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Mario Kart World is only a couple of weeks away from launching alongside Nintendo Switch 2. In a recent Ask the Developer interview, Nintendo sat down with some of the staff that is working on Mario Kart World to ask about various aspects of the game, revealing some fun and interesting tidbits along the way. Here are some of the highlights from that exchange:
The Game Began Life on the Original Switch
Development of Mario Kart World kicked off in 2017, about a month before Mario Kart 8 Deluxe launched on Switch. The game was initially being positioned as a Switch 1 game (likely, in part, because Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was just an enhanced port of Mario Kart 8, a Wii U game). Initially, the team was spending a lot of time trying to incorporate all of the big changes in Mario Kart World by figuring out what to sacrifice to pull it off. However, once the Booster Course Pass DLC for MK8D was announced, it acted as a stopgap that gave the team time to transition from Switch 1 to Switch 2. The more powerful hardware meant the vision of the designers could be maintained without having make cuts.
It Was Never Titled Mario Kart 9
Even from the earliest days of development, the team knew that it wanted to do something new with the next Mario Kart title. The idea of creating a large, interconnected world gestated rapidly and prompted the name that the game has now, which you can see atop this early concept art:
Mario Kart World Represented a New Challenge for the Designers
With Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the design team felt like it had perfected the classic racing formula for Mario Kart games. And it’s hard to argue with them—many would likely feel comfortable arguing that MK8D represents the pinnacle of the series. With Mario Kart World, the designers felt the fresh setup would provide “a new way to portray the world and have a lot of potential.”
Adventure is Out There
In Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the goal was to create vehicles that exuded a futuristic vibe to mesh well with the anti-grav racing in that game. For Mario Kart World, the team is opting for an adventurous feel for its karts and vehicles. The team also hoped to reclaim some of the playfulness from the original Super Mario Kart. Karts now have a more rounded appearance (to match the cast) and racers are far more emotive while zipping around.
No Specs, No Problem
The designers had to spend a portion of the time working without Switch 2 dev kits. They had to estimate what the console’s capabilities would be and work accordingly. That said, once the designers finally got their hands on Switch 2 dev kits, they were able to do even more than they would have ever been able to on Switch 1. It meant more work, but work that was worth the effort, creatively.
A Musical World
Mario Kart World’s enormous map posed new challenges for the Mario Kart team. In particular was how to handle music. While they could approach, say, making music for individual race tracks as they always have, the spaces in between were a different matter entirely. A jukebox approach was settled upon for the open roads, where themes from previous Mario and Mario Kart games are remixed and piped in. There are over 200 tracks to listen to, with a mix of multiple different genres, live recordings, and more.
Cloudy With a Chance of Mushrooms
Changing weather and time of day was an initial concept that the team at one point considered abandoning. However, it was a challenge they really wanted to tackle and ultimately did everything they could to make it happen. A full 24-hours passes in Mario Kart World in 24 minutes. However, time is skewed so that certain parts of the day (evening, for instance) last longer so that players can appreciate the distinctions between segments of a given day.
There’s a lot more besides this discussed in the three-part interview. We’ll hit you up with a bit more tomorrow. In the meanwhile, let us know what you’re thinking of Mario Kart World down in the comments and on social media!
