Reviews are slowly coming out

General consensus seems to be that it is excellent but the "open world" is underdeveloped.

Hmm, so you only do one lap of the latter three races in each cup? Strange. The game does hint that something happens when you complete all seven cups, I wonder what you unlock...!

Gonna have to play a lot more of this.

Only did Mushroom Cup on 50cc (and some open world bits) but it is a lovely new Mario Kart! The level design is top notch and so weird in places, ha ha. I almost wish they toned down the zaniness just a touch. I'm longing for some "boring" track designs like Mario Kart 64.

The controls are alright; taking me some getting used to. I'm sure I'll get there. It isn't broken, it just feels very different. I can't figure out wall riding at ALL, and still struggling with the rails stuff. Again, I'll get there. (It almost feels weird there's no tutorial.)

The races feel LONG. Maybe that is just because I don't know any of the levels yet, but wow, it feels very long. I expect the Knockout Mode will feel even more that way.

I wish you unlocked the cups, like the old days. I hate that almost everything (except stickers? who cares?) is unlocked from the start. Sure a handful of characters and karts are unlockable, but COURSES! I wish it was the courses. Oh well. Those days are clearly gone.

Going to play a ton of it this weekend while traveling, and can't wait! (First, though, back to Welcome Tour because I'm enjoying that so very much.)

Overall, I’m having a good time! And I say that as someone who didn’t love MK8 (unlike the rest of the planet).

++The music is awesome! Hundreds of tracks spanning the Mario series, with plenty of more obscure picks to enjoy. I just wish there was a jukebox player, at least in Free Roam.

+The visuals are really nice overall. The lowered framerate with 3-4 players is a bummer but I’m liking everything else. The colors are a little less vibrant than MK8 but come together for a great look and there’s a real atmosphere to this game with the weather and time-of-day effects (more on this later).

+My favorite aspects about the graphics have to be the character models and animations. Nintendo has finally moved away from the plastic-y looking wide-eyed Mario cast and into cartoony poses and expressions with lots of character. My girl Daisy in particular is even more charming than ever (no mean feat), playfully pointing at opponents before a race and showing way more personality than before.

+Knockout Tour is a real standout. Seriously fun and manic. I’m hoping there’s enough here to keep bringing me back though; a few unlockables would go a long way.

+I dig the whole “vibe” the game has going. Between the costumes, the harmonica-heavy rock soundtrack, and the varied biomes, it really feels like you’re on a cross-country tour of the states. This is—weirdly—the most American-feeling game I’ve played in a long time, especially from Nintendo, and it fully uses that style to its advantage. Really sets it apart from the rest of the series. Add to that the neat weather and day effects and it really does feel like a road trip.

+Still trying to decide but as of right now, I like the changes to Grand Prix. It really needed a shakeup and the “intermissions” or whatever they are are still fun to play despite their simplicity due to the huge number of racers. It’s also fun to see how the environment transitions into each main course. I’m always a fan of these natural gradients between levels, really makes the world come alive.

+Yay for unlockable characters, and I like how they’re thematically relevant to whatever cup you win them in.

+Glad to see a return of the non-ugly non-customizable karts. Less time poking around on the character select screen is good.

+/- Free Roam is cool but indeed a little empty. It’s more something I can do for 10 minutes at a time rather than have the Zelda-esque “where’d the day go??” thing where you constantly get distracted and suddenly it’s dinnertime. Would've liked to see a Crazy Taxi style mode of delivering NPCs around.

- I’m honestly not thrilled with the return of (unlockable thingy that was leaked recently) Mirror Mode and all that entails. I understand it’s a quick way to add content but it has always felt grindy and cheap to me, like a player mod. It also messes with my brain for where things naturally are in this world. I really don’t like it and I suspect I’ll like it less this time around since there’s so much of an emphasis on where tracks are in relation to each other. Would MUCH MUCH prefer “Reverse Mode,” which is sort of in the game in some intermission tracks but not its own thing. Would’ve been awesome to go through full cups backwards, and way more thematic.

