I Be Oh Mario Kart World Review

Charging right through the middle of so many distracting controversies (pricing, is the Switch 2 just a Switch Pro, etc.), Mario Kart World really delivers on the basic roots of what makes Nintendo games fun. It's great with friends and family. It's simple but the skill ceiling looks to be even higher this time around with all of its different options of traversal. And most importantly, it's some more Mario Kart. Initially, as I booted this up I was almost underwhelmed. I was glad I got it only for the price of the bundle. The open world seemed super limited and almost unnecessary at first. However, once I stopped focusing on picking apart this game and I allowed myself to just experience it, I had an incredible time. Hours flew by. Before I knew it I'm like 20 P-Switches deep into the open world and tranced out. The music during free roam is incredible. I swear, the relaxed vibes from the gameplay in free roam combined with the music turns this into one of my favorite cozy games in a hot minute. I really think people are missing the point of free roam. This isn't a true Burnout Paradise or Forza Horizon, and it's ok. What's here is a great side activity to do while waiting for friends, or while waiting for a game to start, or just something to hop into when you don't feel like having the stress of a race at the end of the day. Can it be better? Yeah for sure. But it's dope for what it is. As far as the real main game modes, Grand Prix is good enough. I was thrown off by the design change of racing to the next map and only doing 1 lap around it once you get there. But I started noticing me liking these transition segments more and more once I started learning the paths. I hope there will be an update one day to let us play the classic Grand Prix, but for now this is cool in it's own right. Lastly, Knockout mode is just straight up awesome. I know the meme is to call this game Mario Kart Knockout Tour, or something along those lines. And it's true, they've created such a fun mode and I can see myself playing Knockout more than the Vs. and Grand Prix modes eventually. Overall I think this game is extremely solid and is going to be a great game to have downloaded and ready to go for the life of this console. Hopping in for a quick race or to jump into free roam and sandbox your way around is going to be something I do for the foreseeable future.