Mario Kart World

[Moonface]

Release Date: June 5, 2025

Launch Price: $79.99 USD

Platform: Nintendo Switch 2
Official Website: Link

Start your engines and race across a sprawling world where you can go off the racetrack and drive virtually everywhere!

OPEN WORLD
Race seamlessly across connected roads and racetracks that deliver Mario Kart racing like never before. Race along grassy plains, bustling cities, wide-open waters, big ol' volcanos, and more—plus everything in between.

MODES

• Grand Prix Mode
  Compete to earn the most points across four connected courses and try to claim the top spot among 24 racers! The areas between courses are part of the race, too!
  
  
• Knockout Tour
  Barrel through back-to-back courses, with no pit stops along the way. If you don't place high enough by the time you reach each of the five checkpoints... you're OUT. Drive hard to survive and aim for first place!
  
  
• Free Roam
  Where to? That's up to you! Take off in any direction in this new mode. Explore areas that pique your interest, and maybe even snap some in-game pics at scenic spots.
  

CONFIRMED CHARACTERS
This is every character confirmed to be in the game based on the newest trailer:

• Baby Daisy
  
• Baby Luigi
  
• Baby Mario
  
• Baby Peach
  
• Baby Rosalina
  
• Biddybud
  
• Birdo
  
• Bowser
  
• Bowser Jr.
  
• Charging Chuck
  
• Daisy
  
• Dolphin
  
• Donkey Kong
  
• Goomba
  
• Hammer Bro
  
• King Boo
  
• Koopa Troopa
  
• Lakitu
  
• Luigi
  
• Mario
  
• Moo Moo
  
• Nabbit
  
• Paulina
  
• Peach
  
• Penguin
  
• Pianta
  
• Rosalina
  
• Sidestepper
  
• Shy Guy
  
• Spike
  
• Stingby
  
• Toad
  
• Toadette
  
• Waluigi
  
• Wario
  
• Yoshi
  

JOY-CON 2 WHEEL
Insert a Joy-Con 2 controller for a wheely fun time with motion controls. Joy-Con 2 attach and detach easily thanks to their magnetic connections.

NINTENDO SWITCH 2 + MARIO KART WORLD BUNDLE
Mario Kart World will be available as a standalone title, as well as in a bundle with the Nintendo Switch 2 as a digital title for $499.99 USD.

MARIO KART WORLD DIRECT
A Nintendo Direct dedicated to Mario Kart World will air on April 17 at 6am PT / 9am ET / 12pm GMT.

[Mr EliteL]

Yeah this is shaping up to be pretty big, easily the hardest hitter they have on release. Surprised on the open world aspect, I do like the travelling to the next course in the Cups though. Will the next race begin once all karts have finished the previous and arrived on the grid, or does the race continue on regardless?

36 characters to start, damn. MK8 Deluxe was on 48 and that's with Koopalings and the alternate Mario'es and Peach'es, who are absent for MKW minus the guests too. Though we're getting costumes here which will be interesting to see characters dressed differently, I don't know if they're just a race only item specific to the track/kart themes or can be used anytime. Who or what are Stingby and Biddybud though, huh? Did see a bee character so must be Stingby and Biddybud is the fly...OH Mario Bros because Sidestepper is a character in MKW, OK then. I forgot they had those names.

A little iffed on DK's design but it's a new one that's staying for the time being, just prefer his other look. Some characters seem shorter here like they do in Mario Kart games, Mario and Luigi's legs are tiny and the dresses for Peach and Daisy look shorter than normal, though I don't know why I'm saying this as they usually look like that as I literally just mentioned.

[Moonface]

Yeah this is shaping up to be pretty big, easily the hardest hitter they have on release. Surprised on the open world aspect, I do like the travelling to the next course in the Cups though. Will the next race begin once all karts have finished the previous and arrived on the grid, or does the race continue on regardless?

So I watched some Treehouse footage, and the way it works is the first race is your classic 3 lap race. When it ends, you then get loaded back onto the starting grid of that course in the order everyone finished, and the next race is first driving to the next course and then once you reach it, doing a varying number of laps until it ends. Some were only a single lap, while others I saw had a lap counter of 8 but I think the latter was a course that is only an A to B style track.

36 characters to start, damn. MK8 Deluxe was on 48 and that's with Koopalings and the alternate Mario'es and Peach'es, who are absent for MKW minus the guests too. Though we're getting costumes here which will be interesting to see characters dressed differently, I don't know if they're just a race only item specific to the track/kart themes or can be used anytime. Who or what are Stingby and Biddybud though, huh? Did see a bee character so must be Stingby and Biddybud is the fly...OH Mario Bros because Sidestepper is a character in MKW, OK then. I forgot they had those names.

