Nintendo streamed its Mario Kart World Direct this morning, which included a more detailed look at gameplay in Mario Kart World, and some of the new features players can expect.
The presentation was only 15 minutes long, and was a back-to-back dive into different aspects of Mario Kart World, like some of the new courses, characters, tricks, items and game modes for players in Mario Kart World.
We know plenty of the big news about Mario Kart World, like the fact that the new open-world setting means we can drive anywhere and spend time freely roaming around the world and the tracks. The direct also showed for the first time that there are plenty of challenges and hidden items to find while doing so, like blue-coin P challenges to discover, hidden coins and hidden panels.
You can also use photo mode whenever you want while in free roam, and if you’re playing with friends online, or even locally, you don’t necessarily jump into a race or Grand Prix to play together. You can instead just drive around the world, enjoy the views, and create your own fun.
The direct showcased eight of the courses we’ll all be racing on, with some returning tracks players will recognize and some brand new. Rest assured there is more than what was shown, but the ones we got to look at were:
Mario Bros. Circuit
Crown City
Salty Salty Speedway
Starview Peak
Boo Cinema
Toad’s Factory
Peach Beach
Wario Shipyard
We also got a not-so-slight-hint that to unlock Mario Kart World’s version of the infamous Rainbow Road, you’ll have to complete and win each of the Grand Prix’s in the game. Regarding the characters you can race as, we once again didn’t get a look at the full roster, but we did get a closer look at four of the new racers, which were:
Goomba
Cow
Spike
Lakitu
In terms of new items, six items were highlighted in the direct.
Kamek
Feather
Ice Flower
Coin Shell
Mega Mushroom
Hammer
Of the six shown, being able to use Kamek’s magic looks like it will be the most interesting one, and the one with the potential to really shake things up in the race, as you transform your competing racers into various things. The rest seem like your bog-standard hazards and boosts, though when combined with the increased number of road hazards that’ll just appear in each track, which we also got a look at, these races are shaping up to be some of the most hectic in the entire series.
Nintendo also confirmed that the racing wheel for the Joy-Con controllers is back with the Joy-Con 2 Wheel, purpose-built for the new Joy-Con 2 controllers, and racers new to the series will have similar features included in Mario Kart 8, like smart steering at their disposal, should they need it.
The last two new features shown in the direct that seem to bring a good deal of change to the game were two new tricks, Rewind and Charge Jump. The latter is kind of like an ollie on a skateboard, where you’ll just jump straight up to help you avoid obstacles, but also jump onto grind rails to reach new areas, and find new paths on each track.
Rewind does exactly what it sounds like it does, and rewinds what you’ve just done in-game so you can try again. But you’re not rewinding the entire race when you use it, you’re only rewinding the actions you’ve taken. Which means if you rewind while in 1st place because you want to try grinding a rail again, you can put yourself in 2nd just to try and get that sick clip.
Overall, it was a solid showcase of what’s to come in Mario Kart World, but whether it did as Nintendo of America president Doug Bowser hoped it would, and convince players that Mario Kart World is worth its $80 price tag, is to be determined.
If you want to check out more about Mario Kart World, you can read what we thought when we went hands-on with the game at a recent Nintendo Switch 2 event.
Mario Kart World Direct Shows Off New Courses, Characters, Tricks And More
