Mario Kart World Direct shares new info, including new courses, outfits and items

Nintendo has shared more information on Mario Kart World’s various features and modes.

In a new Nintendo Direct focused solely on the game, Nintendo revealed some of the game’s new courses, including the retro-themed Mario Bros Circuit, the urban Crown City, the canal-based Salty Salty Speedway, the snowy Starview Peak and a new haunted course, Boo Cinema.

New items set to feature in the game include the Coin Shell (which fires ahead, leaving coins behind), the Ice Flower (which freezes enemies), the Hammer (which flies in an arc and wedges into the ground for a while) and Kamek (which transforms opponents). The Mega Mushroom and Feather items will also return.

Nintendo also detailed how outfits will work in the game. Races will feature Dash Food, and by collecting and eating it characters will transform into an outfit related to that food. Eat sushi, for example, and they’ll wear a Japanese outfit. Once an outfit has been unlocked it becomes available for use in the character select screen.

New tricks confirmed include the Charge Jump (which can be used for leaping over obstacles, jumping onto grind rails, jumping over obstacles and pulling off wall jumps), and the ability to rewind gameplay if a trick or shortcut was missed (though other racers will continue to move forward as normal).

The Free Roam option was also shown in more detail. Players can freely drive around the game’s map, but can also hit P Switches to start missions, as well as find hidden coins, hidden panels and more. Players can also Free Roam with others online and use a Photo Mode.

The game will support four-player split-screen on a single Switch 2 console, and local wireless for up to eight players (with up to two players able to play on each system – four consoles with two on each, for example). Online races support up to 24 players.

Driving assist controls will also be returning for younger players, including Smart Steering and Tilt Controls. A new Joy-Con 2 Wheel accessory will be released for those prefer using such a shell.

Mario Kart World is the first brand new, main console entry in the Mario Kart series for more than a decade. The last was Mario Kart 8, which was released on Wii U in 2014 and was subsequently re-released on Switch as a Deluxe version.

Since then, the series has been spun off into mobile game Mario Kart Tour and augmented reality title Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, but hasn’t delivered a fully-fledged new console game until now.

Mario Kart World will be released on June 5, the same day as the Switch 2 console itself. It will be sold standalone for $80 / £75, or is available as part of a bundle consisting of the Switch 2 console and a download code for the game.

In a recent Mario Kart World hands-on preview, we wrote: “While it may not be immediately apparent given their two entirely different genres, Mario Kart World will do for Switch 2 what The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild did for the original console. Both games take a respected, well-loved series and – rather than giving players a visually improved take on the formula they’ve come to expect – instead upend things with open-world innovation.”