I've seen people citing 48-51 characters so far, maybe from finding other characters in the Treehouse footage that weren't spotted in the trailer. I know Cheep Cheep is a racer that I never caught in the first trailer.


I'm iffy on the Grand Prix format myself, mainly because the first track is the only one you get to do multiple laps for while the rest just become A to B style due to including the travelling aspect. Also, some of the connecting roads are rather plain, but others I saw were really good so hopefully most are in the latter category.

One feature I want to see is a custom course maker where you can map out a custom route on the map. There's way more connections than there are tracks and no way will they all get used in Knockout/Grand Prix so I want to see a way they can still be included as part of races.

Another gripe I have is there's no 200cc mode as standard, and the Treehouse footage I watched ran at 100cc and it felt so slow because the tracks are so big now, and falling off them is a rarity now. 100cc should've been made the lowest speed I think and 50cc should have been cut; the tracks are just too big to warrant making 50cc the slowest speed anymore for this game.

[Mr EliteL]

Ah, I didn't watch the Treehouse gameplay but good there's even more characters, so does make me wonder if there'll be DLC characters too.

The A to B style becoming more prominent by the sounds of it isn't great, I preferred there being less and more of actual laps. I thought it would be travelling to the next track and you ride in on a path that gets blocked during the race or just an obvious don't turn off here during the race.

50cc I agree needs to be removed, it's already quite boring going through the cups so slowly, even more so with the new format of the open world, and you never go back to that setting anyway. 100cc should be good enough to get used to the new tracks and everything.

[Moonface]

Ah, I didn't watch the Treehouse gameplay but good there's even more characters, so does make me wonder if there'll be DLC characters too.

I'm more curious if there will be DLC tracks and if so how they'll get added to the world map.

The A to B style becoming more prominent by the sounds of it isn't great, I preferred there being less and more of actual laps. I thought it would be travelling to the next track and you ride in on a path that gets blocked during the race or just an obvious don't turn off here during the race.

It's hard to say because some tracks clearly have a loop, but it seemed that the race ended once you made a full lap of any track like that, but I only noticed that when I paid enough attention to realize I was seeing parts of the track I had seen already in the same race. I've also seen comments speculating that tracks have multiple layouts to pick from after seeing tracks having paths blocked off that clearly belong to that track and not a connecting route, so it could be that tracks can alternate between both point races and lap races depending on what mode you're playing and when they show up in the track order. I'll have to watch more footage at some point to get a better idea because I only watched a single grand prix.

[ShiraNoMai]

Yeah I was wondering if the tracks have multiple layout options depending on the kind of race you were doing, too. I can't imagine they'd make a game entirely of "A to B" lapless courses. I love me some lapless courses, don't get me wrong, but there's a feeling of opportunity to catch up that you don't get without having a loop/lap system. A to B has race mentality but you feel so incredibly isolated if you're far back enough.

[Mr EliteL]

Just watched one of the Grand Prix Treehouse gameplays. Ah the A to B part is the 1 & 2 "laps" of the tracks after the 1st 3 proper lap race, and the 3rd "lap" is a single lap of what could've been the main track. Crown City and Whistletop Summit final section can easily be tracks that have 3 full laps, so I wonder if the traverse to them is cut if you play a single race there, or will those two sections remain as a full A to B track instead. DK Spaceport is kinda difficult as at the end there's no way to get back to the start point, unless you glide back down so that becomes part of the track instead of the end. Though does just feel like that won't happen and all three remain A to B, but the map does zoom in when you're in the last section. Ah, not sure.

Watched the Knockout Tour as well, 6 sections of A to B courses that linked together, skipping out any stand alone track on the way it seemed, then ends on a standalone track. I'm not 100% sure about the skip part though, as I saw the Rally that included the Grand Prix I watched with no Mario Bros Circuit or Crown City, but DK Spaceport was which looks to confirm that probably shouldn't be classed as a track like Mario Bros Circuit is. Ah who knows.

Perhaps there'll be a Classic Cup-type mode where only the multi lap tracks are used. Ah, All-Star Cup from Double Dash that reminds me of with every track you get to play through as a huge Grand Prix.

Apparently the chat spammed "Drop the prices" during the livestream so damn people aren't happy and for good reason too. I know I prefer physical and with the whole only a key within the physical card in order to play or whatever, if I were to get a Switch 2 I'd sure as heck would just go for the digital Bundle for MKW instead. Aaanyway~

Yeah, I definitely prefer normal tracks to the A-B style for that reason @ShiraNoMai mentioned just now.

