Here’s how Nintendo could handle Mario Kart World updates
Today, we’re discussing Mario Kart World and how Nintendo could add new content to the game, plus the kind of characters and courses we could wind up seeing.
To start, we need to make something clear right away: Mario Kart World is a fantastic game as-is. Is it worth $80 when purchased outside the bundle? That’s up for you to decide, but ultimately Nintendo could further bolster the game with free updates. Think of it this way: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe cost $60 on launch even though it was a port and not an all-new title, and then it received a $25 DLC pack on top of that – which adds up to an $85 price tag (although you can technically borrow the DLC for free with a Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack plan). This is a big assumption, but Nintendo could potentially earn back some good will by releasing free updates. It’s also entirely possible that Nintendo decides to charge for DLC packs – it wouldn’t be a huge surprise if they did, but we feel like Mario Kart World has already received some substantial backlash for its $80 price tag. Adding DLC on top of that wouldn’t make the situation much better.
Right now, every one of the primary drivers in Mario Kart World has multiple outfits to choose from. Even Baby Peach, Baby Daisy, and Baby Rosalina have several costumes each. And then you’ve got Donkey Kong and Pauline, who only have one additional outfit each. Even Koopa Troopa has more outfits than either of these characters, which is an odd decision to say the least. Pair that with Diddy Kong’s absence from the game, and you can start to see where this is going. Nintendo could easily announce a DLC pack (either free or paid) that includes additional outfits for Donkey Kong and Pauline, plus new characters like Diddy Kong, Dixie Kong, Cranky Kong, and possibly young Pauline. This would be a great way to promote Donkey Kong Bananza. If the update were free, it could also bring the game to the attention of more casual players who are just booting up Mario Kart World for a quick family game time session or something similar. This strategy would work exceedingly well, too, considering how many potential updates Mario Kart World could receive that tie to other games. While we don’t think we’ll see Link or Isabelle again in Mario Kart World, it’s certainly possible for different characters to be added based on Mario-adjacent series.
Though not officially confirmed, Luigi’s Mansion 4 is almost definitely in full development for Nintendo Switch 2 right now. Luigi’s Mansion 3 was a big hit on Nintendo Switch, so it makes sense that Next Level Games would be busy making the next big entry. If and when that game releases, Nintendo could release a DLC pack including a Luigi’s Mansion costume for King Boo and Professor E. Gadd as a playable racer. Not every update would have to be big – even a small one would really help Nintendo promote their Mario-adjacent games. On Switch, Nintendo loved to update its multiplayer centric games with additional characters and content over time. We saw this with Mario Tennis Aces, Mario Golf: Super Rush, and Mario Strikers: Battle League, as well as Nintendo Switch Sports. The difference here is that Mario Kart World feels much more complete (and frankly, fun) than any of those titles. If Nintendo were to add new content to the game, it would feel more like icing on the cake rather than making up for content that should’ve been available at launch.
As for courses, that’s a bit more complicated. There are two main approaches Nintendo could use: make new tracks completely unconnected from the open world and have them be 3 laps only (with no intermissions), or create a big island with a whole bunch of new courses all at once. The latter creates some complications, though – for one, this would limit the number of courses Nintendo could add over time. They’d be most likely to drop one big DLC all at once, and navigating from the open world to the island could only realistically be done through a marine tube, a big bridge, or a warp pipe (which feels like a cop out). This does create some potential, though – you could count the marine tube and the big bridge as individual courses, and it would create intermissions that connect to the open world as well. The ways to get there would be somewhat limited, but we’re really interested in seeing how Nintendo handles this – we feel like there’s no way they don’t add at least one new course to Mario Kart World over its life span on Switch 2.
How do you think Nintendo will handle updates for Mario Kart World, if at all? Let us know in the comments down below. In the meantime, you can read more about the game over at the official Mario Kart World website.