-The character select screen is a mess, but that’s kind of a minor thing I guess.

-Gotta say, stickers are pretty lame rewards. How about concept art, unlockable jukebox tracks, alternate colors, trophies/models…heck, I might actually prefer the costumes be unlocked in this way rather than the slightly-too-easy Dash Food method. Make me work for Daisy's bikini! (wait, what)

-Where are my options?? No way to adjust volume control (I want to hear more music!) and some of the important stuff like 3-lap races are only in Vs Mode. I wouldn't have minded having two versions of each cup, one more traditional and one with the intermissions.

- - No Free Roam splitscreen??? My kids were looking forward to this! WHYYYYY

Overall though, I’m happy with this game so far despite a few missteps. I feel like I’ve just scratched the surface (did three cups on 100cc) so I hope there’s some longterm replay. Looking forward to playing more.

Man, this game is fascinatingly weird. They really did rethink everything!

Here are my shotgun impressions of the couple of hours that I put into it:

Knockout Mode is amazingly exhilarating. The first couple rounds are just a complete cluster fuck, but in a fun way!

The music is great so far. I love the remixes.

The track design is cool (and some of the classic tracks feel totally different), but some of them are pretty wiiiiide. I don't know if the speed is high enough to make driving on those sections thrilling.

I haven't really mastered grinding or wall-riding yet, but they're interesting. I sent a green shell down a rail to hit somebody, which was cool.

The charge hop is kind of neat, but why does it need to be on the same button as the drift? Whyyyyy?? If I'm turning even a little, it just comes out as a drift. Let us reassign it!

The feel of the driving seems totally different to me. A little more like an actual suspension?

Time Trial functionality is decent. There are so many ways that you can vary your approach to each course. I wish that you could send a challenge ghost to your friends (like in Mario Kart Wii), though. And I'd rather the staff ghost was invisible until you approached its time.

The costumes and vehicle variants are fun, although the UI for selecting stuff is kind of wacky.

I like that they added even more optional assists.

Grand Prix is weeeird, but still fun.

Balloon Battle Mode kind of felt like... Mario Kart 64? Except with a kajillion people? Maybe that was because we played on Big Donut. It was a bit chaotic, but surprisingly fun! Speaking of which, where's Double Decker?!

The very little that I played of Free Roam while waiting for an online battle was a fun, chill time. It felt so wrong to be just wandering around Mario Kart tracks. Like being in a mall after closing time!

I've really only scratched the surface of this game, though. I'm loving the novelty. Crazy stuff!

@Secret_Tunnel Apparently in Vs mode you can set it to do just the main laps. Weird that there is no option in GP.

The more I play, the more I like the new Grand Prix. So far, it seems to me that the strategy here isn't simply to master drifting and then easily win every race, like in 8 (which I loved); there seems to be a lot more meta around collecting coins and using the new tricks not as shortcuts, but as ways to position yourself away from shells from behind. The final lap of each race being one chance on a dense, drift-heavy, classic style track makes for a really dynamic feeling race. Time Trial mode feels antiquated in comparison. Three laps of the same thing? What is this, 1998?

And the style is impeccable. Good note @TriforceBun on this feeling like the ultimate Great American Road Trip game.

I also think that people who say Free Roam mode feels empty are really over indexing on extrinsic motivators. If you're curious about how these tracks are structured and what weird paths you can take through them, the P Switch challenges are a buffet of cool secrets and chances to practice the new techniques.

Something I don't understand yet is what doing a trick in mid-air accomplishes, and for that matter, how to distinguish between jumps and plane launchers.

@Secret_Tunnel

Good thoughts! I'm enjoying the Grand Prix as well and it does feel like there's kind of an ebb-and-flow lead-up to the final part of each race.

