The Best Changes Mario Kart World Made From Mario Kart 8…

Summary

Mario Kart World offers multiple costumes and classic Mario enemies for more diverse gameplay.
The new Free Roam mode allows players to drive across the world, offering a different experience.
The Knockout Tour mode adds a Battle Royale twist, ensuring a thrilling and competitive experience.

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was a big game for the Switch, unlike on the Wii U, which struggled to sell software regardless of how good the games were. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was a second chance at life that helped lift the Switch and Nintendo to new heights. Mario Kart World is a bolder step for the franchise, featuring many new modes and mechanics unseen in any previous entry.

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How Long to Beat Mario Kart World

If you are curious how long it takes to beat every single cup in Mario Kart World, you can find out here.

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By Paul Woodward

While there are some things that fans may miss from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, they should be happy with these changes in Mario Kart World. Hopefully, Nintendo will keep this game alive just as long as its predecessor, with other new additions in the future.

6 Food-Based Costumes

Dressing Up The Roster

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe had some amazing character choices, especially the crossover characters like Link from The Legend of Zelda and Isabelle from Animal Crossing. Then there were some less cool characters, like various versions of Mario, including Tanooki Mario and Metal Mario. Mario Kart World fixes this problem by giving most characters multiple costumes instead of cramming the roster with just one character getting all the costume love through multiple iterations.

Even a lowly character like Lakitu has some cool costume choices, which is another big revelation. There are a lot of classic Mario enemies who can be played as, too, from Goombas to Piranha Plants. Costumes can be unlocked by finding food vendors around the world and trying out new food items, from burgers to kabobs.

5 Free Roam

Not Quite Open-World, But The Closest The Series Has Come To It

Every Mario Kart entry plays relatively the same. Find a track, play it alone or with friends, or check out some other modes like Battle. The biggest new mode in Mario Kart World is Free Roam, allowing players to literally drive from one end of the world to the other.

Mario Kart World: How to Unlock All Tracks

There are a total of 32 tracks in Mario Kart World, and 4 of them are secret unlockables that players will want to get for the exhilarating races.

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By Jake Fillery

Racing games have boasted about this type of interconnectivity before, so Mario Kart World is not as big or impressive as something like The Crew. It is an improvement from past games, though, and overall, the courses feel bigger and less one-note. It’s not an open-world filled with tons to do, but it will keep fans exploring for a while to uncover as many secrets as possible.

4 Knockout Tour

Mario’s Second Battle Royale

Racing with Toadette in Mario Kart World

Super Mario Bros. 35 was a reworking of the original NES S uper Mario Bros., transforming it into a Battle Royale experience. It was released to celebrate Mario’s 35th anniversary in 2020, but it was sadly discontinued a year later. Mario Kart World brings back the Battle Royale vibes with a new mode called Knockout Tour.

Players have to stay in a certain race placement to remain in the game, which gets narrower as the races progress. If they can’t get into a certain placement by the next checkpoint, it's Game Over. This is the most pulse-pounding mode in the game, and players will assuredly be obsessed with it online, or at least they will be for a good few weeks until the Switch 2’s next big multiplayer release.

3 Multiplayer Lobbies

No Longer A Spectator Sport

Racing with Luigi in the multiplayer lobby in Mario Kart World

Mario Kart World fixes multiplayer lobbies in a big way, both for the series and for games as a whole. In Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, players had to spectate while they waited for their chosen mode to start. In Mario Kart World, players can drive around in Free Roam until their match is ready to begin.

The best part is that anything they unlock or complete during this Free Roam time will count toward the player’s overall progress. Players can even meet others online while they're waiting to have some adventures. It beats looking at a phone for a few minutes until a match starts, that’s for sure. Also, the matchmaking overall just feels quicker and more responsive on Switch 2 when compared to the Switch or Wii U.

2 Driving Trucks

And Other New Powers

There are some new powers in Mario Kart World, along with some old ones. One super-powered move that cannot be used during races is a truck that players can take over for a short time. They can plow through vehicles like they are a one-man wrecking ball, which is hilarious to witness. There are big boats floating around the water that can be commandeered, too.

Mario Kart World: How to Unlock All Characters

Mario Kart World has 18 unlockable characters to play as, and here's how to get them all.

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By Jake Fillery

One new power that appears during normal races, though, is the Coin Shell, which can damage enemies and spews out coins used to unlock vehicles in Mario Kart World. Kamek is another new item that can change players into classic Mario enemies, which is funny but not useful offensively. The Ice Flower first appeared in Mario Kart Tour, as did the Hammer, along with its debut in Mario Kart Arcade GP. Since those two games may be unfamiliar to Nintendo console owners, these items may as well be new, and they are fun to use regardless.

1 The Redesigns

A Double Dose Of Change

When this game was first revealed, one big takeaway fans noticed was that Donkey Kong had undergone a redesign. This was made abundantly clear when Donkey Kong Bananza was also revealed, which sported many new looks for the Kongs. Donkey Kong is not the only redesigned figure in Mario Kart World.

Most of the cast had subtle changes made to their looks, but the biggest revamp has to be Daisy. She looks much younger than her Mario Kart 8 Deluxe self, and she’s more spunky in her animations, too. It’s funny that both D-named characters received the biggest tweaks in Mario Kart World, but maybe with time, other characters will be changed too.

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