TL;DR (Too Long, Drifted Right Into a Banana Peel)

Mario Kart World is the most ambitious entry in Nintendo’s racing juggernaut yet—an open-world, multiplayer-focused joyride that manages to evolve without losing the chaotic, laugh-out-loud essence that made us fall in love with it back in the SNES days. Whether you’re gunning for the podium or just road-tripping with friends, this game makes nostalgia feel new again.

This isn’t just a game. It’s a friendship simulator, a sibling rivalry rekindler, a couch-bound road trip of the best kind.

Chapter 1: A Lifetime on the Track (Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Blue Shell)

If I had to describe my childhood in three objects, it would be: a Game Boy Color with dead pixels, a Mountain Dew-stained strategy guide for Pokémon Yellow, and the unmistakable clamshell box of Super Mario Kart on SNES. The fourth object, if you’re being generous, would be a broken coffee table—victim of one too many rage-quits during Rainbow Road.

From that first cartridge in 1992, through the chaos of Double Dash!!, the slick curves of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and now into the sprawling madness of Mario Kart World, I’ve been here. Drifting through every major life milestone with a red shell in hand. And let me tell you: it’s not just nostalgia that makes this latest installment special—it’s reinvention.

What Nintendo has built here isn’t merely a sequel. It’s a retrospective wrapped in future-forward design. It’s Mario Kart: Endgame, but instead of a multiverse, you get interconnected tracks and knock-out modes with 24 human maniacs simultaneously flinging bananas at each other.

And I love it.

Chapter 2: The First Lap – Welcome to the World

When you boot up Mario Kart World for the first time, it doesn’t say “GO!” so much as it whispers, “Here, take the wheel.” The menu is a travel brochure masquerading as a game UI. Splashes of color, Polaroid-style course previews, background jingles that sound like Koji Kondo’s summer vacation playlist—it’s cozy, vibrant, almost unsettling in its warmth.

But don’t let the cheerful exterior fool you. This game is huge. Not just in scope, but in ambition.

The traditional loop—select track, do three laps, fight your friends—still exists, but it’s now just one option. You can also drive from course to course seamlessly in an open-ish world map that feels like a Disneyland for Nintendo fanatics. Imagine racing from a Yoshi’s Island ice rink through a jungle safari, then emerging into a neon-lit Donkey Kong spaceport, all without loading screens or UI interruptions.

It’s like Mario Kart found Google Maps, said “nah,” and built its own whimsical GPS system made out of warp pipes and gliding ramps.

But what surprised me most wasn’t the size—it was the mood. This game isn’t obsessed with victory; it’s built around vibes.

Chapter 3: Couch Co-Op, Forever and Always

I don’t care how many Discord servers you’re in or how fast your internet is—there is no substitute for couch multiplayer. That’s not nostalgia speaking; it’s physics. There’s something about the percussive elbow to the ribs when your friend green-shells you at the finish line that wireless lag can’t replicate.

And Mario Kart World knows this. It celebrates it.

Local multiplayer is back and better than ever. The split-screen magic still thrives, and it’s smoother than it’s ever been on the new hardware. The Nintendo Switch 2 doesn’t scream about its specs, but the performance bump is noticeable: frame rates stay locked even when four players are wreaking havoc with power-ups in a volcano.

But let me pause for a second here and get personal. Two weeks ago, my sister—who hasn’t played a video game since Guitar Hero III—picked up a Joy-Con, picked Toadette (as always), and laughed so hard during a Knockout Tour mode that she nearly choked on her wine. That’s the magic this game conjures. It’s not just about karting skill. It’s about belonging.

Even the assist settings are tailored for inclusion. Auto-acceleration, motion steering, invisible bumpers—it ensures that a five-year-old can share a track with a veteran time-trialist and both feel joy. And as someone who has spent years gatekeeping fighting games with frame data, I can’t tell you how good it feels to let go and let the kids win sometimes.

Well, occasionally.

Chapter 4: A Road Trip, Not a Race

The biggest philosophical shift in Mario Kart World is that the racing doesn’t always matter.

Wait, what?

