Mario Kart World has been in development for 8 years as Nintendo struggled to improve a ‘perfect’ formula
Mario Kart World has been in development for 8 years as Nintendo struggled to improve a ‘perfect’ formula
by Lantis28
33 Comments
linkling1039
>If you asked any Nintendo fan prior to the reveal of the Nintendo Switch 2, they’d likely tell you that the world would never see a sequel for Mario Kart 8. Why would Nintendo bother? A full decade after its release, the latest entry in the iconic racing franchise kept selling like hotcakes. In the age of live-service games, a company like Nintendo could simply continue updating the base game to its existing base of customers. Right?
No? I doubt anyone actually thought Mario Kart, one of the biggest videogame franchises of all time, wouldn’t get a new game… just because the current one still sells well. That’s not how longrunning franchises works.
thatoneging20
I’ve worked at a few companies that have near-natural monopolies and they all say the same thing and I bet Nintendo has this issue with Mario Kart. It’s really hard to innovate with something meaningful when there isn’t really any competition to push for it. Most people would take that as “no need to try, we make a lot of money”. But the reality is, they don’t know what will work or won’t work.
You can get into the price and all that, but its still bold/nice to see to take a cash-cow and try something drastically different.
DoctorSchwifty
8 years? Now we know why it cost so much.
Edit: I’m sorry/not sorry long development = needing more money to recoup cost.
Single_Waltz395
I’m looking forward to it, but I honestly don’t know how you top 8 on switch with all the dlc. It’s like a Mario kart archive with like 100 new and classic tracks? World has a very high bar to live up to.
GarionOrb
I’m glad they were able to find a new direction. I’d imagine the Smash Bros team will have this challenge as well.
basketball_curry
Same problem has to be facing the next Smash as well. How do you improve upon Ultimate? Mario and Zelda games can go and incorporate new mechanics and change theme and all that. Games like MK and Smash though are pretty set in their formula, and they gave us the ultimate editions of those ideas in the previous titles. So I’d imagine it’s hard to move forward.
CrashOverIt
A lot of credible rumors seemed to be true from a few years ago. I’m excited to see the direction they’re going with Mario Kart. My son and I are eagerly anticipating June 5th.
b3anz129
there’s literally like a billion things they can do with the formula
gizmo998
That’s not “quite” what they said
ArcadianBlueRogue
Add the two racer mechanic back from DoubleDash and call it a perfect win.
There you go, Big N. I take payments in cash.
DirtyHomelessWizard
Diddy Kong Racing is the best racing game ever made. I hope they borrowed from it heavily
twelfthcapaldi
Well now we know the real reason why they continued to ride with MK8 through the Switch era. Excited to see if all the work they put in for MK World was worth it, though I’m sure it will be.
Regret-Select
I’m assuming this will have the same network lag Mario Kart 8 experiences. The non visible lag, but. If you record your race and another players, watch both videos, race karts were differ in both videos from where they’re all located.
B-Bog
Aaaaah, so *that* is their new variable pricing model: 10 dollars for every year in development
MadOrange64
My main concern is Smash Bros, how the hell are they going to top the last one?
SuperPapernick
I feel like Smash is facing the same dilemma. MK9 couldn’t just be “MK8 but more, again”. That’s a completely unreasonable expectation, MK8 Deluxe + DLC has like 100 tracks at this point. They had to make it different to set it apart, otherwise it would’ve just been “the lesser Mario Kart” upon release. Likewise, the next Smash game can’t just be “Ultimate but bigger”, because that game is filled to bursting in it’s current incarnation. They’ll have to set it apart somehow by not just trying to replicate the last game.
Nitrogen567
Personally speaking, I wouldn’t say any Mario Kart game has surpassed Diddy Kong Racing, so some suggestions from that could be used as improvements for sure!
gildedmatilda
How successful do people think Nintendo have been in improving the formula with this iteration? Open world looks interesting but I’m not sure it shakes things up all that much.
From the treehouse footage it kind of feels like they went for the open world idea and didn’t quite think about how little impact it practically has on the experience of playing the game. Makes me think ‘that’s cool’, but I’m not blown away by the interconnected tracks
Aron723
Then someone looked at Forza Horizon and went “oh yeah!”
Shad_Roug_Omeg
Feeling themselves, I see.
MrMunday
I played the knockout mode at a Nintendo event, it’s way more fun than Grand Prix in multiplayer
Not sure about the open world tho feels kinda extra. But the knock out will definitely be my go to multiplayer mode
jazxxl
The only thing I’ve played that was similar but had its own nitch was blur. Because it had realistic cars . A second game could have built on it with more power ups and weapons.
Everything else is just trying to be Mario Kart.
ExcellentOutside5926
Anybody could’ve guessed this. MK8 Deluxe is a Wii U port with extra characters and tracks lol they had the time to work on the sequel.
Lantis28
It was somewhere in r/gamingleaksandrumors earlier this month
Worzon
No one was stopping them from just adding more tracks/characters to the existing game. If they don’t know what to do then don’t force it. Although they have probably have been trying to force a new game to justify an $80 price tag
MorgToasty
I feel like they could add a story mode to the game for single players. Bowser has taken over the areas and you have to battle him and his crew to unlock tracks in free roam. Or there are some Mad Max fury road type stuff where they are chasing you down and you are taking a package or person somewhere.
I think there is a lot they can do to improve the game for single players.
GoatGod997
I feel like Nintendo has been the pioneers of making games that don’t necessarily get “better” with every entry, but are rather just different. I feel that the most recently Doom trilogy has done the same thing and I’m all for it.
neon
Really thought they’d just make it Nintendo kart or smash kart as the gimmick
Considering already have link and animal crossing and such
the_simurgh
Two words: airplanes, hovercrafts
Darksol503
Ngl, this could get me into a Switch 2, as a big racing sim fan. Having a fun open world arcadey racer on the go of this caliber sounds like a ton of fun.
