Mario Kart World is threatening to turn me into a competitive person. The whole Nintendo Switch 2 is, thanks to its current focus on multiplayer. I'm conflict adverse. When I had my last employee assessment, my boss said my best trait is how personable I am. I'm already shuddering at the prospect of my next meeting, and what I'll do with the banana peel I'm going to take in there. All it took was half an hour with Mario Kart World for me to call for digital blood and (on my best behaviour) politely ask for another lap.
On the surface, Mario Kart World appears to be like any other in the series. Choose a character. Pick a vehicle. Zoom around tracks hurling shells and spinning out on fruit until someone wins. You know what to expect. Yet, Mario Kart World has some features that complicate that tried-and-true formula, giving this a reason to finally ditch the numbering, deserving of being its own thing. It really does feel like a whole world of karting with Mario.
Basically, courses in a circuit are actually connected and you drive from one to the next, and there's even a Free Roam mode where you can (as the name implies) freely roam around, explore, and take pictures to your heart's content, Forza Horizon-style. But it's Mario Kart World's Knockout Tour mode that was, if you'll pardon the wordplay, the real knockout here.
It's a knockout
Developer: Nintendo EPD
Platform(s): Nintendo Switch 2
Release date: June 5, 2025
While I can't speak to the Free Roam aspect of Mario Kart World as it wasn't part of my early Nintendo Switch 2 demo, I did drive from one track to another and then another. It certainly makes Mario Kart World feel like an interconnected place rather than disparate and distinct chunks. But this pales in comparison to what Knockout Tour mode accomplishes.
Knockout Tour mode puts 24 players – the most active participants in the series' history – through back-to-back courses with various checkpoints, which sounds an awful lot like just… playing regular Mario Kart, right? Wrong! Each major checkpoint includes a specific placement requirement; anyone that doesn't cross that line with at least the placement required is knocked out (get it?) of the race until it's completed.
Functionally, this means roughly a single, long, 15-minute race with high stakes and adrenaline. Traditional races are relatively quickly resolved, and there's really no major ramifications until it's over. You place, or you don't, and it doesn't particularly matter how the race was going for you in the early moments. In Knockout Tour mode, it's all about consistently doing better than the majority until it's just you left.
Again, I've no real competitive bone in my body, and yet the moment it became clear that there was a consistent threat of elimination and that any falling behind on my part would mean sitting out the rest of the round while my peers got to keep having fun, something switched on inside of me. As I took turns and tried to grab items and avoid enemies, I even started letting out little gasps and sighs of frustration and relief, depending on how the overall race was going for me.
In the end, I came in 8th. Not the best result, and just outside the cutoff for the final laps, but it felt earned in a way that few video games make me feel. The entire race up to that point had me extremely invested, constantly looking around for shortcuts and the like, anything at all to quickly make up ground ahead of the next checkpoint. It also didn't hurt that I played nearly every single round I got my hands on as a big Boo with aristocratic clothing – monocle included. I didn't get a second chance at Knockout Tour, but I suspect I'll continue thinking about my redemption all the way through to release.
Mario Kart World is set to launch as a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive on June 5, 2025, and it's undoubtedly one of my most anticipated upcoming Switch 2 games so far. I'm sure the hype will only build by the time April 17 rolls around, which is when Nintendo is set to run a dedicated Mario Kart World Direct to dive into even more detail.
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