Mario Kart World is a 2025 mascot racer video game and the 10th installment of the Mario Kart series. It was released on June 5th, 2025 for the Nintendo Switch 2 as a launch title.

Introduced in this entry is the titular "Mario Kart World'', where all of the race tracks now exist in a massive, interconnected world. Taking advantage of this are the new Knockout Tour and Free Mode modes: the former consists of a series of elimination races where players race through the world's interconnected routes, with brief passes by the main courses serving as checkpoints where the bottom four are eliminated, while the latter allows players to explore the game's world at their own leisure, or take on activities like doing P-Switch challenges, collecting Peach Medallions, and hitting ? Switches that award you stickers to decorate your kart.

The open world experience also extends to the main Grand Prix, as after the first race, you'll find that the subsequent races now have you and the other drivers take to the highways, waterways, off-road, and more to get to the next course. Thanks to the hundreds of interconnecting routes that you'll see across the game's different modes, Mario Kart World's soundtrack includes over 200 new arrangements of songs to accompany you whether you're racing from coast-to-coast or on a casual drive through the countryside, remixing and reimagining tracks from across the wider Super Mario Bros. franchise: ranging from other Mario Kart games, to the mainline platformers, to spin-offs like Yoshi's Story and WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!, to even surprising choices like "The Mario Drawing Song" from Flipnote Studio.

Other significant changes to the gameplay are races now featuring 24 characters at once, the first increase in driver count since Mario Kart Wii; an expanded trick system that allows the player to rail grind, wall ride, and charge jump all over the environment to cut corners and find alternate paths; and the removal of underwater driving in favor of your kart transforming into a boat to ride the waves (and of lesser consequence, your glider has now been swapped out in favor of plane wings). Character costumes also return from Mario Kart Tour, though new outfits are now gained by grabbing a bag of location-themed "Dash Food" at roadside eateries during races and in Free Roam.

Mario Kart World contains examples of:

• Abandoned Laboratory: Dino Dino Jungle has been redesigned to include a laboratory named "Dino Dino Laboratory", with more dinosaurs directly on the course. Besides the dinosaurs, the laboratory doesn't have any other sapient residents in it.
• Absurdly Short Level: The layout of Peach Stadium that is traversed in the Shell Cup (and is reached from Crown City) is the shortest in the game, consisting of an open loop around the terminal station beneath the actual course (which is traversed in the Special Cup and has a longer duration), going through a rising path in the middle where the goal line awaits. In VS Races, this layout can also be reached from Cheep Cheep Falls, though it's raced in reverse.
• Adaptational Location Change:
  • Peach Beach is set at a resort on the shores of Mario Kart World's map instead of in Isle Delfino like it was in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!
  • Choco Mountain is a muddy dirt bike arena manned by Chargin' Chucks instead of a rocky mine set in the mountains like it was in Mario Kart 64, although it's located next to an oil refinement facility.
• Adaptation Distillation: Wario Shipyard, a returning course from Mario Kart 7, features a major redesign to accommodate this game's lack of underwater driving. The track's underwater sections now take place on the water's surface, though they otherwise retain a similar layout.
• Adapted Out: In previous iterations, Dino Dino Jungle was populated by Noshis, but in World, they have been replaced with brachiosaurs and plesiosaurs.
• Added Alliterative Appeal: One of the missions in Free Roam is "Pass by plenty of Pokeys partying on the path!" Another one near Wario Stadium is "Cross the beams of the broken bridge!"
• Aliens Steal Cattle:
  • One P-Switch mission has the prompt "SEARCH FIELDS. ABDUCT BLUE COINS.", and puts the player in control of a Flying Saucer to pick up blue coins with its Tractor Beam... along with the poor cows who gather around them.
  • Invoked with the 1.3.0 update, which adds the ability to unlock characters in Free Roam by abducting them with the UFO. The cow, of course, is not exempt from this.
• All the Worlds Are a Stage: This incarnation of Rainbow Road incorporates elements from all 8 iterations from the prior mainline games, alongside some from other sources:
  • The track itself is one massive lap akin to Mario Kart 7's Rainbow Road, while the sheer length of the track serves to pay homage to Mario Kart 64's Rainbow Road, with the major difference that even a single lap on this game’s one is longer than the entirety of 64’s 3 laps.
  • Its first section is a Level in the Clouds above the city like in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, which you first access through a cannon, and has a mosaic floor texture akin to Super Mario Kart's iteration.
  • The end of the first section has a split path taking on an 8-like shape, bringing to mind both Mario Kart 8's Rainbow Road and the end of Mario Kart Wii's Rainbow Road.
