So what is this? As I think everyone knows by now, Mario Kart World is an open world game, and has an expansive free run mode. There’s a few things to do in free run: search out and complete P Switch Missions, collect Peach Medallions, and find and activate ? Panels.

The Panels look and act like the ? Panels in the SNES game: just roll over one to activate it. It doesn’t earn you an item like they did way back then, but the game does remember you did it, and it earns you a new decal for your vehicles.

There are 150 panels in MKW’s sprawling environment, and some of them are in some really tricky places! Please enjoy Helix13_ collecting them all in less than half an hour, showing off the game’s vehicle-parkour movement system as it runs, and demonstrating all kinds of tricks, like using the Rewind feature to get back from activating out-of-the-way panels. Or taking advantage of the fact that MKW will give you credit for a panel that you’re about to hit if you pause and change regions. And you get to enjoy MKW’s great soundtrack along the way, consisting of dozens of great songs from throughout Mario’s history.

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There’s been explorations into where the cars and NPCs come go, and we posted a video on that topic a while back. Sometimes they end up meandering in loops. Sometimes they leave the roads and just go tearing about the landscape. Sometimes cars actually find parking spaces, leave themselves there, and NPCs pop out and start wandering.

Well, similar questions can be asked about the game’s trains (15m). Mr A-Game on Youtube followed them around for a while to see where they come from. He claims to have discovered “how the train system of Mario Kart World works,” but I’m not sure. There appear to be tracks that trains can travel down either way, meaning, there must be some system in place to prevent train to train collisions. He does uncover some strong tendencies of trains to take particular routes though.

OnADock performed their own investigation that also involved boats. (17m)

If I had to guess, I think trains probably aren’t modeled outside far out of sight of active players, that they’re spawned randomly, and that some checks are performed to make sure two trains won’t share the same track. This is a guess, but it would be in line with the impromptu nature of the auto traffic simulation. It’d also mean that the P-Switch missions that rely on trains being in a specific place won’t be disrupted, and that the train can be left behind in the world after the mission without getting in the way of any grand schedule coordinating the trains.

Well, that’s what I think. Maybe I’m wrong. But… maybe I’m right?

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You may remember that Blue Shells couldn’t be dodged at all before MK8. Well if you could figure out a way to become invincible you could avoid getting clobbered and the likely loss of position, but you never get invincibility stars in first place, they only show up if you’re badly trailing, so it doesn’t often come up.

But then people found out that if you used the Super Horn item just before getting hit by a Blue Shell, it’d destroy it, and Horns can generate when you’re in the middle of the pack. And then they found out, if you used a turbo-powered Super Mushroom in a brief window before the shell hit, you could actually zip out of its explosion without getting caught in it.

But now, there’s even more ways to dodge what had, since the Mario Kart 64 days, become legendary for being the inevitable, the Grim Reaper of Mario Kart. There are now three items that make you invincible, or at least invulnerable enough to thwart the Blue Meanie. And if you’re willing to use the new rewind feature and have the presence of mind to use it, you can more generally avoid getting hit. You’ll be sent back to an earlier place on the track, but used at the right moment and for just long enough, you actually come out ahead relative to the time lost from getting pasted.

Super Horns and Mushrooms (and Mushroom’s variants, the Triple Mushroom and Golden Mushroom) can still thwart the spiny menace. But… what about zippers? What about the turbo effect from Dash Food? For the answer to that, and some other possible options, I refer you to the video.

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One consequence of the game world is that the NPCs that inhabit it have a bit more of a life than in past games. In N64 Toad’s Turnpike, they’re just boxes that travel around the loop getting in the racers’ way. But now, when you’re exploring in Free Roam, you can pick out a specific driver and follow them around.

And what do you know, there actually seems to be a bit of an inner life going on there! They don’t seem to pathfind between locations, sadly, but they can get the mad yen to drive off the road and tear across the desert. And, surprisingly, a drive can get out of their car, which is more than the player racers in the game can do!

