Mario Kart World has become one of the hottest discussed games of the year. The first wholly new entry in the series in over a decade, Mario Kart World has become one of Nintendo’s most heavily promoted titles and is hot off receiving its own Nintendo Direct. Set to release on the launch day of a new system, this will no doubt be a must-play game upon the release of the highly anticipated Nintendo Switch 2.
While much of the discussion surrounding Mario Kart World has been its $80 price tag, the new features of the gameplay look to take Mario Kart in an entirely unforeseen direction. Most notable among the new additions are the introduction of open-world and off-road elements that are sure to make Mario Kart World the biggest game in the series yet. Mario Kart World will also offer players unlockable costumes for each character, which is an exciting addition, albeit one that could use a bit of work for convenience’s sake.
In one breath, it’s really impressive that Mario Kart World offers this level of customization and options as far as costumes are concerned. Outside of the mobile title Mario Kart Tour, previous iterations of the Mario Kart series almost never had any kind of costumes – multi-colored palette swaps for characters like Yoshis and Shy Guys and costumes for Mii racers notwithstanding – so this is a major switch-up for the franchise. Furthermore, given that there are already roughly 100 confirmed costumes, this is an unprecedented level of customization for Mario Kart characters.
This also feels noticeable given that the game will be stripping back customization in another regard. Unlike the last major entry in the series, Mario Kart 8 and its Nintendo Switch re-release, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Mario Kart World will not allow players to customize their vehicles. With one element of customization now out of the picture, it’s nice that the new game will compensate with new costumes that can be unlocked throughout the game.
While new character costumes serve as a fantastic addition to Mario Kart World, it’s rather frustrating that each costume takes up its own spot on the character select screen. This is especially noticeable given that the playable characters aren’t all visible at once on the character select screen, and players will have to scroll through numerous menus to pick characters. Given that the game already has 50 confirmed playable characters – and that the character select screen displays 12 characters at a time – tacking on roughly 100 playable variations means players will have to sit through a lot of scrolling to pick the costume they want.
Currently, the character select screen has 13 pages worth of characters, which at a rate of 12 characters per page would indicate that the game could have as many as 156 different selectable characters, assuming the final page is entirely filled up. It feels like it would be a lot easier for the game to let players pick their character and then have a dedicated menu for the selectable costumes. If not, there could be an option akin to Super Smash Bro’s palette swaps, where pressing a button while highlighting a character allows players to switch the costume on the fly.
As a further inconvenience, it appears that the number of characters on the selection screen will shrink in local multiplayer. When playing Mario Kart World with four players, the 12-character select screen shrinks down to six characters which, assuming the maximum 156-character roster, would mean players would have to scroll through 26 pages worth of options to pick their ideal costume. Sure, the latest character selection footage could just be an early build of the game, but if Nintendo hasn’t addressed it by launch, it will no doubt have to make changes in a future update.
Mario Kart World looks primed to be a major evolution for the Mario Kart franchise, but it still looks like Nintendo could fix some things for the sake of player convenience. While it’s incredible that this new game will offer so many character costumes, forcing players to scroll through 10-20 pages worth of options feels like it discourages players from trying all these new options. Here’s hoping Nintendo makes this fix and makes character customization much more accessible in Mario Kart World.