  • The beginning of the second section takes place on a river-like area, alluding to the underwater ruins-like nature of Rainbow Downhill in Mario Kart Arcade GP. The introduction to it also has dash rings in the air, akin to the Glider sections of Mario Kart 7's Rainbow Road.
  • Its third section takes place on a space station like Mario Kart 8.
  • The third section has Star Thwomps as hazards like its SNES incarnation. This segment also has the road in a far more twisted and rotated path, similar to both Anti-Gravity in Mario Kart 8 and the twisty portions of Mario Kart DS.
  • The later sections feature a flying train like the 8-version of the Mario Kart 64 course.
• Alliterative Name:
  • Two of the new race tracks introduced in this game are called Salty Salty Speedway and Dandelion Depths.
  • As per usual, this game introduces its own incarnation of Rainbow Road.
  • Moo Moo Meadows from Mario Kart Wii returns.
  • Wario's bee costume is called the Wicked Wasp.
• Amphibious Automobile: Played with. Unlike Mario Kart 7, 8 and Tour, the game replaces underwater driving with the ability to move across the surface of water instead, so while the vehicles used in the game are still suited for land and water (plus capable of flying, albeit now with the usage of plane-like wings and a jet instead of a paraglider), they're not capable of submerging anymore. This also led to Wario Shipyard having to be redesigned so vehicles traverse it while driving above the water's surface instead of below.
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • Items are automatically held behind a racer after getting them in an item box, meaning players no longer have to hold down the trigger if they want to use it as a shield.^note Though that also means it's easier to lose such items to things like explosions or colliding racers.
  • If a racer has a Bob-omb and another racer crashes into it while it's behind them, it won't cause the item holder to also be caught in the blast.
  • If you fail a Free Roam mission, you're given the option to instantly retry it by pressing down the Left Stick instead of having to drive back to the starting point. You can also do this if you succeed with the mission, which is useful for when you want to keep looking around the area where the P Switch is located (especially useful when the P Switch was in an area that was hard to reach and return to, as with the three P Switches in the central palace tower of Shy Guy Bazaar).
  • Upon starting a mission, your character will automatically face the right way so you don't have to reorient yourself to get to the mission's start zone.
  • When a Super Star's power is almost up, the jingle from the mainline games now plays to let you know.
  • The Triple Mushroom item has been reworked. While they still circle around the player, they can no longer be stolen from other players by running into them (Boos and Lightning will still steal/disarm them though). In exchange, running into the circling mushrooms will still give the other player a boost, albeit a smaller one; this in itself is another Anti-Frustration Feature as this can easily happen by mistake in races with 24 players, so the "thief" has less chance of accidentally boosting themselves into a wall or pit.
  • In contrast to previous games, it is possible to change direction in mid-air (without gliding), giving the player a chance to course-correct if they misalign a jump.
  • Smart Steering. If the player is about to go off-course, this will automatically and quickly adjust the cart's path rather than making the player do it themselves (sometimes in ways a player can't replicate). If the player prefers not to use this, it can also be turned off in the in-game controller settings. It will also briefly disable itself while boosting items are in use so the player can still use shortcuts.
  • If the player goes off-road, their vehicle's tires will dramatically inflate into mini monster truck-sizes as a clear indication that you're not on the main path.
  • Unlike previous titles, where landing in deep off-road hazards like swampy bogs or lava counts as falling off the track, you have a grace period of a few seconds to get out before it's counted as a track fall and Lakitu has to rescue you. This also means that you can use a boost like a Mushroom to take a shortcut across these areas where the danger time doesn't tick down during said boost.
  • When exiting out of using binoculars, you'll be in the same direction as you were looking before exiting as to help head towards a point of interest you found.
  • In Single Player and Free Roam modes, the player can press down on the + Control Pad to "rewind" their kart's path a set distance, enabling the player to quickly correct a fatal mistake. With enough skill the rewind can even be used to avoid Spiny Shells, which is quite welcome considering how Mario Kart AI famously takes a mile when given an inch. The catch is that it is only the player that rewinds; the rest of the world and the racers still go forward, and any hazards will still connect (and interrupt the rewind).
  • Just like in Mario Kart 8, trophies and stars earned in Grand Prix and Knockout Tour on 100cc or higher will retroactively be added to the lower classes to prevent Fake Longevity. Unlike in 8, this also applies to Mirror Mode.
  • To easily find characters and their outfits you can sort them by theme and character. NPC Drivers also have their own category which is represented by a Goomba and a Piranha Plant icon.
