Mario Kart World: hands-on with Nintendo’s crucial Switch 2 launch game

It may not reinvent the wheel but the forthcoming racer looks awesome, plays flawlessly, offers more exhilarating carnage than ever before – and even allows some open-world exploration• I got to play Nintendo Switch 2: a first look at 2025’s gaming must-haveHow do you follow a game as complete and extensive as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe? Nintendo is banking on the answer being: go bigger. Double the number of racers to 24. Increase the number of characters (60 in total). More weapons. And, most eye-catchingly, more exploration.That’s not a term you’d associate with the closed circuit, three-lap formula that the series has perfected over the last three decades, but in Mario Kart World, the flagship launch title for the forthcoming Switch 2, Nintendo is tearing down the tyre barriers and offering players a Forza Horizon style open world. It’s not exactly a total reinvention of the wheel, but it’s as big a change to the format as any since the series began. Given physical copies of Mario Kart World will retail at £75 though, is it enough? Continue reading...

Apr 4, 2025 - 13:30
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Mario Kart World: hands-on with Nintendo’s crucial Switch 2 launch game

It may not reinvent the wheel but the forthcoming racer looks awesome, plays flawlessly, offers more exhilarating carnage than ever before – and even allows some open-world exploration

I got to play Nintendo Switch 2: a first look at 2025’s gaming must-have

How do you follow a game as complete and extensive as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe? Nintendo is banking on the answer being: go bigger. Double the number of racers to 24. Increase the number of characters (60 in total). More weapons. And, most eye-catchingly, more exploration.

That’s not a term you’d associate with the closed circuit, three-lap formula that the series has perfected over the last three decades, but in Mario Kart World, the flagship launch title for the forthcoming Switch 2, Nintendo is tearing down the tyre barriers and offering players a Forza Horizon style open world. It’s not exactly a total reinvention of the wheel, but it’s as big a change to the format as any since the series began. Given physical copies of Mario Kart World will retail at £75 though, is it enough? Continue reading...