I’m here to tell you that Mario Kart World’s free-roam mode is great when there isn’t someone yapping in your ear about how „bad“ and „empty“ it is.
Since its release a few weeks ago alongside the Nintendo Switch 2, the latest installment in the vaunted kart-racing series has had a few more ups and downs than expected. For all the praise the game has accrued–it received a 9 from GameSpot’s Steve Watts–Mario Kart World has also gotten its fair share of knocks and detractors, and a great deal of the criticism that’s been aimed at it recently has centered on its free-roam mode. Those criticisms claim that the mode (and the world it makes available to players) is largely barren and what activities do fill it are lackluster.
For the uninitiated, Mario Kart World’s free-roam mode drops players onto the large interconnected roadways of the newest game. If a player wanted to, they could drive from Acorn Heights, the northernmost track in the game, all the way down to Dino Dino Jungle at the southern tip of the continent. All the while, they can zoom past Toads in cars, buses, and trucks on the highways that connect these courses to one another. Along the way, there are even P-Switches that toggle challenges and races, warp pipes that transport players to hidden rooms, collectable Peach medallions in out-of-the-way spots, and stickers to collect to garnish your player profile. It’s simple, uncomplicated, and nice. The mode is exactly what it’s been billed as, and I cannot really understand the heat it’s getting.