Spoilers for Mario Kart World ahead.The kart racing genre has seen a shift towards open-world dynamics thanks toMario Kart World. In the brand-new Switch 2 title, players have an entire island’s worth of courses and locations to explore and drive through. They can enjoyGrand Prix racesthat turn the experience into a competition, or they leisurely drive to whatever destination they choose. True to the name of the game, the places that make up the colorful kart racing world take center stage inMario Kart Worldfrom start to finish.
Free Roam is the feature that ties the latestMario Kartexperience together. Through Free Roam, players can freely visit courses, traverse the roads that connect them all together, and find the P-Switches and ? panels that are scattered around every important location inMario Kart World. The map and its versatility are big parts ofWorld’s themes, yet the world doesn’t change upon unlocking the game’s most important reward: Rainbow Road.
Rainbow Road has been aMario Kartstaple from the beginning, serving as an important part of the Special Cup in every entry. When players startMario Kart World, it seems as if the Special Cup and Rainbow Road are absent for the first time in series history. Once players complete all other Grand Prix cups, though, the Special Cup unlocks with a special cutscene. Rainbow Road’s appearance is made into a grand event inWorld, and it opens up for racers during an interlude between courses.
After enjoying the special cutscenes that show Rainbow Road’s arrival when the Special Cup is unlocked, and watching the credits that come upon finishing it, some players may feel like checking Free Roam for the technicolor course. Unfortunately, those who do will be disappointed, as Rainbow Road is nowhere to be found on the map or even in the skies. This is a bit tragic, asRainbow Road inMario Kart Worldis something special and even has a short story attached to its appearance. Being unable to explore it in Free Roam takes the wind out of the track’s dramatic sails.
Players canunlock Mirror Mode inMario Kart World, and doing so also unlocks a mirrored Free Roam map that can be accessed through Peach Stadium. This means that if mirrored courses are counted as separate tracks, Rainbow Road is the only course not in Free Roam.
It wouldn’t take much forMario Kart World’s Free Roam mapto evolve with a player’s progress, and the fact that Rainbow Road doesn’t appear after the credits takes away from the game’s themes of exploration and freedom. Stages like Bowser’s Castle are part of Free Roam from the start, meaning there shouldn’t be any restrictions that keep Rainbow Road from being included. If there’s any reason behind not including the course in Free Roam, it may be that it wouldn’t be as interesting as the game’s other areas and tracks.
Part of Free Roam’s appeal is the opportunities for exploration it offers, and Rainbow Road, especially inMario Kart World, isn’t exactly built with plenty of spaces for players to do tricks or go off the beaten path. In fact, it could be argued thatWorld’s Rainbow Road is the game’s only standard track, as the rest of the courses are part of the bigger world with invisible walls in place. With nothing much to do beyond driving around the sky-bound course, some players may feel as though its absence from Free Roam is understandable. Still, being able to go to Peach’s Stadium and to see Rainbow Road hanging in the sky above would have wrapped everything up with a nice little bow that is instead missing from theMario Kart Worldexperience.
