I Can Already Tell Mario Kart World Is Going To Be Full Of Sweats

Mario Kart has always been a little bit toxic. It isn’t quite the same level of ‘friendship ruiner’ as Mario Party, but if you yeet a blue shell in my direction moments before a finish line and don’t expect me to kick off, you’ve got another thing coming, buster.

There are few things more competitive in video games than sitting down with a few friends, booting up a 150cc Cup, and drifting until the goombas come home. I’ve been dipping back into Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the regular now that World is on the horizon, and it feels like riding an old bike for the first time in years as you gradually get used to everything again. But once you do, it’s like you never left.

Mario Kart Works Because It’s Always Been Approachable

But what surprised and delighted me so much about Mario Kart 8 Deluxe upon returning to it is how simple the game is to play. All you really need to do is accelerate, drift, and use items while navigating myriad familiar tracks.

Obviously, at higher ranks, you’ll need to make better use of boosting, drifting, and shortcuts in order to come out on top; but aside from that, I can give a controller to anyone, and they’ll get the hang of things in minutes.

Play online and you’ll have people making better use of this small suite of mechanics to end up coming first, while you’ll notice increasingly sophisticated ways in which to combine them and leave opponents in the dust. But if you’re not an online player, that doesn’t matter.

Since its inception, Mario Kart has prided itself on being easy to pick up and play for all ages, and I bet that’s a big reason why Deluxe is the best-selling Switch game to date and why its successor is launching with a direct sequel. But will it have the same impact?

Daisy rides a jetski against Waluigi in Mario Kart World

Following this week’s Mario Kart World Direct, it’s obvious that the Nintendo Switch 2 launch title is taking the series’ formula to the next level. For starters, it’s an open world, and instead of each Grand Prix taking place in isolated instances, you will instead be racing across different biomes to reach each one, interacting with the environment and NPCs along the way.

It’s a new way of playing Mario Kart, one that puts experimentation and discoverability above ease of access. As an avid gamer, I’m a huge fan of this approach, but can I say the same of my mum or younger nieces and nephews? I’m not so sure right now.

It’s worth noting that I wouldn’t be shocked if the finished game offers a way to enjoy a Grand Prix without the open world trimmings, since it wouldn’t take much to execute on this.

The same can be said for how it expands on the traditional gameplay of driving, drifting, and boosting with the implementation of grinding, wallriding, and different types of terrain that will come into play during most races. You can even jump to avoid incoming obstacles and items now, something hardcore players are going to put to incredible use.

Have you ever invited a few friends round for a house party and thrown on Mario Kart or Super Smash Bros, and you have one dude who is so good at the game that he makes it an absolute bore for everyone else? I don’t want the audience who plays Mario Kart World to lean too heavily in that direction. And if you’re one of those people, please take a good look at yourself in the mirror.

A cow rides a motorcycle in Mario Kart World.

But what worries me most is that all of these different skills and how they end up being used together are going to raise the Mario Kart skill ceiling to such a degree that casual players risk being frozen out.

They deserve to play online and have fun in similar multiplayer settings too, but what if they don’t know all the best routes, move combinations, and characters? It risks ruining an experience that is meant to be enjoyed by everyone, or overcomplicating a series that, in the past, anyone could master with enough time and patience.

World is going to make that harder, and as someone who does play online on the regular I am woefully unprepared for the legions of sweaty buggers who are going to grind, drift, and dive about the place with incredible amounts of skill, and I pray it doesn’t make the game a nightmare to play. We all just want to have fun…