Finally, after ninety hours of driving in Mario Kart World I have unlocked all karts, drivers, and most importantly, driver outfits. After two months of picking up snacks at Yoshi’s drive-thrus I now get to pick my new MAIN [DRIVER] in Mario Kart World. Who will it be?

I spent over one hundred hours as the boy Inkling (or Squid Kid) in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the original Nintendo Switch. I also found that the best vehicle for him was the Splat Buggy ATV. The Mario Kart World driver roster currently only consists of characters from the MarioVerse (I’m not sure if that’s a term) — no Inklings, Link, Isabelle, or other Nintendo franchises.

My first ninety hours in Mario Kart World consisted of a couple of hours with each driver. I’ve spent as much time behind the wheel as the big daddies (like Donkey Kong and Bowser) as with the little babies (like Baby Mario and Baby Daisy). My goal was to unlock each vehicle, character, and costume. After achieving that goal it is time to pick my new Mario Kart World MAIN.

I could have gone with one of my old school go-to characters — like Mario, Yoshi, or Shy Guy — but there is one character that really stood out to me for a couple of reasons. I got my first online crown (first place in online Knockout Tour) with this driver. Also, I’m a huge fan of this one character’s killer outfit collection. That driver is Waluigi!

Seriously, check out these sweet fits!

The strange part is that prior to Mario Kart World, I have no real history with Waluigi. I know he mostly appears in games featuring the full MarioVerse crew (Mario Parties, Mario Sports titles, Super Smash Bros. games). Even in those games, I have never once chosen to play as Waluigi. Still, I now see myself becoming a full-on Waluigi Freak — I love me some Wampire!

Photo Mode

A well thought out photo mode goes a long way. After cruisin’ the open roads with Waluigi for this photoshoot the other night, I can now say that Mario Kart World has a great photo mode. It’s simplistic and stylistic. The perfect balance for photo mode is to make it simple enough, but also give the player some nice features.

I’ve played some beautiful looking games, and been turned off by their complicated photo modes. I can tell when a game has an intuitive and inviting photo mode because I end up with so many beautiful shots of my gaming experience (see The Last of Us: Part II and Ghost of Tsushima).

I’ve played games where I get away with beautiful screen shots by quickly snapping shots as I go (see Split Fiction and Bionic Bay). Still, a great photo mode allows the player to find the perfect angle, play with depth of field, add filters, and really enhance great moments.

There isn’t an overflow of options for photo mode in Mario Kart World, and that is why it works so well. There’s enough to have fun with it, but not too much to overcomplicate things. I plan to get way more photos as I continue to play Mario Kart World — maybe a whole Top Five Mario Kart World Fits Photo Post?

What’s Next?

After ninety hours of Mario Kart World in just over two months, I’m sure this game will stay at the top of our most-played list. Most nights my partner and I play online races, but we are ready for some more content very soon. For a game that sells for $80 I’m expecting some Free DLC in the way of new drivers, courses, modes.

I’m enjoying the new gameplay changes especially Knockout Tour races. I do miss the classic three-lap cup races. Building an interconnected world where you get to drive from one race to the next is a very cool feature. I originally imagined these portions of driving to the next race to be more like mini “qualifying” races, where you’d fight it out for a good starting position for the next three-lap race. The new Grand Prix mode can get a little confusing at times, when more than half of the race is spent driving to the next race.

With the second big Nintendo Switch 2 release being Donkey Kong Bananza, I have to hope that Donkey Kong and Pauline will get some fresh, new fits in Mario Kart World. Maybe, we’ll even see some new Kong characters added to the roster. In the future I’d even like to see some non-Nintendo characters get in on Mario Kart World. Imagine a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate style roster for Mario Kart World, and with each new character comes new tracks, music, and more.

I know there has to be more planned for this game and I’m excited to see what’s next.