After spending a bunch of time thinking about not having any ACTUAL Switch 2 games and having a weird experience trying to both play the upgraded Breath of the Wild on the Switch 2 while using my brand new 4K TV for the first time, I decided to cut to the heart of the matter and just buy Mario Kart World. For a decent part of my youth, I was a big fan of Mario Kart games. I played tons of Mario Kart 64 and Mario Kart Double-Dash, but I never really got into any of the games past that. I’ve played a few of them and might even own one or two more (I genuinely don’t remember), but most of the magic faded after the those two games. Once they started adding performance variability based on character mass and kart size and wheels and stuff like gliding and wall riding and all that, I just stopped feeling as invested in the game. They became just one more series of games that came out with incremental changes, slightly new features, and a whole load of new mechanics for me to learn. All of which is kind of antithetical to easy multiplayer games or party gaming, which was how I’d been playing all Mario Kart games since I started high school. They weren’t bad, ever, but they just didn’t feel like the experience I’d grown to know and love as a kid. They were closer to other racing games instead, all of them with an optimal strategy for winning based on the mechanics of the game (even if those mechanics could still be upset by the random items you’d get). The looseness and goofiness of my childhood experiences was gone, as was the days of firmly believing that green characters were faster and that yoshi had a slight advantage because of how far forward his face went.

So when Mario Kart World was announced, I wrote it off. Mario Kart 8 has been getting rereleased for a decade and I just wasn’t interested in what I assumed would be the newest entry in this endless cycle of porting a game forward. Still, when I watched the Nintendo Direct about the Switch 2, Mario Kart World seemed a bit more lively and interesting than what I’d see of its recent predecessors. There was whimsy. There was goofiness. There was pointlessly wandering around the stage in search of secrets like I used to in various Mario Kart 64 levels because of rumors about being able to drive into Princess Peach’s castle if you just hit the doors the right way. It still seemed a little too out-there for my interests, but I decided to keep an eye on it. It couldn’t hurt, after all. I’d lose nothing by waiting to see what people wrote about it in reviews and what people said about it online. It’s not like Nintendo has run out of physical stock on a video game in any store I’ve ever been to in the last decade.

When the game finally hit and I started seeing people talk and write about Mario Kart World, I was surprised. The mechanical stuff I didn’t want to deal with was gone. The variability in performance had been toned down. The races were fun and silly and half of the later laps was spent looking for secrets, trying out new routes, and seeing what fun stuff you could grind on. And the music! Everyone was raving about the music and, as one writer I follow put it, the worst part about the music was how good it was and how the only way to hear it was to play the game. As more and more people said variations on the same thing, my mind was made up. I would try the new Mario Kart. I’d spend the eighty bucks to get it and play it on my brand new Switch 2 and 4K TV. And I’m very glad I did.

There was a special feeling I associated with my childhood days of playing Mario Kart 64. Of sitting too close to the TV, head craned up as we sat on the floor (since the controller cords were too short to reach the couch and there was only one “video game chair” we could move in front the TV so multiplayer games meant sitting on the floor). Of driving around the balloon battle courses to learn how they were all laid out so I’d be able to get an advantage over my fellow players in future matches. Of doing time trials backwards because of a rumor that it would unlock a new course. Of getting up early in the morning, before my siblings were up, to see if I could finally get that 150cc Star Cup, and basking in the title screen music as the TV in front of me began to glow. There is plenty of nostalgia at play here, of imagining a simpler world that is better than the real experience was, but I will never forget that feeling of engagement and possibility and fun that those early Mario Kart games held for me (that Super Mario Kart didn’t hold because it was just too difficult for child-me to steer). That feeling is back in Mario Kart World. I booted the game up, ready to dislike it and even regret spending my money with the soft consolation of at least having a multiplayer game, but the music hooked me on the very first menu. What was supposed to just be a quick exploration of settings and what was available before bed turned into doing my first set of races. While it was the music that hooked me, it was the genuine fun of racing around, looking for new features to explore and paths to take that kept me playing long after my bedtime. The ever-present desire to experience more of it has brought me back to the game mutliple times, even winning out against the siren song of Final Fantasy 14 on occassion.

I have not played enough of the game to completely recommend it to everyone (though anyone who loves Mario franchise music is in for a real treat if they do get it). I have, however, really enjoy the four or five hours I’ve spent playing it so far. All of the little outfits you get, the new racers and karts you unlock, and the delightful music that plays through keeps me wanting to go back and play more. Sure, it might be fun to have other people to play with and I might yet look into doing that, but there is more than enough fun in playing by myself that I’m not worried about having spent eighty bucks. I know I will get an easy fifty to sixty hours of fun out of this game, probably more, and I’ve paid more for less fun and not regretted it. I am looking forward to the next time I play, when I can complete more races and unlock more fun stuff to enjoy (and try out different racers, so I can make sure to unlock as many new outfits and looks as possible!), but I am content to take my time. It is still another three weeks before the next game I want will come out and the genuine fun of Mario Kart World suggestions that there will be plenty to keep me going back to it over the next few months at the very least. After all, I’ve only done races so far! There’s a whole exploration mode to check out! And more that I don’t even know about!