Simply put, the game is gorgeous, runs beautifully, and shows off the Switch 2's capabilities magnificently.
But once you finish the Grand Prix's, the game is just a multiplayer game that doesn't offer as much as its 11 year old predecessor, and a collectathon for characters that are purely cosmetic and stickers that are inconsequential. Aside from collectibles, the open world offers nothing else aside for some charm that wears off after appreciating it for a few seconds. The P-switches are fun and challenging, but again, there is no great incentive to do them all to make the game more enjoyable or expansive.
Unlocking karts in Grand Prix and Knockout Mode is fine, and those modes are great. But if we're paying $80 for this game because of the open world, then that's pretty laughable.
It's fun. But is it worth $80? Absolutely not. Not for a 2025 AAA title. Mario Kart 8 is isn't going anywhere any time soon.
E: This sums my thoughts up nicely:
EE: And this
by Killjoy13337
43 Comments
8 Deluxe quite literally has nothing else to do than online and local multiplayer.
it’s only quite literally been out for a day.
What do you think it’s *lacking* that MK8 had?
Well, the username checks out but you are wrong. It’s miles more fun than MK8 ever was for me. MK8 was utterly boring compared to this.
I agree, im pretty disappointed. the p-switch challenges in free roam are fun but otherwise the mode is boring. same with driving on the long wide stretches between courses. visually it looks nice, especially the particle and item effects, but overall not a big step up from mk8.
biggest thing for me is no 200cc. huge head scratcher.
A tech demo? It’s barely pushing the switch 2 at all ( still looks good don’t get me wrong )
It has all the great game play of 8 deluxe with a big open world and better graphics with a couple new tricks. What more are you looking for?
What can you do on MK8 that you can’t do on MK World.
200cc etc… I assume will be an update further along the line like it was with MK8.
Is this your first Mario kart ?
Why are you expecting Mario Kart to not just be a multiplayer game? Single player modes in Mario Kart have always just been side modes
I love it so far. I’ve basically been playing the same Kart for a decade, and a lot of the tracks they added on feel extremely repetitive with a lot of cities.
This game now has 24 racers, new items, the knockout mode, and an open world mode to collect things and do challenges. The novelty of some of this I’m sure will wear off, but to me it’s a logical change/evolution in Kart.
If you bought this to not be a kart racer idk what to tell ya bud…
What…what do you think MK8 has other than multiplayer?
wtf else do you expect a MARIO KART game to have? I’m convinced you’ve all gone mad.
I mean Mario Kart in general is kind of just a multiplayer game. Has been since at least the Wii. They do not bake a lot of single player content into these kinds of games these days and that’s why I don’t buy them anymore.
I played one round with my wife. On 50 CC (WTF? It was mistake it was so slow and so long…)
And she enjoyed it, she hate MK and MK 8.
For me so far is mid… Im not sure how you do this cool wall jumps etc, but grinding the rail was so fun! Also additional charcters are just random enemies… I would prefer chars from Nintendo games rather then animal like enemies from the Mario games.
The online is so much more fun. Going from track to track and having different routes keeps it fresh way longer then mario kart 8 for me.
Yall would get a stroke if you played vanilla Mario Kart 8 on Wii U.
I mean there’s definitely enough content to justify the price. I do think there’s a certain something missing to bring it from good to great that I can’t really put my finger on.
Meanwhile I understand why people would get instantly bored of the open world mode, but I watched my five year old play and I don’t think he’ll go back to regular racing.
What do you think Mario Kart is exactly?
I want to give it a bit more time, but I do tend to agree at the moment. So far, I don’t particularly enjoy the new Grand Prix setup; the old setup of x laps on y tracks worked well and didn’t need adjustment. Also, there seem to be a lot of straight/nothing much happening sections in races, which feel a little repetitive.
MKW has lots of problems design wise, but to call it a tech demo is laughable. It’s a multi player game, if your goal is not to play multiplayer, then it’s not for you.
I guess Dota is a tech demo because unless you’re going to grind ranked online, there’s nothing to do but play bot matches?
No mention of knockout mode…
Fucking wut???
I bet you think James Bond in the ioi game looks like Tom Cruise…
You play Mario kart for like an hour or two, maybe longer with friends.
Mario kart is not the game you invest a thousand hours into to 100% it.
Its a party game not something you main lol
There’s also a ton of ways to race each course going from one course to another and vice versa. Mario kart world quite literally has more content than mk8 without the dlc.
I have been playing free roam for two hours trying to complete the different challenges at the beach course. I think this game is awesome and definitely worth $80
So many people called BOTW a tech demo also.
So many people are straight up dumb.
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This doesn’t really make any sense at all. It has literally everything Mario Kart 8 had – besides the number of tracks – but it also has significantly more content and modes to play
Tech demo lost all meanings
It’ll win goty.
Expedition 33 should take RPG, story etc
But mkw through association with launch will be seen as a console seller, easily the best edition since the wii version
The ability to turn off safe driving for the max drifting boost was a smart decision
I’ve been playing since Super Mario Kart. That’s my favorite game of all time.
MK World brings back the skill that was stripped out in 7 and only partially returned in 8Deluxe.
This is a much stronger game than 8, and I suspect that Nintendo will be adding to it in a way that makes the Free Roam mode incredible.
IDK that I can say it’s the best Mario Kart of all time, but it’s somewhere up there with Super, DS, and Wii.
Nah dude. I’ve played this game for 7 hours and still got plenty of room for more. Having an awesome time.
Yeah, let’s compare the game that just launched with a deluxe version of a pre-existing game that had two DLC packs + an extra 48 tracks in the Booster Course pack. If you want an accurate comparison, compare it to MK8 Wii U base, which was extremely barebones.
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It feels like a demo to a game that doesn’t exist in complete form.
It definitely does offer as much as its 11 year old predecessor i.e. Mario Kart 8 on Wii U circa 2014.
Free roam is underdeveloped- OTOH fleshing it out properly would take as much resources as Tears of Kingdom, which took 6Y to make.
Anyway, imo the game’s very good- has plenty of room for updates. Online is fun.
no
mario kart 8 was a disappointment for me, mario kart wii for multiplayer fun was better and mario kart ds was the best mario kart for gameplay expression and single player content
the real questions are: you can play random 4 courses with friends instead of the connected courses bullshit? this is not midnight club.
battle mode is great like gamecube and ds again, instead of wii and after bullshit?
Its killjoy he is a known troll
Really?
This is a very weird take. This is a fully featured game.
The biggest challenge is that MK8 had 96 unique courses. World does feel a little repetitive with just 8 cups.
Also there is an incentive to get p blocks, peach coins and question mark blocks.