Mario Kart World Steals Every Good Idea In Racing Game History

I really didn’t know how Nintendo was going to outdo Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. The most successful racing game of all time continues to sell millions of copies a month eight years after its Switch debut because it’s just that good, and it’s only gotten better. With 96 courses, 50 characters, and over 13,000 kart combinations, I couldn’t imagine what the next Mario Kart could possibly do to raise the bar.

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Simply adding more courses and characters never would have been enough – especially for a Switch 2 launch title – but leave it to Nintendo to take things in a direction no one would expect. Mario Kart World breaks the 30-year-old mold by reimagining Mario Kart as an open-world adventure with interconnected tracks that span across a massive, freely explorable map.

It looks like Nintendo hasn’t lost its uncanny ability to always keep us guessing, but if you look closer at the Mario Kart World reveal, the real trick is the way it manages to lift every good idea from every other racing game, mashed together in that signature Nintendo style.

I’ve Seen This Game Before Somewhere

“It’s Mario Kart Horizon!” shouted every Forza fan in unison. The open world structure that lets you drive in between races, the dynamic weather that changes the look and feel of the tracks, the freedom to explore the world with friends outside of Grand Prix – it’s all very Forza Horizon. Even the new photo mode feels like a nod to Forza, which is known for having an exceptionally well-designed photo mode.

As the Mario Kart World reveal continued during today’s Nintendo Direct, everything about it reminded me of another game. When it revealed the new Knockout mode, I immediately thought of Need For Speed’s Knockout Races, which were a staple in early NFS games. Mario Kart World’s take on it, as the name suggests, is nearly identical to Need For Speed’s game mode.

I loved seeing all the new character costumes in Mario Kart World, which are partially inspired by Princess Peach: Showtime!, but even more obviously inspired by Crash Team Racing Nitro Fueled – the remake that made collecting character skins even more fun than racing. It’s unclear whether Mario Kart World features unlock skins or Mario-style power-up costumes, but I’m hoping for the former. Collecting skins would be a lot more fun than collecting wheels for the ninth time.

The list just keeps going. The way you can grind on rails comes from Disney Speedstorm. The way the karts transform into planes, boats, and snowmobiles? That’s Sonic All-Star Racing Transformed. You can also cite Diddy Kong Racing as a major influence, both for the variety of vehicles, and for the new open-world approach.

Thievery Is The Highest Form Of Flattery

When it comes to video games, you want developers stealing each other’s ideas. Nintendo is famous for constantly marching to the beat of its own drum, but if other racing games have done things people like, Nintendo would be foolish not to steal those ideas for Mario Kart. As long as those ideas fit into a cohesive vision that stays true to what Mario Kart is, then Nintendo should be celebrated for embracing outside ideas. Frankly, it could benefit a lot from copying modern gaming trends more often.

Mario Kart World looks like the evolution the series desperately needed. There was no way a sequel to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe would have gone over well if it was simply more Mario Kart, and by flipping the script on World, Nintendo has managed to come up with a brand new way to play Mario Kart that can exist alongside the unstoppable Mario Kart 8 – which is great news for Nintendo, since it seems like that game is never going to stop selling.

There’s still a lot more to learn about Mario Kart World, and we’ll have a better picture of it after it gets its own Nintendo Direct on April 17, but for now, everything we’ve seen from the game looks amazing – even though we’ve already seen all of it before.

Systems

Released

June 2, 2025

ESRB

Everyone // Mild Fantasy Violence, Users Interact

Developer(s)

Nintendo

Publisher(s)

Nintendo