The Nintendo Switch 2 has already become Nintendo's fastest-selling console ever, moving 3.5 million units in its first four days on sale. And while the new Switch makes it easy to upgrade your old games for its bigger screen and better graphics, the real reason everyone is so excited to get their hands on it: a new version of Mario Kart.
You can get the bundle that includes the Nintendo Switch 2 and Mario Kart World now at Best Buy. (If you aren't able to buy it online, check your local Best Buy store; the retailer limited online stock to prevent scalping.)
A rainbow road that never ends
Mario Kart World's coolest innovation is Free Roam mode, designed for those hungry to explore the universe outside of lap-based races. Think The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild or Grand Theft Auto, but with Super Mario characters in cars. Drive a few seconds in any direction and you'll find a P-switch, which initiates a short mini-game. ("Hitch a ride on the train," for example, when there's a locomotive in front of you.)Â
In Knockout Tour and Versus modes, the courses melt into each other like a cinematic one-shot. We're a long way from the Nintendo 64 days, when you could get stuck at the edge of the map, staring into the digital fog.
More racers, more chaos
But let's be honest: you're playing Mario Kart to race friends. Multiplayer mode in Mario Kart World expands the field to up to 24 drivers, which means wide lanes and total chaos.Â
Purists may think there are just too many characters this go-around; why would you choose the lesser-known Dry Bones or Lakitu when you have all-stars like Mario and Luigi, Toad and Yoshi, Bowser and Peach? (They may be quickly convinced when they start dominating with Cow.) And the classics are still there: Toad, it turns out, is voiced by the original spokesman for Nintendo in the 1990s: Paul Rudd.
Knockout Tour mode adds another (cutthroat) wrinkle to the new stampede-style races: some players are eliminated after each race.
Play together, wherever you are
Nintendo paid attention to the gamers who joined a Discord call or fired up a Zoom room to (trash) talk with friends while playing video games, especially during the pandemic. (Basically, a LAN party that isn't in your parents' basement.) For $55 you can buy a Switch 2 camera that connects via a new USB-C port located on the top of the console. The GameChat feature admits 12 audio friends or 4 video friends in a "chatroom." And for those who want their gaming grounded in some sort of reality, meatspace faces can appear next to a racer's kart so you can see real-time reactions.
Get your Nintendo Switch 2 with Mario Kart World at Best Buy
Mario Kart World is available now with the Nintendo Switch 2, which you can get today at Best Buy. If you can't find it online, be sure to check your local Best Buy, where they've kept plenty of stock available in person to keep it from being scalped.