Hear me out. This game’s central conceit is movement as expression, not just competition. Sure, you can still sweat through 150cc Grand Prix events, shaving milliseconds off your lap times. But you can also hop online with 23 other players in Knockout Tour, a Fortnite-esque elimination mode where you’re as likely to be struck by lightning as you are to win.

And somehow, it works.

This is chaos embraced. Not tightly balanced, esport-ready racing. Instead, World leans into the absurd: 24-player starts with everyone scrambling through scenic shortcuts, hopping off walls, grinding rails, and using boost-jumps like something out of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. It’s a tactical mess, but it’s a fun mess—especially once you stop caring about trophies and start caring about moments.

Like the time I launched off a glider ramp, missed the intended track, landed on a moving minecart, and was yeeted into an entirely different route—only to discover a secret coin challenge hidden on top of a pterodactyl skeleton. That wasn’t a race. That was an adventure.

Chapter 5: Reinventing Movement (And Making Me Question My Skills)

Look, I’ve been playing Mario Kart for over 30 years. I have drifted corners tighter than your bank’s fraud detection algorithms. I’ve memorized boost-timing down to muscle reflex. And yet, Mario Kart World humbled me in a way I wasn’t prepared for.

The new traversal mechanics—boost-jumping, wall-riding, grinding rails—aren’t just gimmicks. They fundamentally change how you move. You can now string together environmental tricks like you’re combo-ing in SSX Tricky, and for the first few hours, I was awful at it.

That’s not a criticism.

That’s a feature.

Learning these new systems felt like learning to drift all over again on Mario Kart 64. The muscle memory fight is real, but the payoff is better flow, bigger stunts, and course routes that reward creative chaos.

When you finally link a grind into a trick-boost into a mid-air shortcut that saves you five places? That’s dopamine. That’s what keeps me up at 1:30AM with the Joy-Con still in hand, muttering “one more run” until the cat gives up on me and leaves the room.

Chapter 6: Characters, Costumes, and the Surprisingly Sexy Donkey Kong Dilemma

Nintendo’s cast of characters in World reads like the guest list of a cartoon fever dream. Obviously, the regulars are here—Mario, Luigi, Peach, Wario—but now you can also race as a dolphin in a wetsuit. Or a literal cow. Or what can only be described as Donkey Kong, now with Pixar Dad Energy.

Yes, they redesigned him to match the recent Mario movie. Yes, he dabs. Yes, I’m still processing that.

It’s wild.

It’s unnecessary.

It’s perfect.

Customization is deeper than ever. Outfits, vehicle skins, even regional decals depending on where your course started. I now have a Bowser who wears a leather biker jacket and rides a chrome Harley knockoff—and he is my spiritual avatar.

This isn’t just fanservice. It’s player expression. It’s a wink from the developers that says, “We see you. Go nuts.”

Chapter 7: The One Weak Lap

It’s not all rainbows and blue shells. The biggest disappointment in Mario Kart World is its free-roam multiplayer limitation.

Online, you can explore the open world together—driving to different courses, messing around with stunts, coin challenges, or just vibing on a scenic overlook with a Peach pie in hand. But local players? Can’t do it.

Split-screen exploration mode is a no-go. And that stings.

Why build this vast, lush, charming world and then deny couch co-op players the chance to experience it together? I get the technical complexity, but for a game that so lovingly champions family play, it feels like a missed opportunity.

Still, it’s a forgivable flaw in an otherwise shockingly cohesive package.

Final Lap: Verdict and Score

Mario Kart World isn’t just the best Mario Kart game. It’s the most meaningful one.

It’s a culmination of everything this series has ever done right—tight controls, wild items, joyful chaos—and then it adds new layers of expression, exploration, and connectivity that feel both surprising and inevitable.

It won’t win over every hardcore sim racer. It’s not trying to be Gran Turismo Kart. But if your definition of a great game includes “laughing with people you love until your sides hurt,” then this is an essential title.

Even after 30 years, Nintendo still knows how to make the road feel new.

An exuberant evolution of the franchise that trades rivalry for camaraderie, and turns every drift into a memory.