OnADock, on Youtube, made a 14 minute video where he followed a Toad around on their travels through the Mario Kart World, um, world. Maybe it’ll inspire you to do some investigation of your own?

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MKW’s apparently an open world Mario game, and open world games need more world building than otherwise. What I am hoping is this means we’ll finally find out more about all these weird MK-universe advertisers than
in the past. Does Mario actually own and run Mario Motors? Is Luigi the boss of a tire company? Will we get an explanation for Bowser competing in a (mostly) friendly manner against his eternal rivals? And…

Oh my stars and garters, how does this Toad DRIVE this vehicle? His eyes are right over the dashboard! Can his feet reach the pedals? It doesn’t seem like it was built for them, is this a common issue for Mushroom Kingdom cars and trucks? And do they ever suffer collision damage from hitting big floating, rotating coins? Along those lines:

He’s just a workaday Koopa, driving for his job with Hammer Bros. Co., and woah it’s KING BOWSER himself driving right past, and in the same lane! And he appears to have gotten fashion tips from Hellboy with that Right Hand of Doom glove thing happening. Also gotta note that Bowser’s license plate is just his logo. “Yeah that’s me, any questions?”

Here’s more traffic, I assume the open world theme means there’ll be a lot more in the way of street vehicle obstacles. Mario Kart World certainly has some weird, and weirdly useable, cars. Vehicular ramps, blast barrels, and I assume that Bob-Omb car is a live explosive. Road safety in the Mushroom Kingdom is a joke.

Sexy! I give them points for working the Girders board (sorry, “25m”) into a track. But it looks like we’re again getting the same style of tricks as in prior MK games: the vehicle gets a burst of speed, the driver turns around and mugs for the camera, and vroom vroom. Doesn’t seem too safe to me. Also, it looks like DK’s redesign for the movie has stuck.

My favorite element of the Mario Kart series, which I believe I’ve mentioned here before, are all the Mario-themed corporate sponsors, which suggest that not only are the characters race drivers, but also own their own auto supply and repair companies, and other companies besides. They’re all businesspeople! It’s a capitalist hellscape of their own devising!

Besides Mario Motors and Luigi Tires, among the MK businesses spotted are Koopa Construction (slogan, “High Quality You Can Trust,” how boring), Peach Resort (also a track name), a company called Dash (“Accelerate the Fun”), Waluigi Vintage Clothing (that’s more backstory than we’ve ever gotten for him), Wario Games (nice tie-in!), Fuzzy Batteres, Royal Motors (don’t know if that’s Peach, Daisy, Rosalina, or some combination; it’s tagline is “Supersonic Primeness”), Dolphin Marine Sports, Nabbit Courier Service(?), Garlic Power, Red Shell Speed Tires, what I think is Yoshi’s Cookies, Premium Scrap, 1UP Fuel, and there’s Bowser, Buzzy Beetle, Lava Bubble, Shy Guy, Chain Chomp, Fire Flower and just “Banana” (“Let one slip!”) companies I couldn’t make out the full names of, and the return of MKTV, which uses what looks like the eyes of Cappy, from Mario Odyssey, in their logo, but they’re probably Lakitu’s goggles—although Lakitu is a driver now.

There’s also THIS:

It’s the counterpart to The Mother Of All POW Blocks from the end of Super Mario 3D World! It is written in the Book of Mysteries, of the GREAT QUESTION BLOCK OF DOOM, the hitting of which will trigger the end of all things. Drive carefully, competitors.

This is probably my favorite track, a spooky horror movie track with big pictures of Peach throughout. You can’t see it in this shot but there’s a big black castle in the background and bats flying around.

Moo Moo Meadows not only returns as a track, but it seems like it’s been set within the Mario Kart World map! Are there differences? Are other retro tracks returning?

Also, a cow is a driver now. And it rides a boom box. Why not just make everything a kart, and put anything on top of it? Maybe I shouldn’t give them any ideas.

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