Free Roam – Fun With Friends, Or Alone
The other main new addition to Mario Kart World is the Free Roam mode, where you can drive around the continent of the Mushroom Kingdom to your heart’s content, ala Burnout Paradise or Forza Horizons. This interconnected world with collectibles and challenges is not only huge and gorgeously rendered, with four different lighting sequences to approximate different times of day, but it can also be enjoyed with friends. Two-player Free Roam on one system is possible by selecting Wireless Play and creating a room, but you won’t be able to tackle P-Switch missions with a friend. You can also explore online with a friend. If you get too far from one another, the game closes the gap, putting P2 nearer to P1’s location. Not a major inconvenience.
I’ve heard many differing takes online – some have said the open world is empty with little to do. I don’t think that’s a fair assessment. There’s a lot of verticality in this game, as you can jump, wall ride, rail grind, etc. Sometimes you’ll stumble upon an instance where you’ll need to chase Nabbit through a gauntlet, test your flying skills, go behind a waterfall, discover a half-pipe, or just admire a cool little turnip farm.
There are also many high points that are tricky to climb. If you are a completionist who enjoys exploration, this is a cozy mode where you can uncover secrets and learn mechanics and shortcuts while chilling out to the game’s incredible soundtrack, which is filled wall-to-wall with hours of breathtaking jazz, big band, rock, and electronic Mario covers from throughout the series’ history. Gusty Garden Galaxy, Dire, Dire, Docks, Coconut Mall, and Rainbow Shoals, to name just four, get transformative, pitch-perfect covers. I listen to it while driving.
If you like exploring for hidden treasures, there’s plenty of them, with 150 hidden panels and 200 Peach Medallions placed in sometimes tough-to-reach places. And if you, like me, miss Mario Kart DS’ Missions Mode, there are 394 P-Switch missions of great variety, which will task you with dodging foes and obstacles, collecting Blue coins within a time limit, winning short races, etc. Some of them can be quite tricky, but retrying (and rewinding) is easy and I got most of the ones I’ve done on the first or second try. Fans have complained that all you get from beating these are decals/stickers, but to me, the fact that we finally have Missions again is its own reward.
