'Mario Kart World' producer reveals behind-the-scenes story: 'Interconnected world' and '24-player races' are the start of production
Mitsuru Yabuki, producer of the
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Nintendo's classic game series 'Mario Kart' has been released for various home and portable game consoles. 'Mario Kart 8 Deluxe ' has also been released for the Nintendo Switch, but this is an upgraded version of Mario Kart 8 for the Wii U, not a completely new game.
However, 'Mario Kart World,' released at the same time as the Nintendo Switch 2, is a completely new game that has evolved into a modern game with new elements such as high-definition graphics, races for up to 24 people, and a vast explorable area.
For Nintendo, creating a new game does not mean 'adding new elements.' For developers in Nintendo's development department, innovating the concept of Mario Kart requires incorporating new ideas while preserving the essence of the series. The person who led the production of this new Mario Kart was producer Yabuki.
Yabuki has been involved in the production of multiple Mario Kart games since joining Nintendo in 2005. He participated in the production of
From the early stages of the new game's production, Yabuki and his team aimed for an 'interconnected world' and '24-player races.' This idea had been brewing for a long time within Nintendo, but it was impossible to realize with previous hardware. Yabuki said, 'What comes out as a product is just the tip of the iceberg, and the rest is a treasure we'll keep for the future.'
In Mario Kart World's new 'Free Run' mode, players can freely explore the vast map. From the familiar grasslands of the Mushroom Kingdom to the volcanic region around Bowser's Castle, Mario fans will find a wide range of familiar terrain.
Nintendo avoids using the term 'open world,' but Yabuki explained that 'the term 'open world' is vaguely defined and is a little different from what we are aiming for. This project started with the idea of how to build a vast, interconnected world and layer the traditional Mario Kart experience on top of it.'
Each track is designed as a 'region' in the vast world, and you can form a 'route' by selecting adjacent tracks on the map, making traditional races like Grand Prix into a journey-like experience rather than a series of consecutive races.
By increasing the number of people who can participate in the race, it seems that it was necessary to review not only the stages and road width, but also the system balance of the entire game. Yabuki said, 'If we simply increased the number of people, the frequency of attacks would increase too much and it would be stressful. We had to adjust everything to suit the new environment, such as collisions, crashes, and the speed lost from spinning.' Regarding the 24-person race, Yabuki explained, 'The 'chaos' of not knowing what will happen is also an important part of the fun.'
The number of playable characters will also increase. In the previous Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, about 50 characters were available, but Mario Kart World is expected to have a similar number of characters. One thing that has been particularly talked about is the participation of cows that appear in Moo Moo Country.
Regarding this, Yabuki said, 'I didn't expect there to be such a big response. Before, I thought, 'You can't drive without arms and legs,' but now I think, 'Even a Goomba or a Sambo can drive.''
Mario Kart World has also been carefully designed to evolve gameplay, adding new skills and depth without significantly changing the basic controls. The core of this is the Charge Jump.
Press and hold the R button and release it to make the character jump with the kart. This allows you to avoid obstacles and jump onto power lines and guardrails. Advanced players can also use it as a way to avoid items.
Yabuki said, 'Even if you think of the guardrails as just an obstacle at first, as you play you'll see them turn into a 'path you can slide along,'' explaining that the skill will become more useful as the player's skills grow.
Regarding the difficulty design of Mario Kart World, Yabuki said that he was particularly inspired by Super Mario Kart . '150cc is the standard. First, we will check whether the course works with that,' he said. Regarding a faster mode such as 200cc, he was vague, saying, 'I can't say yet whether we will introduce it.'
Some media outlets have already published reviews of Mario Kart World. The UK's Metro praised the game, saying, 'The first new Mario Kart in over 10 years also features the best open world ever,' and 'I was able to explore the open world alone and play a variety of multiplayer modes while making use of the game chat. It goes without saying that it was really fun, but I was also thrilled to discover that I was pretty good at it, even though I never won a survival mode (a knockout-style race).'
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However, he said, 'The standard Grand Prix mode and the new Survival mode are more removed from the open world than we thought. Both are selected from the menus as usual and take place in the open world, but during each race the access roads are closed off and everything looks and behaves like a regular linear Mario Kart course.' This suggests that each race does not 'take place completely in the open world.'
Metro also mentioned that the road width of each course is wider than previous courses for the 24-person race, and there are plenty of barriers, utility poles, and details on the side of the course. There are more shortcuts than in any previous series. Because of this, 'there was a possibility that the races would be more vague and disjointed, but that didn't happen in the execution.'
However, they also stated that 'skill is still the biggest factor in determining whether you win or lose a race.' 'Drifting still features, but is difficult to get right. Charge jumps have also been added, but are difficult to master because you can't change direction while charging,' meaning that it is ultimately the player's skill that determines victory or defeat.
Game media Polygon wrote, 'The introduction of charge jumps will reduce reliance on drifting on straight courses to increase speed,' 'I only drove a little in free run mode, but I was overwhelmed by the vastness of the exploration area,' and 'I only just scratched the surface of the game in my four hours of play, and I found it to be an incredibly deep game.'
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Press Start described Mario Kart World as the first freely drivable open world in the series, and described it as 'chaotic fun.' Press Start noted that 'there doesn't seem to be much in the way of a 'Mario Kart' feel, and long-time fans can feel the familiarity everywhere, making it an ideal introduction for children who have never played Mario Kart before. It offers unconventional family fun that other titles don't have, while also providing a number of mechanisms to master that will determine the winner on race day.'
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Gizmodo called Mario Kart World 'the perfect launch title for the Nintendo Switch 2' and 'bigger and better in every way.' Gizmodo also said, 'I was only able to play for nearly eight hours, and I've only just scratched the surface of what Mario Kart World has to offer.'
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