Speaking of ebb-and-flow, I see the Free Roam stuff as a good way to wind down between the races more than a full-blown main attraction. I put more time into it yesterday and there're some pretty cool things to discover and fun world-building (Daisy actually has an explorable palace now!). It's more exploration for exploration's sake rather than getting anything particularly cool, but as of right now, the mixtures of a great atmosphere, a large and varied skate-park of a world, and the little mini-challenges are working pretty well for me. The more I play this game, the more I'm enjoying it. I'm tempted to nab all the "? panels" not for the sticker rewards (which are almost entirely disposable IMO) but because it's fun to discover them and try to figure out how to reach them.

And the MUSIC. I heard a fiddle remix of the main theme from Super Mario Land 2!

I kind of love the free roam, reviewers were talking like it was super empty but there are p switch challenges everywhere. Sure most only take a minute or two to complete but then you move onto the next one. Some have been easy but some have taken me a few times. But yeah if someone is expecting a full open world game then they might be disappointed, outside of the p switch challenges I haven't found much interesting other than collectibles like Peach coins and uh... other coins. And I guess costumes but I still don't fully understand how food works.

What I don't get though is why the map doesn't show the p switch challenges that you have already found / done so you know what areas you have already covered. Right now it is easy to drive around and find more but at a certain point it'll be finding a needle in a haystack. While the map does tell you how many question marks you have found in each area but who cares about those!? I don't even know what they do.

As for the racing it's good, the karts feel awesome, but the courses do feel a bit plain / too open at times. Especially the paths in between courses. I have been doing 100cc though, I should knock it up to 150cc. And hopefully 200cc comes eventually.

Battle mode is kind of strange. It's not bad but I feel like there is a missed opportunity there to do a sort of battle royale last man standing mode. Instead it's kind of medium sized maps and there is a timer on it and winner is most balloons taken. They have this huge map though! Add a BR mode!!!

Zero said:

What I don't get though is why the map doesn't show the p switch challenges that you have already found / done so you know what areas you have already covered. Right now it is easy to drive around and find more but at a certain point it'll be finding a needle in a haystack. While the map does tell you how many question marks you have found in each area but who cares about those!? I don't even know what they do.

Nintendo seems to be embracing anti-completionism with this game, which I adore.

Playing Mario Kart World is making me realize how strongly other games try to sell themselves to you even while you're playing them, with constant loading screen tips and suggestions for how to play. MKW doesn't really care if you understand what's going on; it knows you're going to buy the game either way, it knows you're going to play it for hundreds of hours, and it knows that if you really care about the details you'll look them up in a wiki. It's got a really classy level of aplomb.

I guess I have to rewire my brain slightly to not worry so much about completionism and just take things as they come!

(That said it'd be nice if Donkey Kong and Pauline had more costumes)

@Secret_Tunnel I'm not sure that I think that makes much sense in a huge world. Even if someone isn't a completionist they will still, possibly quickly, run into a situation where they're wandering around aimlessly a lot and running into the same stuff a lot. I doubt this is Nintendo's intention.

I'd be a little surprised if there is no answer to this at all. Maybe late game you'll get an item like the shrine finder in Zelda.

Well, 150 definitely makes it feel more chaotic than 100!

I like racing between the courses but I wish they had found a way to make that stuff feel more unique. A lot of it is like... here is another road with cars and stuff. Some is pretty unique though. I like the train tracks area.

Ok I played more battle mode and I think it's actually pretty good. The maps are more battle mode-esque than I first thought and the size is about right for 24 people. It kind of feels a bit like a survival mode at first too, since people can get eliminated, though it is timed. In the match I was in there were only 9 people left by the end. I do think it would be better if it shrunk the course as time went on but it works as it is.

So far my quick thoughts:

- Graphics look great. Characters just feel juicier in general. I like how they bounce around in reaction to hopping and interacting with the ground.

- Music is great. I do wish there was some kind of branded "Mario Kart Radio" that you could toggle in free roam or something like that, as the music doesn't always fit the scene you're in.

- Knockout Tour is really fun. I can see this being the highlight of the game so far.

- I do wish we'll have more of a classic Grand Prix at some point. The leadup to the tracks is fun, and I wouldn't remove it but I miss just having 2 or 3 laps around the "core tracks." As of right now, I feel like I can't get acquainted with the new tracks very well. The new versions of some retro tracks look awesome, so I'd love to just be able to race on THEM instead of the paths leading up to them. Again, I just want the option, and still like having the intermission tracks there.