  • With version 1.3.0, unlocking NPC drivers became both possible in Free Roam mode, and much easier to accomplish by hijacking UFOs in the overworld and abducting the character a player wants. Not only does this remove the randomization of the Kamek Orb and provide consistent places to unlock characters, but UFOs work on other players, making it possible for friends to share characters they want with one another. Version 1.4.0's addition of races with custom items makes it possible to spawn only Kamek Orbs from item boxes in a race as well, completely trivializing unlocking the NPC drivers if the player does just a few races on different tracks with only the Orbs enabled.
• ​"Arabian Nights" Days: Desert Hills and Shy Guy Bazaar, both of which take place in the desert and the latter taking place in a town overlooked by an Middle Eastern palace. Luigi, Daisy and Wario's Oasis costumes also reflects this.
• Art Evolution:
  • The whole game has a livelier, "cartoonier" feel that the developers state is meant to invoke the box art of the original Super Mario Kart, and which has been compared to Super Mario Bros. Wonder, though Donkey Kong's design in particular has been altered to match his appearance in Donkey Kong Bananza.
  • While the T-Rexes from Super Mario Odyssey had a realistic and scary design that deliberately clashed with the overall style of the game, the ones roaming Dino Dino Jungle have a rounded, cartoony look more in line with the typical Mario universe dinosaur, as well as feathers on their heads.
  • The cars have larger cabins and smaller front and back ends, similar to The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
• Artificial Brilliance: Until a later Nerf implemented through a post-launch update, the CPU drivers would use every trick in the book to get ahead, ranging from taking advanced shortcuts, to using Mushrooms to dodge Spiny Shells.
• Artificial Stupidity:
  • CPU drivers don't account for changes to items into their pathfinding. This results in them driving through Yoshi's drive-throughs even when Dash Food is disabled, causing them to waste time.
  • NPC racers in Free Roam, such as Baby Rosalina^note Since she spawns on the Crown Bridge in Free Roam. have trouble navigating the Crown Bridge, and will go to switch lanes only to bump into the raised section in the middle.
  • The traffic near Dino Dino Jungle isn't very good at avoiding dinosaurs. When a driver encounters one, they just go straight forward and usually ram into the dinosaur, which gets them launched into the air or Squashed Flat.
• Ascended Extra:
  • Mario Kart Tour featured Mii Racing Costumes based on Piranha Plants, Rocky Wrenches, Spikes, Fish Bones, Goombas, Cheep Cheeps, Dolphins, Para-Biddybuds, Pokeys, and the cows from Moo Moo Meadows; the latter six were added to the last wave of the Booster Course Pass in 8 Deluxe. These characters were all also previously obstacles or background characters in past games. World makes all of them playable characters.
  • After being restricted to use only in Battle Mode in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Mario Kart Tour, the Feather returns as a racing item for the first time since Super Mario Kart.
• Ascended Meme: invoked The Mario Kart World Direct featured several instances of the playable Penguin character driving off a cliff, which might be a reference to the popular Catharsis Factor that is throwing the annoying baby penguin off of Cool Cool Mountain in Super Mario 64.
• Aside Glance: When the Cow gets first place in a race, it'll cheer and then look directly into the camera.
• Astral Finale: As always, Rainbow Road is the final course of the Special Cup, and takes place in outer space. This is especially pronounced in the third segment of the course, where racers are transitioned from the clouds above a mountain range to a space station beyond the atmosphere.
• Athletic Arena Level: The game has Mario Bros. Circuit (an athetic course set next to a desert instead of a grassland) in the Mushroom Cup, a revamped version of Wario Stadium from Mario Kart 64 (made shorter to improve gameplay), and a combined version of the first three SNES Mario Circuits in the Special Cup. Peach Stadium (which appears in both the Shell and Special Cups) is a special case as, despite its name, it's less like a traditional stadium and more of a racing circuit set within the boundaries of Princess Peach's castle.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Wall-riding and jumping off of walls looks incredibly cool, but unless going for an insane shortcut, it is usually slower than driving normally.
• The Battle Didn't Count: Can be invoked in single player VS Races by selecting "Next Race" on the pause menu before you cross the finish line. This will skip to the next race, and nobody will score any points, even if they already crossed the finish line. Because of this, you can have a 24-way tie, with everybody scoring 0 points by doing this repeatedly.
• Bedlah Babe: One of Daisy's alternate costumes, Oasis Daisy,◊ shows her dressed with a stereotypical belly dancing attire, colored yellow to suit her motif.
• Big Badass Rig: Players can enter a trailer hitched to a giant truck, which can be used to smash through other vehicles and objects.
