4/5 ★ – bryansbane's review of Mario Kart World.

Mario Kart World is a finely tuned and absurdly polished premium kart racing experience. There are many ways it which it would be hard to make an argument that this is not the best the series has ever been. Though I do think that it mostly misses the mark on the “world” aspect that is right in the title. The tried and true experiences that are the Grand Prix cups and battle modes are here and mostly as good as ever. I say mostly because I do find the widening of the tracks and general flatness to accompany 24 racers to be an interesting choice. The chaos of the huge roster is a delight, but I feel there definitely were trade offs. The standout addition to this iteration of Mario Kart is Knock-out Tour. Instead of racing laps around one track to win you will be racing across several tracks in succession trying to maintain a high enough position to not get kicked from the race. It’s honestly exhilarating. Where Mario Kart World fumbles the most is in its world aspect. Playing the free roam portion of Mario Kart world is so bland, uninteresting, uninspired and honestly quite boring. It almost makes you wonder if the game was designed around the idea of the world for Knock-out tour, but the devs saw that they could easily add a free roam mode and just placed it there for content. It’s devoid of anything meaningful to do and for me kills most of the charm that comes from racing against others, it’s just depressing. The huge roster of characters, new Knock-out Tour mode, amazing soundtrack, varied tracks and supreme polish make this a must have for fans of the series, but as a concept being brought to fruition I think Mario Kart World stumbles. Where Mario Kart 8 effectively brought the series to perfection it’s hard to image a Mario Kart 9 impressing. You have to give Nintendo credit for the “world” pivot to differentiate itself, but I do think that results in a package that doesn’t feel nearly as tight or cohesive.