- The intermission tracks do kind of lack a little personality. I like their inclusion, but almost wonder if they should be shorter.

- I understand that the costumes have different stats, but they really should just let you click on Mario, and then show all of Mario's costumes, just like they did in Mario Kart 8 with the different colored Yoshi's and Shy Guys. I don't know why they'd reinvent the wheel here.

- I think the controls actually feel good, and reports of "chunkiness" when power sliding seem overstated. It kind of feels a little more like Diddy Kong Racing.

- The game definitely feels cleaner than MK8, but it's making me realize we simply sit too far from the TV to notice resolution increases in a significant way. You wouldn't think you'd need that with a 65" TV, but here we are.

That's it so far. Will report back once I've put in more time!

The more Free Roam I play, the more I can see why someone would want to 100% it. These P Switch missions are about halfway between Korok seed puzzles and shrines in terms of complexity. Some of them are pretty involved! I love when they teach alternate paths; I just did one in Shy Guy Bazaar that was nuts.

I'm still curious how important all of these tricks end up being while racing. I haven't had much success with them yet. I want to believe that they raise the skill ceiling by quite a lot!

@Zero

I dipped my toe into battle mode for a couple rounds, and it was pretty fun. It's neat that the battle courses, Big Lava Donut in particular, are integrated into the world too.

Ok now that I've tried the friend lobbies... I don't understand them? I joined Bun's lobby and it had a ton of people, does he have that many friends or were randos also let in? But then he left and the lobby was still going so was that even his lobby?!

Then I tried to start my own lobby but nothing happened except me sitting there alone. Also you don't seem to be able to invite friends to your lobbies? Unless I'm missing something?!

@Zero

Oh, I saw you there! GG mate. Sorry I had to jet soon after we started.

To answer your question, that wasn't my lobby. I just jumped into online with randoms, but it looks like friends can join people whenever they want (I think recent MKs have all done this), which is why you were able to hop in and the room was still going after I left.

Not sure how invites work exactly...

Don’t want to write a novel, but quick thoughts after completing Grand Prix:

+Remade tracks look amazing.
+Controls feel good. I was worried from initial reports, but the power sliding just feels a little different. Nothing you can’t adapt to quickly. Feels a little like Diddy Kong Racing in a way
+Music as many have said, is really good so far
+Free roam is good in theory

-As much as I like the intermission tracks, I yearn for a classic GP mode. It’s frustrating to be like “Oh I’m at Toad’s Factory!” And then it’s over in the blink of an eye. I like the scope of everything but just a classic GP mode/online playlist would be preferred as an option
-Free roam does unfortunately feel empty. You’d think it would be this incredibly addicting thing, but finding P Switches is difficult, and completing them offers little rewards. It’s annoying because the missions ARE good.

That’s where I’m at so far. Really liking it. It feels like a really good roller coaster that ends too quickly.

Ok so this is strange. When you race online you'll be at a specific course on the map and the 3 choices for the next course will be courses that have a direct path to them from the current course, and you'll do the usual drive to the course and do 1 lap on it thingy.

But sometimes only 2 of the 3 choices have a direct path, and one is a course that isn't connected. And then if that one is selected, you won't drive to it, you'll do multiple laps on it. I don't know why you sometimes get this choice, maybe some courses don't have 3 paths between them and other courses?

Also, you don't have to pick any of the 3 courses given to you, you can choose random, and if a random course is selected that can't be driven to from the current course, you will do multiple laps on it.

So you end up sometimes driving to courses and sometimes doing multiple laps. Usually more driving to than multiple laps. Still, an interesting choice for how it works.

INCIDENTALLY, not totally related, but I'm wondering if and when they offer new DLC courses, will they try to work them into the current map somehow, expanding it? Or give them their own new mini-map? Or just have them be standalone courses that you can't drive to? Hard to say...