[Moonface]

Yeah I just watched another Grand Prix video myself, and watching the mini map shows whether a track is a lap or sprint course once players reach the third lap of a GP race because it'll zoom in to just show only the map of that track and the sprint part before reaching it gets removed. Going back to the first video I watched, DK Spaceport is definitely a sprint course because when the mini map changes to only show DK Spaceport it doesn't make a circuit. That isn't due to it being the last track of its Grand Prix though because Wario Shipyard is the final track for the Star Cup and that track is a complete circuit. Also, it is confirmed you can remove the drive to the next track in Grand Prix's and just have it done the classic way.

Something else I noticed watching both GP videos is that Crown City appears in two cups; the Mushroom Cup and the Shell Cup. It gets a different image in each cup too, so it isn't just the same course showing up. It makes me wonder how many other tracks have multiple variants since I doubt Crown City is the only one that'll do it.

@ShiraNoMai: Saw this post on Reddit that has some of the spotted costumes for Yoshi in this game if you're curious: https://www.reddit.com/r/mariokart/comme..._costumes/

[Mr EliteL]

Good that the drive to the next course can be removed, but it does question what will happen with DK Spaceport if that option is chosen.
Ah, there'll be different variants I didn't notice that yet as I've only watched one GP so far. I suppose Spaceport could have a lap variant then.

That blue Yoshi is looking cool. Or should I even call it Yoshi, hmm?

After seeing so many characters it's only just occurred to me what I kinda wanted by highly doubt it will happen, is that Paper Mario partner characters join the roster in their very first 3D forms. They've done it with the Mario Bros enemies, I believe they've been made in 3D in some other game too but can't remember which, so it could be possible. But nah, I mean if they're added, along with Koopalings again and god knows what else, the roster is going to reach into the 100's by that point.

[Moonface]

Good that the drive to the next course can be removed, but it does question what will happen with DK Spaceport if that option is chosen.

It'd probably just be a sprint track like Mount Wario and some of the Rainbow Road tracks are in MK8D. That's already what it is anyway even if you keep intermission drives enabled.

After seeing so many characters it's only just occurred to me what I kinda wanted by highly doubt it will happen, is that Paper Mario partner characters join the roster in their very first 3D forms. They've done it with the Mario Bros enemies, I believe they've been made in 3D in some other game too but can't remember which, so it could be possible. But nah, I mean if they're added, along with Koopalings again and god knows what else, the roster is going to reach into the 100's by that point.

Are any of the characters that are new to this game from anything other than a mainline Mario title though? If we haven't seen any spin-off game characters so far I feel like it's really unlikely for any to be revealed just because of how many newcomers we've seen already.


I saw some speculation about whether this game will have bosses in the overworld because people noticed that Rainbow Road shows seven "marks" for lack of a better term that come off as checkmarks to unlock it, which would be backed up by it not appearing on the overworld map during the reveal footage. I really hope there's some form of progression system in the overworld (whether bosses or something else) because I think it'd be a shame for it to be just filled with secrets and have no other purpose/use outside of races.

I've also seen some crazy tricks being pulled off with the new trick system in off-screen gameplay from Switch 2 events. One in particular had a player make a jump in what I think was Shy Guy Bazaar to get on top of a light pole, which they then bounced off of (using the jump button when landing on top of it) while doing tricks to another light pole, bounced off of that one in the same manner and then landed back on the ground with a huge boost. I'm excited to see what crazy tech top players and speed runners will come up with to push that jump/trick system to its fullest potential.

[Mr EliteL]

Mario Kart World Direct - April 17th '25



MORE CONFIRMED CHARACTERS

• Cheep Cheep
  
• Cataquack
  
• Conkdor
  
• Dry Bones
  
• Fish Bone
  
• Piranha Plant
  
• Rocky Wrench
  
• Peepa
  
• Snowman
  
• Swoop
  
• Wiggler
  

Side note: Costumes take up slots, and are unlocked via collecting food items, these will periodically unlock and add the costume slots to the roster, it is shown there are 12 character slots per page and up to 13 pages in character select, making the total up to currently 156 selectable character/costume, possibly more.

New Items

• Coin Shell - Coins will appear after the shell toss, make sure you're the one who collects them first!
  
• Kamek - Uses magic to transform other racers and other mysterious effects
  
• Dash Food Bag - Eat to wear a new outfit, plus it will unlock it to use anytime in future races
  

Returning Game Modes

• Time Trials
  
• Balloon Battle
  
• Coin Runners
  
• VS Race - With 24 racers, you can now play in two team of 12, three teams of 8, or four teams of 6!
  

New Feature - Rewind

If you happen to fail a trick, you can use the new feature Rewind, to go back in time and try again. However, this rewind does not affect anyone else racing, so be careful not to lose too many places doing so!

