Burnout Paradise and Forza Horizon. 

Do not create a game in your head that doesn’t exist; this is a kick-ass Mario Kart game that happens to have an open world in it. Whether that’s enough for you to want to buy a Switch 2 at launch or not is your business, not mine. While Mario Kart World doesn’t necessarily live up to the seemingly infinite potential of an open-world Mario Kart game, it lives up to my expectations as a longtime fan of the series who really, really enjoys playing it online, which in turn makes it a great showcase for what makes the Switch 2 awesome.

You can get Mario Kart World for $79 at Walmart (and $79.99 at Nintendo), or you can try to find the Nintendo Switch 2 + Mario Kart World Bundle.

You can also read my full hands-on deep dive on the Switch 2, but in the meantime, let's get into my Mario Kart World review.

Mario Kart World may not be what you expect

Back in April, when Nintendo first detailed Mario Kart World to the masses, plenty of folks (myself included) became wide-eyed with awe in thinking about what an open-world Mario Kart game could be. Mario Kart World is not quite that.

To be clear, after a week of extensive play, I don’t think that’s a bad thing, but it is disappointing, especially if you tuned out the later marketing that made it explicitly clear that the free roam feature is a goofy little side mode and not the main attraction. It’s an easy way to unlock new costumes for characters, and it’s full of little bespoke challenges to complete, but their rewards pretty much only come in the form of stickers, which don’t actually do anything meaningful. Those challenges are only worth doing for the love of the game, in other words.

Mario Kart World’s biggest surprise, then, is how much that doesn’t really bother me. Once the final game was in my hands, I realized the open world exists to justify the modes you just pick from a menu. Grand prix races ask players to race between tracks, for instance. The new Knockout Tour mode, which is the game’s biggest highlight, takes players on a Cannonball Run-esque (that’s a reference the kids will get) cross-country race, in which those at the back of the pack are gradually eliminated from contention over time. 

It’s tempting to call the open world “tacked-on,” but I would argue that's not really appropriate. The idea that all of these tracks are physically connected to one another is baked into the design of the major modes; Knockout Tour wouldn’t exist without the open world, therefore, the existence of the open world is justified. That said, since this is a Mario Kart World review, it’s worth noting that most tracks can be turned into regular three-lap circuits during multiplayer races, if you prefer that.

Still, I don’t want to let Nintendo entirely off the hook here. Free roam should be more rewarding than it is. Stickers are not a good enough incentive to complete P-switch challenges, many of which are genuinely pretty difficult. That being said, Mario Kart World is a ton of fun on its own merits, regardless of what you may or may not wish it was instead.

But the part where it’s Mario Kart might be better than ever

Once you process and get over the fact that this isn’t Burnout Paradise with blue shells, Mario Kart World rocks. The sorcerers over at Nintendo have found a bunch of ways to make the races more frenetic, chaotic, and arguably fun than ever.

For starters, there are now 24 competitors per race, rather than the traditional 12. That means the beginning portion of every race is kind of a nightmare, in a great way. There’s just a mass of humanity (and cows, and dolphins, and Goombas, and anything else that’s ever been in a Mario game) all trying to knock each other out. If you’re inclined to get mad at the part of Mario Kart where sometimes you get hit by a shell that you couldn’t do anything about, get ready for twice as much of that.

I’m not inclined to get mad about that because I think it makes Mario Kart more interesting than many other racing games. If I wanted to play a game where mere driving prowess was enough to win on its own, I would play almost any other racing game. I find comfort in the idea that sometimes you can be perfect, and it’s still not good enough because of some nonsense that was out of your control. That’s just life, man. 

Crucially, it’s also very funny to go from first to 20th in about three seconds. Learning to laugh at yourself is key to enjoying Mario Kart.

With that in mind, though, the driving mechanics here are maybe my favorite in any Mario Kart. It still works roughly the same on the surface as it did in Mario Kart 8, in that drifting in order to build up boost is the main thing you have to worry about when you aren’t dodging items. There’s also a new charge jump mechanic on top of that, which enables the player to grind on rails or even ride along walls, two things that also build up boost if you do them right.

I haven’t even really scratched the surface of the kinds of shortcut opportunities that surely exist if you get good enough at those moves, but just knowing that there’s more depth here than before is enough for me. Pulling off a sick wallride feels great, if nothing else. 

All of this works in concert with the true greatness of the Knockout Tour mode to create something I’m going to casually play online for many, many dozens of hours. It’s truly exciting to win a Knockout Tour in a way it’s never been to win in Mario Kart before. Every time I finish in first place in an online Knockout Tour, I feel like I can take on God.

Mario Kart World is an excellent Switch 2 showcase

One very important aspect of Mario Kart World that maybe doesn’t come through until you see it running on a 4K TV with HDR turned on is that it’s one of the best-looking games of 2025 so far. The Switch 2’s big boost in horsepower over its predecessor, combined with Nintendo’s excellent-as-usual art direction, make it an absolute delight to look at pretty much at all times.

Mario Kart World is vibrant, colorful, and full of fun little details. Karts and racers bend and contort in cartoonish ways when they take hits, explosions now have comic book-esque “KABOOM!” text callouts on top of them, and the water, oh my god, the water. I think Mario Kart World might have the best-looking water I’ve seen in a video game. It needs to be seen to be believed.

Aside from World’s prowess as a technical showcase, it’s also a great demonstrator of the Switch 2’s neat online social features. I’ve had a ton of fun doing online races and Knockout Tours against friends while we casually hang out and talk about whatever is happening in our lives via GameChat. World is an incredible hangout game, if nothing else.

But there are some gaps in the online feature set

Unfortunately, the online features could be a bit more fleshed out in a couple of ways.

First, free roaming around the open world with friends appears to be limited to driving around while waiting for races or Knockout Tours to start. The P-switch challenges are removed from the open world when playing this way, turning it into a glorified lobby rather than a true, cooperative open world. I wish there was more to do in the open world in general, but I think this sentiment is especially true of the online version of it.

Secondly, I wish you could queue up for online Knockout Tour races against random strangers while partied up with your friends. Instead, to do an online Knockout Tour with friends, you either need to find 23 other people (unlikely) or accept that some of the slots will be filled with NPC characters. I think this is a fantastic online game in many ways, but it’s not always ideal.

Is Mario Kart World worth it?

Look, everyone has their own idea of what a dollar is worth, or in this case, 80 of them. I think Mario Kart World is a great game and I would pay $80 for it if I had to, but I’m also comically irresponsible with money.

Moving past the value proposition of it all, World is just a ton of fun. It’s fun to look at, fun to win at, and even fun to lose at, if your mindset is properly attuned to it.