Mario Kart is a series that I really enjoy but I wouldn’t call it one of my favorites. Racing has always been a very hit or miss genre with me but I do have a soft spot for the Mario Kart franchise. With the release of the Switch 2 and Mario Kart being really the only game out there exclusive to it of any interest at this time I decided to try it out. I was especially interested in the free roam concept as it looked like a lot of fun. So the big question is really if it lived up to the hype that it has by being the launch title for the console.

The game features a wide variety of karts to choose from that you unlock by gathering coins in the various game modes. Each kart has its own stats and they are all fun to use. There’s plenty to choose from to find the perfect one to fit both your aesthetic as well as your style of racing. As any Mario Kart game the roster of playable character includes all of the fan favorites from the franchise. It also has some unexpected newcomers such as the Cow which has dominated the online games. It even features many of them in all kinds of costumes that you can unlock as you play the game. My only real issue with the character roster is that each costume functions as its own character in a separate spot in character selection. So for example rather than select Mario and then pick a costume you have to go and find the specific Mario you want. It’s not a bad thing just not the most effective way of organizing this.

The tracks are some of my favorites in the franchise. I love how we got less of the circular tracks and more where it’s just one racing course divided into segments. So instead of seeing the same track three times per race you instead often get an entirely unique race from start to finish. The tracks all are all visually impressive and are fun to drive on. Now part of the appeal noted in the trailers is how you don’t stop driving and you actually drive from one track to another. I was excited by this but found it really wasn’t a noticeably different feature in Grand Prix mode.

So talking about the gameplay Grand Prix mode plays as it does in any other version. You have four races and you compete for first. The main differences that are found here are how the race layouts are changed for the better and instead of 12 you have 24 competitors. This change made a huge difference and actually made things a lot more challenging. There were times where I got absolutely bombarded by items at very rough times by the NPCs because of the sheer numbers. It raised the difficulty of the games in a way that was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it a lot. This game comes with two fun unique features such as Knockout Tour and Free Roam. Knockout Tour is so much fun and does utilize driving from track to track really well. It’s a six segment race using a path that links various tracks together and to survive you have to be within a certain play by each checkpoint. So you start with the top 20, then 16, 12 and so on till only the top four compete for first. It’s my favorite mode by far in this game as I feel like this best uses the new style of these tracks.

I also really enjoyed Free Roam which is an entirely new direction for this series. Because all of the tracks are connected into one big map this mode gives players the ability to just explore it at their leisure. So yes you can hop on the tracks or see what lies in between that you wouldn’t normally see in the races. There you can find new paths, mini-quests, costumes or just drive for the fun of it. I found this was a nice relaxing mode perfect for when you just want to turn your brain off and chill. I wish there was a way to do this with local multiplayer but still having the option to use this with online play and just drive with your friends is a lot of fun.

The game also has battle modes but this is where I found myself a little disappointed. Mario Kart 8 deluxe featured so many fun battle modes that these additions, in my opinion, justified getting the game all over again for the Switch after already having the original for the Wii U. However, here we only have two. Balloon fight and coin collector. As fun as they are I don’t see why we don’t have more as we know Mario Kart has more battle modes to offer. Or at the very least a battle mode that takes full advantage of the new map. So I’m not disappointed in the content I’m just a little frustrated that we could have gotten more here.

So I guess I should weigh in on the $50 vs $80 price tag since these are the two prices for the game. The game’s $50 if you get it bundled with the switch vs $80 on its own. I feel like it’s easily worth $50 even the normally $60 price tag for most Nintendo games. Despite a lackluster array of options for battle mode it more than makes up for that with Free Roam alone. Though I do feel $80 is steep. I am really enjoying this game, but an $80 price tag needs more tracks and battle modes to justify it.

Overall Mario Kart world is easily the best designed Mario Kart game to date. It’s visually impressive with unique tracks and map design to provide hours of entertainment. Free Roam is an addicting new mode perfect for when you want to relax, a thing I never thought I would get in a Mario Kart game. Knockout mode takes full advantage of the fun new style of maps and overall I love it. I find the price steep at full price though just because I don’t feel like we are getting $80 with of content here but that’s just me.