Mario Kart World

⭐ 7.5/10

This is Mario Kart - consistent and a game I will probably still be playing in 10 years. Its lots of fun, but outside of the racing there is not a ton to pump up the score. I got the credits rolling after beating all the main circuits, so why not review?

So this one does have a bunch of new mechanics, and it was cool learning them and feeling bad at the game for the first time since I was a kid. However, it did not take long to learn. There is this open world that is interesting, and I like how all the tracks are tied together. But the open world is a bit disappointed, with challenges scattered randomly throughout it without great rewards or any way to track progress. I don't want Metroidvania world discovery in Mario Kart... but maybe I do? The challenges was fun, it just felt so unstructured. Once I felt like it had taught me the new controls I basically never went back to it.

The racing is fun as always. Great music, great tracks. The Rainbow Road finale was actually really cool. There just aren't actually that many tracks surprisingly. I thought it would be like Smash Bros Ultimate, one Smash game to rule them all, and maybe that's the plan here with DLC. But Mario Kart 8 was adding so much content for a decade that this game feels almost thin by comparison, even with the open world aspect.

I haven't played online yet, I'm sure that will be fun. I haven't had people over to play, that's always a hit. As I said, a consistently fun time, but nothing to rave about. Pretty disappointing launch title honestly, not a great showcase for all that the new console can do. Luckily I bought the console for an indie game by 3 Australian developers...