CONFIRMED CUPS, TRACKS & RETURNING TRACKS

Mushroom Cup

• Mario Bros. Circuit
  
• Crown City
  
• Whistletop Summit
  
• DK Spaceport
  

Flower Cup

• Desert Hills (MKDS)
  
• Shy Guy Bazaar (MK7)
  
• Wario Stadium (MK64)
  
• Airship Fortress (DS)
  

Star Cup

• DK Pass (MKDS)
  
• Starview Peak
  
• Sky-High Sundae (Tour/MK8)
  
• Wario Shipyard (3DS)
  

Shell Cup

• Koopa Troopa Beach (SNES)
  
• Faraway Oasis
  
• Crown City (2nd variant)
  
• Peach Stadium
  

Banana Cup

• Peach Beach (MKDD)
  
• Salty Salty Speedway
  
• Dino Dino Jungle (MKDD)
  
• Great ? Block Ruins
  

Also, Leaf Cup & Lightning Cup though tracks were not shown listed, however from other YouTube sources have confirmed what they are, as well as the last Cup.

Leaf Cup 

• Cheep Cheep Falls
  
• Dandelion Depths
  
• Boo Cinema
  
• Dry Bones Burnout
  

Lightning Cup

• Moo Moo Meadows (MKWii)
  
• Choco Mountain (MK64)
  
• Toad's Factory (MKWii)
  
• Bowser's Castle
  

Special Cup

• Acorn Heights
  
• Mario Circuit (SNES)
  
• Peach Stadium
  
• Rainbow Road
  

FUN WITH EVERYONE

Play locally with 4 others on one system, Wireless Play with up to 8 other players with Nintendo Switch 2 systems or as two players using one system in that group, or Online Play in races or battles with up to 24 players.

Wait in Free Roam as your friends join you before setting up rules for racing, or just travel about the world enjoying each other's company. You can take photos with your group if you feel like.

Use Game Chat to talk with friends with the in-built microphone or if you have the Nintendo Switch 2 Camera, you can watch each other as you play.

---

Dry Bones!

Anyway when I was watching and it showed the character select, I was got gobsmacked at the potential 156 characters, but then it was revealed it gets to that amount via the unlocked costumes, which is weird that they didn't go for a sub menu when you select the singular character ie Mario, and then the choice of the outfits appear. Some people are theorising that it may be because the costume's stats will be slightly different to the normal, but wouldn't that effect gameplay when you collect it? OK it's going to change marginally so there might not be a noticeable difference to matter, but still don't see that. People who tried out the game might know, but they might not have been comparing stats back and forth when selecting to see if the bars go up or down. I know MK8 does the sub menu for Yoshi, Shy Giy and such just strange they're not doing it now.

I was wondering if there'd be returning tracks as it's a new game, and perhaps the MKWorld would just be new for now, though I should've checked more with gameplays before this trailer to see it confirmed here. Seems they'll all be remade for this game which should be the case anyway. I'm not going to go crazy the speculation which else will return, don't want to.

[ShiraNoMai]

Okay so all that is cool and all but: y'all hear that remixed Yoshi's Story Song Theme when they were showcasing the food mechanic? 

also important:



YOSHI TRUCK!

I do agree though that it's odd they're padding out pages of characters with costumes for existing ones when yeah, it was already a thing before when you selected the character, a secondary window would pop open and you'd get to choose which color/skin you wanted before confirming the character.

[Mr EliteL]

Wow how did I miss that Yoshi truck with another Yoshi inside driving it? Yoshis will have their own mafia soon, beware all within Mushroom Kingdom, including Bowser.

[Moonface]

I didn't watch the Direct until either yesterday or the day before, but I'm glad I didn't bother to catch it live because it was really underwhelming for me. So much of it was just a repeat of stuff we already knew from the first trailer.

Overworld missions seem utterly pointless unless an unlockable is being attached to it, but I don't get the impression that's going to be the case. I was hoping the P switches might have been a challenging thing to reach that unlock new shortcuts or something on tracks, which was something Crash Tag Team Racing did to give its overworld an interactive connection to the tracks.

Rewind is kinda neat but I think it'll become largely forgotten due to being a single player only mechanic. It seems it'll just be useful for speed runners who want to practice a trick without having to redo the setup for it.

The character select UI is utterly atrocious. Costumes do not need to be separate slots just because of stat changes; just put them under each character. If anything, at least provide an option to condense the character selection down in that way if Nintendo are bothered people won't realize different costumes have different stats. On that note though, changing stats sounds like it could be a real pain when using a Dash Food Bag in the middle of a race and being given a costume where you don't know up front if your handling just got nuked into the floor and suddenly find you can't take a corner the way you expected from how your initial stat loadout was.

I think Nintendo shot themselves in the foot with this Direct also by claiming it would show why this game costs $80. I can't say I saw anything in here that justifies the price or even justified having an open world either.