Grade: 4.0/5.0
“Mario Kart” needs no introduction. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a soul who hasn’t raced on their Nintendo DS under the covers, gamer or not. Though “Mario Kart” holds a special place in many of our hearts, the iconic series has been MIA for the longest period in franchise history. After eight years of silence, Nintendo revealed “Mario Kart World” back in April with a trailer promising Sistine Chapel skies and an Americana vibe strong enough to get anyone’s engines revving. But is this oil change really worth its $80 price tag?
As it turns out, Nintendo’s been cooking up a storm behind the scenes. For the first time in series history, the game’s racetrack lineup exists within a single traversable gamespace that you can drive through without loading screens. The “Free Roam” mode offers achievements and minor cosmetic rewards for completing mini-games scattered throughout the map, although the true prize for indulging in the game’s weirdest addition is the surreal feeling its scale inspires. While the open world does lose its novelty quickly, its accessibility is maximized via its placement on the background of the main menu, allowing players a tasty appetizer before they indulge in the “Grand Prix.”
Throughout “Mario Kart” history, the four-course “Grand Prix” has always been its bread and butter, its go-to mode. At least, until now: The new “Knockout Tour” mode could very well stick around and become a “Mario Kart” mainstay. In “Knockout Tour,” six tracks are strung together to make one jumbo track, with checkpoints between each one allowing only a certain number of carts to pass through. The race starts with 24 players, dropping the four slowest racers until the fastest four battle it out on the final track. The ultra-competitive tourney is exhilarating, and it puts a new lease on “Mario Kart” — it’s hard to imagine the past 30 years without it.
Back to the number “24” — you read that right. Modes new and old boast a record-breaking 24-racer roster, meaning changes had to be made on the tracks we know and love. Series staples like Choco Mountain and Peach Beach are noticeably wider to accommodate the extra bodies, which unfortunately leads to sparser gamespaces even when you are packed like sardines. This weakness is driven home when lagging behind the herd or playing in a smaller online lobby.
Beyond the layout changes, the raised player cap marks some dramatic gameplay shifts — “World” sees the series at its most frantic. More players means more items, and more items means more speed and more crashing. Shells and bananas are often flung as fast as they’re picked up, and the mushroom abundance means cutting corners from 24th to first place is routine. Crashes are now less time-consuming to balance out their newfound frequency, but even a humble banana peel can send you plummeting down the roster due to the sheer number of racers. Stakes feel higher than ever before, so steer clear if you’re prone to a high BPM!
Introducing two new driving mechanics — the wall ride and the rail ride — this iteration’s gameplay sets itself a cut above the rest with its shortcut capabilities. By performing a charge jump, players can hop on and off strategically placed rails and walls to soar above and beyond their opponents. These additions, some simple as privacy-providing telephone wires, encroach on game-breaking territory. One minute you’re hopping on a boundary rail to take a tighter turn, the next you’re in an unrecognizable location with no other racers in sight. As you jump from rail to wall to rail, these bypasses offer a challenge entirely foreign to the series and do a flawless job at rewarding risk-taking — a playstyle that previous installments didn’t remotely offer.
“Mario Kart World” challenges the series’ tried-and-true formula to a degree never before seen. The beloved franchise has previously thrived on simple content additions: new racers, new tracks, new graphics. But “World” remixes fundamental mechanics in unparalleled ways, making room for a more competitive player base. The track formats aren’t perfect, at times poorly managing the balance between chaos and monotony, but its faults fall flat in wake of its successes. “World” sees the rare occurrence of Nintendo taking risks, straying from the safety of previously profitable conventions; for that, they deserve their fire flowers.
发表回复