Nintendo Switch 2 and Mario Kart World

Nintendo Switch 2 and Mario Kart World

Here’s a slightly exclusive glimpse at how this column comes together each month. To begin with, I devote a good hour or so to procrastination, scrolling mindlessly through social media. Once I’ve completely drained my feed – and, more often than not, my belief in humanity – I usually write about the meeting point between video games or technology and real-world cars or motoring culture.

Not on this occasion. This month is entirely about video games, because I’m consumed by the year’s biggest gaming story: the arrival of the Nintendo Switch 2 console.

Nintendo at least made things easy for me by selecting a launch title for its new machine. Mario Kart World is unquestionably a racing game, even if its connection to actual cars is open to question. Suffice to say, I wouldn’t advise using mushrooms as a fuel additive. Mario Kart World is, as expected, excellent, and its battle-royale Knockout Tour mode is especially addictive.

Mario Kart World transforms the familiar formula

Combined with the vast open world that now hosts the races, it represents the most substantial change to the Mario Kart formula since the original game. Assuming it isn’t too bold to suggest that you, as a TG reader, enjoy racing games, Mario Kart World alone justifies the cost of a Switch 2.

That said, this makes the console sound like little more than a delivery system for Mario Kart. The Switch 2 is actually an appealing piece of hardware in its own right. The original Nintendo Switch, with its bright controllers, had something of the Fisher-Price My First Console about it; its replacement is a sleeker, more adult-looking bit of equipment. As a result, it is slightly less embarrassing for me – indisputably a grown man – to use one on the train. The pitying looks from people with proper jobs and social lives have fallen by around 30 per cent.

Switch 2 Game Chat and portable performance

The standout new feature for me is also one that seems almost embarrassingly self-evident. Game Chat lets you create an instant chat room with a group of mates, but the clever part is that you needn’t wear a clammy headset for them to hear you. The microphone is built into the Switch 2, applying a range of smart audio filters so that your friends hear every syllable of the very rude remark you’ve just made about their Mario Kart performance.

Without delving too far into electronic hardware specifications – which are nowhere near as thrilling as a 0–62 time – the Switch 2 is a potent little box. It can run portable versions of games that, only a few years ago, were bringing home consoles to their knees. One example is the retro-futuristic sci-fi roleplaying game Cyberpunk 2077. Which, I have just remembered, does actually include a real car: one Porsche 930 Turbo. It’s a tenuous link, admittedly, but I think I’ve just managed to haul this column back to its subject. Normal service will return next time...