Mario Kart World details – costumes, item changes and additions, more

A new wave of Mario Kart World details have surfaced following hands-on previews. We get to learn a bit more about costumes, what’s new and changed for items, and more.

Thanks to IGN, we’ve got the following tidbits:

– Exploration led to finding a strange Peach-themed coin, stacks of smaller, regular coins, a huge evil cloud, a ton of grind rails to practice on, hidden back alleys and pathways, and more
– Better draw distance, more detailed characters and environments, and a ton of stuff happening at once compared to Mario Kart 8
– When your kart gets smashed by an item or another player, your recovery time is snappier and you’re back in the competition quicker than in previous Mario Kart games
– Item boxes respawn almost immediately
– Gliders have been replaced with planes
– Underwater sections have been replaced with Wave Race-like boating areas
– Seemingly no kart customization, at least for hands-on previews
– Preview had a lot of preset kart options to start with
– Most characters have different costumed versions you can choose from the character select screen
– Can also change their costume mid-race by finding certain power-ups that appear to alter your stats
– Lots of these items are food-based
– New items like throwable hammers and a question block that gives you a ton of coins in a row
– Some classic items have altered functionality such as lightning not lasting as long, blue shells having cartoon phrases pop up when they hit you
– Every throwable item now automatically drags behind your kart without you having to hold down a button to do it

Mario Kart World is slated for June 5, 2025 on Nintendo Switch with a Direct presentation happening on on April 17.