• Big Boo's Haunt: Boo Cinema is a unique blend between Big Boo's Haunt and Studiopolis, taking place across a horror-themed theater with sepia-tinted motifs. The game also brings back all three SNES Ghost Valley courses, though they're not part of any cup or rally (they do have Free Roam tribute challenges, however).
• Bindle Stick: Played for Laughs; Matsuri Yoshi's unique trick◊ depicts him carrying a bindle stick where the bag is shaped like a ? Block.
• Bookends: The first Grand Prix cup, the Mushroom Cup, ends on DK Spaceport, which prominently features a rocket visually themed after the Game & Watch. The final Grand Prix cup, the Special Cup, ends on Rainbow Road, one section of which takes you to a space station that is also visually themed after the Game & Watch and is the destination of the aforementioned rocket, as seen docked to the station when gliding to the station at the end of lap 2. Said track also features the return of Robo DK and other course centerpieces to cheer on the racers.
• Border Patrol: Driving too far off the edge of the open world has a Lakitu bring the player back, similar to their usual Bottomless Pit Rescue Service role in the series.
• Bread, Eggs, Breaded Eggs: Super Mario 3D Land introduced Sandmaarghs, which are Magmaarghs made of sand. Super Mario 3D World introduced Charvaarghs, which are large, serpentine Magmaarghs. This game introduces an even larger Charvaargh variant that's made of sand like a Sandmaargh.
• Breaking Old Trends:
  • Tracks from past Mario Kart games are not listed with prefixes (N64, GCN, Wii, etc.) indicating what game they're from. The only other times the series has done this was all the way back in Mario Kart DS with its returning battle maps, and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe not using the "Tour" prefix for the non-city tracks added to the Booster Course Pass.
  • There is no longer a strict divide between "Nitro" cups with new courses and "Retro" cups with returning courses, following the precedent set by Mario Kart 8's DLC. The Star and Special Cups (typically Nitro) and the Shell, Banana and Lightning Cups (typically Retro) both feature a mix of old and new courses in this game, while the Flower Cup (typically Nitro) features entirely returning courses and the Leaf Cup (typically Retro) is composed of new courses. For that reason, the Special Cup is the final cup, rather than the Lightning Cup.
  • In previous entries, every cup has a fully unique set of tracks, and every track is only seen once. Crown City and Peach Stadium break that, with the former appearing in both the Mushroom Cup and Shell Cup, and the latter appearing in both the Shell Cup and the Special Cup. Each cup's icon for the course is different, however, and each cup has a different path into and out of the course. These courses each only have one set of time trials, meaning there are only 30 unique courses in this game rather than the standard of 32 set by DS.
  • In previous games, Mario and Luigi had their own circuits, but in this instance the brothers share a track with the appropriate name, "Mario Bros. Circuit". In addition, their circuits always took place in grass areas, but Mario Bros. Circuit evades this by taking place in a desert area instead. This also means this is the first game where Luigi does not have a course exclusive to him (Mario Kart 8 originally didn't, but Deluxe added Luigi's Mansion as a battle course).
  • When a racer is hit with Lightning, they play a unique spasming animation instead of the usual spin-out animation, additionally, the course music no longer distorts for small racers.
  • Only the initial course has you drive multiple laps on the course. The following tracks have you instead drive on a route from the previous track to the next one, with the final lap being on the track itself. Races set on routes begin with a rolling start, another first for the series. However, there is an option to turn off the routes in VS Mode, and Time Trials use the old standard.
  • Bumping into something is no longer guaranteed to remove all of your momentum; if you clip against a moving object, you may simply be knocked aside while retaining most of your speed. However, a head-on collision still causes a tumble as usual. Additionally, there's a chance that you'll land upside down, sliding on your head for a few seconds before flipping back right-side up. This change also applies to the Bullet Bill item.
  • Gliders and underwater driving are no longer present after having been a series staple since Mario Kart 7, but both have been replaced with new types of driving that hearken back to Diddy Kong Racing. In the air, karts sprout wings; when approaching bodies of water, they turn into watercraft. On a related note, the kart-building system introduced in 7 and featured in subsequent titles has been removed, and players choose from several pre-built karts like in DS and Wii.
  • Drivers can now string together multiple tricks in a single jump to gain even more air time, rather than previous entries limiting you to just one.
  • Certain large vehicles, like eighteen-wheeler trucks and giant motorboats, are present on some tracks and can be driven into as a temporary power-up, marking the first time in the franchise you can get an ability in a race beyond grabbing an item box or some equivalent.
