After a couple of hours, Mario Kart World's open world left me slightly underwhelmed - but is there more to it?

I feel like I'm about to say something unforgivable. I played a couple of hours of Mario Kart World recently, including a good amount of time with its new features like Knockout Tour and the open world, and came away having only had, well, quite a nice time. There were moments of hilarity - mostly involving gurning at my peers with the Switch 2's new camera while mercilessly blue-shelling them - and moments of typical kart-racer tension. But also, a little surprisingly, moments when I felt I'd maybe rather be playing something else (the strangely alluring Welcome Tour perhaps being one option). Read more

Jun 3, 2025 - 19:00

After a couple of hours, Mario Kart World's open world left me slightly underwhelmed - but is there more to it?

I feel like I'm about to say something unforgivable. I played a couple of hours of Mario Kart World recently, including a good amount of time with its new features like Knockout Tour and the open world, and came away having only had, well, quite a nice time. There were moments of hilarity - mostly involving gurning at my peers with the Switch 2's new camera while mercilessly blue-shelling them - and moments of typical kart-racer tension. But also, a little surprisingly, moments when I felt I'd maybe rather be playing something else (the strangely alluring Welcome Tour perhaps being one option).