A new Mario Kart World track remakes 1981's OG Donkey Kong with parkour that would make Titanfall 2 blush

Mario Kart World screenshot
(Image credit: Nintendo)

One of Mario Kart World's newest tracks rewinds the clocks and essentially remakes Donkey Kong's arcade game origins with parkour (carkour?) furious enough to make Titanfall 2 fans swoon.

In its Nintendo Treehouse debut, the company showed off a few tracks from the upcoming Switch 2 game and its gorgeous freeroaming open world. What stood out most to me was DK Spaceport, an eight-checkpoint track that begins on a sandy race course and ends on the iconic, zig-zagging, orangey-red construction site from Mario (at the time, Jumpman) and Donkey Kong's first video game from 1981, a whopping 43 years ago.

True to the classic, barrels come hurtling down the track non-stop and there's even a giant Robo-Kong waiting for you at the top of the race, though, he's not holding Pauline captive this time - she's instead part of Mario Kart World's huge and very weird roster of racers.

DK Spaceport isn't just a bit of delightful '80s nostalgia, though. The track itself looks downright bonkers. There's rails you can grind on literally everywhere, tight walls you can ride and jump across, and speed bumps along the way to give you an extra boost. With this much verticality and opportunity for kart-based parkour, it's basically a Titanfall 2 map. Heck, there's even a giant mech waiting at the end. Maybe this is the Titanfall 3 we were meant to have all along.

Elsewhere in the Nintendo Switch 2 livestream, fans flooded the video's chat demanding that the company "drop the price" on games as some launch titles are about to cost as much as $80, which some analysts reckon could start a new trend.

Mario Kart World, the Switch 2-exclusive racing game, is getting its own dedicated Nintendo Direct this month

Freelance contributor

Kaan freelances for various websites including Rock Paper Shotgun, Eurogamer, and this one, Gamesradar. He particularly enjoys writing about spooky indies, throwback RPGs, and anything that's vaguely silly. Also has an English Literature and Film Studies degree that he'll soon forget.

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