Gaming Influence: Thoughts - Mario Kart World Direct 4.17.2025

Hello everyone, 

Welcome to Gaming Influence, a reboot of the same name I created in WrestleCorp. However, I will not only be giving my thoughts on certain video games and video game series but also on video game movies, video game anime, video game digital presentations, etc.

For this edition of Gaming Influence, I'll share my thoughts on the Mario Kart World Direct on April 17, 2025.

Anyway, let's get started!

For those unfamiliar with the Mario Kart series, it's a kart racing game series developed by Nintendo. Mario Kart World is the next main installment of the famous series, and it looks to expand the kart racing genre. 

With this game coming out in two months, did Nintendo do enough to satisfy the Mario Kart fans as well as players who never played the series before? Well, let's find out and talk about what they've shown.

They first showed a brand-new trailer for the game, and it was great. This trailer pretty much gave a preview of what the game is going to be like, as well as recapping things that we saw in previous trailers and gameplay that we've seen in Nintendo Treehouse Live. I still can't believe that you can literally virtually drive anywhere in this game, which is insane. The number of characters, courses, and modes in this game is also insane. Nice trailer to open up the presentation.

Courses

There will be a few new courses in Mario Kart World that are new within the Mario Kart series. These courses include a new version of Mario Bros. Circuit, Crown City, Salty Salty Speedway, Starview Peak, and Boo Cinema. There will also be returning stages coming back from previous Mario Kart games, such as Toad's Factory, Peach Beach, and Wario Shipyard. All of these courses are interconnected with each other in one world.

I really like the new courses that are showcased here, as they're all unique with very beautiful backgrounds and designs. In addition, the courses they brought back in previous games look totally different as they kind of awesomely reimagined them. I still find it ridiculous that they managed to connect all of the courses into one. Looking forward to racing these courses on how they'll be in the game.

Characters

There will be a lot of returning characters from past Mario Kart games in Mario Kart World. Those characters include Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, and Yoshi. There will be new characters that never became playable in past Mario Kart games in Mario Kart World including Goomba, Spike, and Cow. There are a lot more characters returning and new in Mario Kart World, with more karts than before.

As usual, nice to see the main cast of Mario characters returning, which should be expected, but love the new designs for a few of them as they're more expressive than ever. Also, it looks like they're bringing in every Mario character ever, especially when they added in the Cow from Moo Moo Meadows, which is insane. There seems to be customization, as always, which is a plus, and looking forward to seeing who else will return and which new characters they will add to the game.

Grand Prix

Grand Prix returns where it's a traditional arcade racer where a player races in four courses and whoever gets the most points in the end wins. Mushroom Cup, Flower Cup, Star Cup, and other cups have returned with new and returning courses in each cup. Unlike in previous Mario Kart games, once a course is finished, the player must drive to the next course, which will shake things up compared to traditional Mario Kart games. Once a player completes all of the cups, a certain course will appear at the end.

This is the traditional mode that players play when it comes to Mario Kart. However, unlike in past Mario Kart games, the moment the first course is done, you have to drive to the next course while being on the first course, which is quite cool. Love that idea as you won't be driving the same course in multiple laps as it'll be unpredictable, and you have to discover the shortcuts and so forth while driving, so I love that. 

Knockout Tour

A new mode has been made for Mario Kart World called Knockout Tour. There will be rallies such as Golden Rally, Ice Rally, and more, where each rally will contain four courses in total. The purpose of this mode is to make it to the end and each lap with a total of six laps, there will be an elimination process where players must be in a certain place at the end of the lap. If a player is at a certain place that is below what the finish line says, that player will be eliminated. In other words, this is kind of an elimination mode where only one player survives in the end.

I really love this idea of a concept for Mario Kart, as you're pretty much driving from one course to another to make it very seamless. This mode is pretty much survival of the fittest, as the best racer wins in the end. This is going to be a fun mode, and I can't wait to experience it once I get the chance to do so.

Items

Items returned in Mario Kart World, as it's a tradition of the Mario Kart series. There will be new items in Mario Kart World, including Coin Shell, Ice Flower, and Kamek. There will also be returning items from past Mario Kart games, such as Hammer, Mega Mushroom, Feather, Bullet Bill, and Lightning. There will be a Dash Food item as well when you drive through Yoshi's, as when using the item, you change costumes, and each costume is different depending on the course you are in.

Nice to see new items within this game as they look to be unique and also very helpful. Plus, we got to see old returning items back which is also nice. Not only that, but the fact that you can change costumes while driving when getting the Dash Food item is awesome too. Items usually bring chaos in Mario Kart, and that's what I like about it.

