Nintendo Switch 2; Nintendo
The Nintendo Switch 2’s flagship game is a winner, and often feels more like a journey with your friends than a straight competition
I realised that we might have a Mario Kart World problem in our house when my sons ran up to me after our first few hours with the game, proudly showing off circular indentations on their little thumbs from holding down the accelerator button so hard. Mildly alarmed, I examined my own thumb to find the same evidence of getting over-absorbed in the knockabout, chaotic fun of our tournaments. You can play Mario Kart online now – even with video chat, in World – but it’s just not the same as playing with people on the couch next to you. I imagine this game will revive living-room multiplayer for millions of families.
God only knows how many hours I have spent racing Mario and his pals around their cartoon wonderland circuits since 1992 – this series has accompanied me through my entire life, the reliable mainstay that everyone wants to play with me, no matter how familiar they are with video games in general. I have been caught in months-long time-trial wars with my brother and my gamer friends; I have watched laughing strangers play it endlessly at the gaming pub nights that I used to run; I have dropped in and out of races over long evenings with big groups of friends; I’ve played it with almost everyone I’ve ever dated. Mario Kart World allows for all these playstyles and more, an easy-breezy social game that also lets you get extremely competitive.
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