Summary
Mario Kart Worldproducer Kosuke Yabuki has provided more details on the upcoming racer’s world and interconnected map, noting considerable differences from the past setting. Following previous entries in Nintendo’s popular kart racing series,Mario Kart Worldwill allow players to compete against opponents racing as their favoriteSuper Mariocharacters, and for the first time in the franchise,Worldwill feature an open-world design with room for some exciting off-roading adventures.
Now that gamers are mere days away from the racer’s launch,Mario Kart World’s release date and timeshave been announced. Fans who opt to purchase software digitally will gain access to the content one day prior to the physical release, and since the racer is a launch title, the game will only be available to play on the Nintendo Switch 2, not the original Switch console.
During an interview with The Verge, Yabuki discussed the game’s non-linear courses, joiningMario Kart World’s new binocular stations feature, which will give players a better look at the game’s Free Roam sections. In contrast to previous courses, where players drove and looked in “very few fixed directions,” theMario Kart Worldteam had to conceptualize the various entry and exit points players would take, and how these paths would work to the racer’s advantage. The producer also noted the launch title’s course design took “quite a bit more work” compared to previous titles, saying, “We knew when we came up with this idea that it really would be a big change for the series, but we had no idea at the time how many people, how much time, and how much effort that would require to actually achieve it.”
Mario Kart World’s Interconnect Map Is Not the Canon Mushroom Kingdom
Mushroom Kingdom sprang to life in the animatedSuper Mario Bros. Movie, but fans of the franchise should not expectMario Kart Worldto exist in the same world. Yabuki confirmedMario Kart Worldis not set in the canon version of the Mushroom Kingdom, but there will be plenty of details to make fans feel at home. “As you travel through this world, you will see things that remind you of the Mushroom Kingdom,” Yabuki reassured, noting that question mark blocks and warp pipes will still be present. Furthermore, the producer stated that the scale of mountains and deserts, for example, was specifically designed to fit intoMario Kart World’s sprawling setting.
Before the Switch 2 cascades onto shelves,Nintendo made a surprising change toMario Kart Worldjust days before launch. The Japanese developer has reduced the game’s file size, taking into account that the successor console has 256 GB of internal storage with space for 2 TB of expandable memory, but a specific reason for the game compression has yet to be addressed directly.
