2025 was a year in gaming that excited me! Unlike the outcry of many others, I was very much looking forward to the release of Nintendo's Switch 2. As a console, I felt it was a repeat on an already-winning formula, and all that was really needed for the Switch family of consoles to continue to succeed was a hardware upgrade. Switch 2 did exactly that.
The console released on June 5th in 2025. I picked up my pre-ordered Switch 2 on release day! I was interested in trying the console's launch title, Mario Kart World. Donkey Kong Bananza had my attention, but at the time of the Switch 2's release I was not fully sold on the game yet! And last in my view, I was also caught up in the hype surrounding games like Pokemon Legends Z-A and Metroid Prime 4 becoming cross-gen titles in the Fall of 2025. Things were really looking up!
Oftentimes though, life has a way of working out far differently from what we expect.
Ominous one-liners aside, here's my little collection of physical Switch 2 games thus far! Digital titles I've played as well include, of course, the digital download of Mario Kart World that came with my console, as well as Pokemon Legends Z-A which I also just played a digital copy of. I want to take this time to a do a "lightning round" of sorts - a shot-by-shot series of mini reviews of all these games to get you all up to speed on my gaming life this past year!
I'd like to tell you all about my thoughts on some of these games. I'll split these talks up into separate articles. The reasoning, I think you'll find, is sound and well-thought out:
- This article will be way too long if I try to talk about 6 games at once;
- Content;
- lazy (i even stopped capitalizing see?);
With that out of the way, let's start with the launch title!
The Switch 2 made an interesting and unprecedented choice in launching their direct successor console with a new entry in the Mario Kart series!
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was the latest entry in the series before now, and is a true gem of a game. There's no specific part of the game that overly stands out about it aside from the soundtrack, in my opinion - but that doesn't really matter when Deluxe's standout feature is being the most well-rounded and polished entry in the series by far.
Mario Kart World had a lot to live up in that regard. Did it stick the landing? The short answer, unfortunately, is a "no". The long answer, however, I do think is more interesting!
The obvious thing to ask about a successor to 8 Deluxe is, "what does this game do that's new?". Every Mario Kart game has to have its own unique appeal; a gimmick, a hook, something that separates it from the others. World's unique selling point is an open-world approach to the design of its tracks. When you drive at the obligatory Peach's Castle-esque track, you're only an open field or highway away from driving yourself into the next track. No transitions, no menus, no loading screen.
The first or second or tenth time, it's really cool! However the shine quickly dulls when you realize the Grand Prix mode is worse off for it. For some reason, Nintendo decided to make the track you travel to only be raced in for one lap...?
My only guess with why this decision was made was for the sake of pacing. If you're driving on an open linear highway route with a few winding turns for 3-4 minutes and then have to spend another 3 minutes on a fully-lapped out race course, suddenly a 15-minute Grand Prix mode is a 30-minute mode. I would have to assume this is the reasoning... Otherwise I have no idea why this was decided upon.
I understand it's still a race and still a "Grand Prix" even when done this way, but there was nothing wrong with a race being a closed circuit, multi-lap race. World's Grand Prix is lesser for not including closed circuit, multi-lap races alongside its highway travel between the courses.
On the opposite side of the spectrum, there's also a new mode called Knockout Tour, which is really fun! It's an elimination mode that chops the roster of racer after each checkpoint in the race based on performance. The last track of the race is down to the final 4 racers who are all scrambling for that 1st place result at the finish line.
It's a very fun time, and a much-needed refresh of the Mario Kart formula! It reminds me a lot of F-Zero 99 in a sense, where the game now feels more like a battle royale where the competition slowly and inevitably trickles down to the most capable or luckiest of the racers. It has a much more chaotic and wacky feel to it as well, due to the frantic race to each finish line and the more wild item selection added to this game, lending to more of what I always felt was meant to remind us of something like Wacky Races.
Knockout Tour's also a genius formula that takes advantage of the linear race trend which the open-world design dictates; it makes much more sense for these winding highways and "entry-left, exit-right" approach to the courses to be treated as checkpoints for the game to start booting players not qualifying. Knockout Tour is without a doubt the star of the show, and the mode that feels like it was most considered and built around the new open map.
The open-world level design itself is undeniably fun to explore. Similar to games like Forza, there's a "free drive" sort of mode where you can just go wherever you want to discover the world, find little goodies and unlockables, and even practice some of the routes for Grand Prix without a timer or competition! Much like Grand Prix, it is a fun novelty but doesn't really have any long-term appeal.
The open world's main problem - and seemingly Nintendo's issue with all of their open-world efforts - is that it's a mile-wide puddle instead of a narrow strait that touches the ocean floor. Points of interest almost exclusively reduced to short time trials. The whole "micro-challenge" thing has overstayed its welcome, and makes the game feel more like a tech demo you would play on a showfloor for 30 minutes of access instead of a full game.
I won't deny how well-designed the world itself is! It truly is! The geography is varied, transitions between biomes beautifully, and I particularly liked Nintendo's willingness to include more than one urbanized locale while still making them all feel distinct.
However, I think Mario Kart World was tasked with the sisyphusian goal of being yet another Breath of the Wild'd Nintendo franchise without actually realizing the runoff effects that such a choice would have on other parts of the game. It feels quite finished, but the glaring problem is that it simply feels unpolished. While enjoyable enough in spurts, it's ultimately forgettable as a game and I don't see the vision.
I want to make one thing clear, as I'm admittedly shitting on the game a bit: all of this critique is relative. Much like my view on the Pokemon series these days, the only reason I seem to talk so harshly about a game that - let's be real - is still probably an 8/10 game, is because I'm aware of the series' existing pedigree and heights.
Yes, Mario Kart World is still very much a finished game in its own right, but when you have to compare it against 8 Deluxe - a game that is still accessible and playable on the Switch 2 via backwards compatibility, mind you - I can't help but feel the game is a collection of cut features all in service to an open-world map that is cool... but nobody asked for.
So yes, perhaps in my earlier analogy Sisyphus didn't get squashed, but the rock did roll over his toe... And either way, the rock is back at the bottom of the hill.