Mario Kart World is Nintendo’s most recent entry in the long-running racing franchise, and this one sports tons of characters, power-ups, and tracks, as well as an open world to explore. There’s so much packed into the experience that it should keep fans busy for years to come. But if you’re about to play the game, or are simply curious about what to know before you do, here are a few basic tips for getting started in Mario Kart World.
Practice makes perfect
Mario Kart games have a way of being easy to pick up but extremely difficult to master. There are a lot of little tricks and mechanics high-end players use to maximize their speed and efficiency in races, after all. But look, even if you’re just playing Mario Kart World casually, you should at least practice drifting reliably to help you round corners and curves without slowing down.
And there’s so much more new stuff now, too, including riding on rails and walls. Mastering these additional movement features and knowing when to use them can help you shave off a lot of time during a race, often by granting you access to shortcuts or letting you bypass parts of a track altogether. In some cases, riding a wall may even save you from falling off a track and losing your place!
No one says you have to take competitive racing in Mario Kart World seriously, of course. But learning how to make the most of its various mechanics will certainly help you place higher in races and navigate the game’s open world better. So, practice up!
Be a coin fiend
Every coin you pick up in Mario Kart World will increase your max speed. You can hold up to 20 coins, which is a step up from the usual 10 in previous games, but you’ll also lose three every time you get hit by a projectile. With this in mind, actively seek them out during the entire race in an effort to stay as close to the coin cap as possible.
To help with this, there’s always a chance that you’ll snag a power-up like the Coin Box or Coin Shell to give you a solid influx of coins, so make sure you use those when they come up. Just keep in mind that other racers can grab the additional coins dropped by these power-ups as well, so using them can feel like a double-edged sword at times. But yeah, still do it. Go fast. Vroom.
Don’t shy away from accessibility options
When selecting your racer, you can press the X button to get a look at a few accessibility options. These can be extremely helpful for those with disabilities, as well as new players looking to ease into the racing experience with reduced punishment for mistakes.
Smart Steering will stop your character from ever driving off the side of a track, while Auto-Accelerate will take care of keeping you moving so that you can focus all of your attention on steering. You can even turn on Auto-Use Item to make your character use items for you, though this takes away your ability to use power-ups strategically for any given situation.
Mess with these settings and toggle them on/off any time you want to customize your racing experience. The goal here is to have as much fun as possible, after all.
Get those double-item boxes
This one is simple: More items equal a higher chance for survival. Because of this, it’s usually a good idea to aim for double item boxes on a course so that you can snag two items at once, giving you two chances at disrupting other players or providing yourself with additional protection from incoming projectiles.
Of course, if you see someone else aiming for the double item box ahead of you, it may sometimes be better to snag a nearby normal item box instead so that you don’t risk a chance of getting nothing at all. I don’t want to think you’d get sniped in the butt by a red shell just because your greed left you without protection.
Mario Kart World is available now exclusively on Nintendo Switch 2.