Nintendo has added new photo mode features and Knockout Tour routes to Mario Kart World, with more promised in the future.
Nintendo’s handling of the Switch 2 has been strange on many fronts, but one of the most perplexing is the lack of support for Mario Kart World.
Since it launched alongside the Switch 2 in June last year, Mario Kart World has received lots of minor updates to improve free roam mode, the intermission tracks, and online play. A battle mode was also added earlier this year, but there’s been a strange absence of new costumes, characters, tracks, and other more sizeable additions.
Another new free update has now been released, and while it does add new Knockout Tour routes, it’s not going to change the conversation around the game at all.
As part of the Ver. 1.7.0 update, Nintendo has added two Knockout Tour routes, called Drill Rally and Boomerang Rally. Races in the Knockout Tour mode string together various courses across the open world, so these new routes are essentially new pathways across existing courses.
The Drill Rally route connects Wario Shipyard and Bowser’s Castle, while the Boomerang Rally starts at Salty Salty Speedway and ends at Whistlestop Summit.
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In the patch notes, Nintendo states ‘additional Knockout Tour routes are also planned for future updates’. The update’s trailer shows gaps for six more routes, but there’s no indication of when they’ll come out.
It’s a promise of more content at least, but it’s still bewildering that there isn’t an option to create these Knockout Tour routes yourself, since all you’re doing is connecting sections of the open world together.
The only other new addition is the ability to add stickers you’ve collected when taking pictures in photo mode. Again, we’ll take it, but why has it taken over a year to get that one out the door?
The greatest unanswered mystery within Mario Kart World is why Donkey Kong and Pauline still only have one extra costume each, when the rest of the core character roster all have multiple. Many assumed this pointed to potential Donkey Kong Bananza DLC, but a year later, there’s still no sign of any substantial update.
It’s a frustrating situation because Mario Kart World is a fantastic foundation that’s ripe for expansion, but when its first year of support has been so lacklustre, it’s hard not to feel like Nintendo is dropping the ball.
One of the central criticisms of the game at launch is that the open world is so empty and underutilised and there’s still no sign that Nintendo has any intention of addressing that. There’s also no indication of when any substantial DLC might arrive, but it doesn’t seem like it’ll be anytime soon.
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