New Tricks

There are new tricks in Mario Kart World that aren't in previous Mario Kart games. One, there is the Charge Jump, which is used to jump over any obstacles, as well as doing it on guardrails or walls to keep moving forward. In addition, players can rewind, where they can go back to a specific place on the course and do it again to take certain shortcuts without making a mistake. However, doing so will keep the race moving, so use it wisely.

The new tricks that can be used in this game are very cool. Charge Jump will definitely be handy if you want to get the advantage in courses in some cases, and the Rewind feature is also a neat addition as well with some sacrifices. Very curious to see how these new tricks will be used online and how they'll change gameplay, which should be interesting to see.

Loads of Modes

There are loads of modes in Mario Kart World. There is Time Trails where you try to get the best time in a course. If you play Time Trials online, you can race ghost players. There is also Vs. Mode where players can create their own rules against each other or with teams. Balloon Battle returns, where the player who has the most balloons once time runs out or is the last one standing, wins. There is also Coin Runners, where players try to collect the most coins in a certain time, and whoever gets the most coins in the end wins.

It's always great to see the modes that Mario Kart has besides the usual Grand Prix. Time Trails and Balloon Battle are back, which is awesome. Vs. Mode will definitely have a lot of options for players to choose from, and Coin Runners seems to be a fun mode as well. Looking forward to playing these modes outside of the usual modes.

Free Roam

There is a new mode in the Mario Kart series in Mario Kart World called Free Roam. As the name implies, you can free roam anywhere you want. In Free Roam, there are special missions when hitting a P Switch, which will give you a time limit on how fast you can collect or do an obstacle. In addition, there are collectibles like special coins as well as hidden panels. Not only that, but you can also use Photo Mode in this mode as well.

It's still surreal to me that this mode even exists, but I love it. The fact that this can be done with friends as well is awesome. Plus, great to see missions back in this game as well as it'll make free roam more fun than just exploring. Will definitely enjoy this mode once I play it.

Fun With Everyone

As usual, Mario Kart World will have multiplayer. When it comes to multiplayer, players can do it however they like. Players can play locally, eight players can play wirelessly, or twenty-four players can play online.

This is what I expected when it comes to playing with friends or people online. However, it's still surreal to me that up to twenty-four players can play in a single race. Unbelievable. Definitely looking forward to playing with others in this game for sure.

Play With Friends Online

When playing online with friends, you get to free roam. While waiting to start, you can free roam with your friends online while doing battle mode. You and your friends online can also just use photo mode.

Nice to see that while you wait for friends to be online, you can free roam. Also, doing battle mode and photo mode online is a plus as well. Another welcome feature that I appreciate about this game and it's very exciting.

Even More Fun with GameChat

Mario Kart World will feature GameChat for players to use. This feature can let players use the speakers on Switch 2 as well as share screens while playing. In addition, the game will also support the Nintendo Switch 2 Camera, which will allow players to show their faces to see reactions and so forth.

It's great to see that this game will utilize the GameChat feature, as it'll definitely be used to communicate with friends online. Whether it'll be pure fun or pure chaos, it's going to be a great time regardless. Don't know if I'll be using this feature much, but glad to see that the option is there.

Finally, we got another quick trailer showing the characters in different courses to showcase how big the world is in the game. Not only that, but we also got a reminder that Mario Kart World will be released on June 5, 2025. In addition, the game can be purchased separately, or you can buy the game with a Nintendo Switch 2 bundle. Not a bad way to end the presentation, as I'm still a bit disappointed that the game will be $80, but I can't deny that this game is going to be a lot of fun, and I'm totally excited for it.

Overall, this was a good presentation from Nintendo. Even though this presentation already showcased a lot about what we know about the game in terms of the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct and Nintendo Treehouse Live, we still managed to get new info from it, regardless of which is nice. Plus, if you didn't happen to see the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct or Nintendo Treehouse Live, there is some news that you wouldn't be aware of. However, if you watch and read every Nintendo news out there, this wasn't much of a surprise, which would definitely disappoint people a lot. Despite that, Nintendo did a good job of hyping up this game as it looks to be the biggest and best Mario Kart game yet. Granted, I don't think it's worth $80 personally, but in terms of experience, it's going to be a blast, and I can't wait to play it in two months.

You can catch the whole presentation of the Mario Kart World Direct yourself with the link below:

Those are my thoughts on the Mario Kart World Direct. Did this presentation convince you to purchase the game?

Let me know in the comments below, and thank you for reading.