Mario Kart World Has Been in Development for 8 Years

Summary

Mario Kart World has been in development for 8 years and will be available at the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2 on June 5.
The game features larger interconnected courses, a Free Roam mode, 24-player races, and new power-ups for a fresh gaming experience.
Originally planned for the original Switch, the game was moved to Switch 2 for better hardware capabilities to realize the full vision.

Mario Kart World is about to race its way onto the Nintendo Switch 2, but fans might not know that it has been in development for the past eight years. One of the first games officially confirmed for the upcoming Switch 2 console was a new Mario Kart game, and Mario Kart World looks to chart new territory for the long-running mascot racing franchise. It will also be available at the same time as the Switch 2 itself on June 5.

Mario Kart World might be the biggest Mario Kart game to date, thanks in no small part to its larger courses that all connect to each other in a massive open world. In addition to the standard races, Mario Kart World will allow players to explore this sandbox at their own pace in the new Free Roam mode. Other new features include a massive roster of playable characters, an elimination-style Knockout Tour mode, and colorful new power-ups to help racers secure their path to victory.

Mario Kart World Shows Off New Feature

Nintendo shares a look at a feature coming to Mario Kart World, giving players an idea of how it will work in the game at launch.

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By Tyler Shipley

With Mario Kart World now 2 weeks away from release, an interview with the game’s developers was recently hosted on the official Nintendo website. According to producer Kosuke Yabuki, his team began brainstorming ideas for the next Mario Kart game during the development of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, with prototyping starting up in March 2017. Interestingly enough, this was around the same time that the original Nintendo Switch hit stores, and Mario Kart World was initially being developed for that console.

Mario Kart World Was Once Being Developed For the Original Nintendo Switch

Yabuki stated that for Mario Kart World, the team wanted to give players a large game map to race around in from the start, as he felt that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe had perfected the traditional Mario Kart formula. Art Director Masaaki Ishikawa added that the courses started to look sparse with the usual 12-player races of past entries, hence why Mario Kart World will have 24-player races instead. As noted by Programming Director Kenta Sato, this proved difficult to render on the original Switch’s hardware, causing the project to stall while the development team debated on making compromises to Mario Kart World’s visuals and frame rate.

Around 2020, Kosuke Yabuki suggested moving Mario Kart World to the Nintendo Switch 2, as the team already had a general idea about the new console’s technical specifications. Yakuki says that once they actually got a hold of Switch 2 development kits, it opened “a ray of hope” that they would be able to realize their full vision for Mario Kart World, a vision that gamers will get to experience for themselves once the game launches as a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive on June 5.

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