Johnnybats330
Same thing is hapenning to Smash Ultimate I believe.
kasumi04
So basically a switch game in development at that time they are charging switch 2 prices for
33 Comments
>If you asked any Nintendo fan prior to the reveal of the Nintendo Switch 2, they’d likely tell you that the world would never see a sequel for Mario Kart 8. Why would Nintendo bother? A full decade after its release, the latest entry in the iconic racing franchise kept selling like hotcakes. In the age of live-service games, a company like Nintendo could simply continue updating the base game to its existing base of customers. Right?
No? I doubt anyone actually thought Mario Kart, one of the biggest videogame franchises of all time, wouldn’t get a new game… just because the current one still sells well. That’s not how longrunning franchises works.
I’ve worked at a few companies that have near-natural monopolies and they all say the same thing and I bet Nintendo has this issue with Mario Kart. It’s really hard to innovate with something meaningful when there isn’t really any competition to push for it. Most people would take that as “no need to try, we make a lot of money”. But the reality is, they don’t know what will work or won’t work.
You can get into the price and all that, but its still bold/nice to see to take a cash-cow and try something drastically different.
8 years? Now we know why it cost so much.
Edit: I’m sorry/not sorry long development = needing more money to recoup cost.
I’m looking forward to it, but I honestly don’t know how you top 8 on switch with all the dlc. It’s like a Mario kart archive with like 100 new and classic tracks? World has a very high bar to live up to.
I’m glad they were able to find a new direction. I’d imagine the Smash Bros team will have this challenge as well.
Same problem has to be facing the next Smash as well. How do you improve upon Ultimate? Mario and Zelda games can go and incorporate new mechanics and change theme and all that. Games like MK and Smash though are pretty set in their formula, and they gave us the ultimate editions of those ideas in the previous titles. So I’d imagine it’s hard to move forward.
A lot of credible rumors seemed to be true from a few years ago. I’m excited to see the direction they’re going with Mario Kart. My son and I are eagerly anticipating June 5th.
there’s literally like a billion things they can do with the formula
That’s not “quite” what they said
Add the two racer mechanic back from DoubleDash and call it a perfect win.
There you go, Big N. I take payments in cash.
Diddy Kong Racing is the best racing game ever made. I hope they borrowed from it heavily
Well now we know the real reason why they continued to ride with MK8 through the Switch era. Excited to see if all the work they put in for MK World was worth it, though I’m sure it will be.
I’m assuming this will have the same network lag Mario Kart 8 experiences. The non visible lag, but. If you record your race and another players, watch both videos, race karts were differ in both videos from where they’re all located.
Aaaaah, so *that* is their new variable pricing model: 10 dollars for every year in development
My main concern is Smash Bros, how the hell are they going to top the last one?
I feel like Smash is facing the same dilemma. MK9 couldn’t just be “MK8 but more, again”. That’s a completely unreasonable expectation, MK8 Deluxe + DLC has like 100 tracks at this point. They had to make it different to set it apart, otherwise it would’ve just been “the lesser Mario Kart” upon release. Likewise, the next Smash game can’t just be “Ultimate but bigger”, because that game is filled to bursting in it’s current incarnation. They’ll have to set it apart somehow by not just trying to replicate the last game.
Personally speaking, I wouldn’t say any Mario Kart game has surpassed Diddy Kong Racing, so some suggestions from that could be used as improvements for sure!
How successful do people think Nintendo have been in improving the formula with this iteration? Open world looks interesting but I’m not sure it shakes things up all that much.
From the treehouse footage it kind of feels like they went for the open world idea and didn’t quite think about how little impact it practically has on the experience of playing the game. Makes me think ‘that’s cool’, but I’m not blown away by the interconnected tracks
Then someone looked at Forza Horizon and went “oh yeah!”
Feeling themselves, I see.
I played the knockout mode at a Nintendo event, it’s way more fun than Grand Prix in multiplayer
Not sure about the open world tho feels kinda extra. But the knock out will definitely be my go to multiplayer mode
The only thing I’ve played that was similar but had its own nitch was blur. Because it had realistic cars . A second game could have built on it with more power ups and weapons.
Everything else is just trying to be Mario Kart.
Anybody could’ve guessed this. MK8 Deluxe is a Wii U port with extra characters and tracks lol they had the time to work on the sequel.
It was somewhere in r/gamingleaksandrumors earlier this month
No one was stopping them from just adding more tracks/characters to the existing game. If they don’t know what to do then don’t force it. Although they have probably have been trying to force a new game to justify an $80 price tag
I feel like they could add a story mode to the game for single players. Bowser has taken over the areas and you have to battle him and his crew to unlock tracks in free roam. Or there are some Mad Max fury road type stuff where they are chasing you down and you are taking a package or person somewhere.
I think there is a lot they can do to improve the game for single players.
I feel like Nintendo has been the pioneers of making games that don’t necessarily get “better” with every entry, but are rather just different. I feel that the most recently Doom trilogy has done the same thing and I’m all for it.
Really thought they’d just make it Nintendo kart or smash kart as the gimmick
Considering already have link and animal crossing and such
Two words: airplanes, hovercrafts
Ngl, this could get me into a Switch 2, as a big racing sim fan. Having a fun open world arcadey racer on the go of this caliber sounds like a ton of fun.
Same thing is hapenning to Smash Ultimate I believe.
So basically a switch game in development at that time they are charging switch 2 prices for
can’t wait for this to release!