  • This is the first installment where you can unlock new drivers mid-race rather than waiting for the player to return to the menu after completing specific conditions. In the case of costumes, those are unlocked by eating a track's special food power-up with a racer you haven't unlocked their costume for yet. Other racers that have historically served as mooks and background characters are unlocked from the player being afflicted with Kamek's curse, which transforms them into a certain character depending on the track.
  • This is the first game to allow you to explore each track (sans Rainbow Road) at your leisure via Free Roam, whereas in previous titles each track was locked to gameplay modes and players had to use roundabout methods to practice on them like via Time Trial.
  • This is the first game since Mario Kart: Super Circuit where Princess Peach in her default dress drives with her hair down, as opposed to wearing a ponytail. She does still sport a ponytail in some of her alternate costumes though.
  • Coinciding with the addition of costume swaps, this is the first game where the princess-type characters can wear their usual dresses on bikes rather than biker suits, which has been the case since Mario Kart Wii. Their biker suits can be unlocked as alternate costumes (under the name "Aero").
  • This is the first mainline game in which Donkey Kong is an unlockable character; he has always been part of the default roster beforehand. This is also the first game where Toadette is a base roster character (discounting Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which had all characters unlocked by default).
  • Generally the title screen and the selection menus are placed on different screens, but in this game, all of them are merged into one single screen.
  • This is the first mainline game since Mario Kart: Super Circuit where Wario does not have a new track themed to him; even Mario Kart Tour had Ninja Hideaway, which is Wario-themed in all but name. However, Wario does have two returning courses to his name.
  • This is the first game in the series since Mario Kart 64 where Bowser's Castle does not directly precede Rainbow Road in the Special Cup, instead appearing as the final course of the Lightning Cup, akin to how it was the final course of the Star Cup in Mario Kart 64.
  • Unlike in past games, where racers on Rainbow Road started just behind the finish line, here, they either start at Peach Stadium and have to get to the course manually or they start on a platform after a goal gate which acts as the finish line, making this the only Rainbow Road so far where they start and finish in different spots. Also, this is the only Rainbow Road whose goal gate is not on a drivable platform, not unlike the secret gate above the main starting line at Mario Kart 7's Bowser Castle.
• Brutal Bonus Level: Of the hundreds of P-Switch missions, there are six titled "Prove yourself in a SPECIAL test of skill!" All six are very difficult, requiring lightning fast reflexes to make all the jumps needed with a strict time limit, meaning missing even one ring usually means failure. It's downplayed in that all of them are accessible as soon as you start playing, provided you know where to look.
• The Bus Came Back:
  • Cataquacks return as an obstacle, not having made a proper appearance in the Mario series since Mario Kart Wii in 2008; this also marks their very first playable appearance.
  • Piantas are playable for the first time in any Mario game since 2008's Mario Super Sluggers.
  • Hammer Bro., Chargin' Chuck, Nabbit, and Monty Mole return as playable characters from Mario Kart Tour after missing out on Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's Booster Course Pass DLC.
  • Super Koopas return for the first time, outside of remakes of Super Mario World, since 1993's Mario & Wario, where they made a small cameo.
  • Chill Bullies return for the first time, outside of remakes of Super Mario 64, since 64 itself. They have been redesigned to match the new design for Bullies introduced in Super Mario 3D World.
  • Skeeters return for the first time since 2010's Super Mario Galaxy 2.
  • Frost/Ice Piranha Plants make their first non-remake appearance since 2013's New Super Luigi U, and they use their design from Super Paper Mario.
  • Cheep Chomps and Snow Pokeys make their first appearances since 2021's Mario Golf: Super Rush.
  • Porcupuffers, Bullies, Charvaarghs, and Heavy Fire Bros. make their first appearance since 2019's Super Mario Maker 2.
  • Some of the game's many sponsors are Hot Foot (on Hot Foot Gasoline sponsors) from Super Mario Bros. 3, and, perhaps more surprisingly, Batadon (on Batadon Aero Parts sponsors) from Super Mario Land, both of which haven't appeared in a game since 1990 (not counting remakes and re-releases), making it nearly 35 years since their last appearance. Batadons also make a physical appearance in this game's iteration of Desert Hills alongside Tokotokos, their non-winged counterparts.
  • The Gold Shell (renamed the Coin Shell here) is one of the new items in this game after last appearing in Super Mario 3D World (not counting the Switch port). It functions identically to how it did in 3D World and New Super Mario Bros. 2, dropping coins as it travels across the course before breaking.
  • Wario Stadium is part of the Flower Cup, the first time it's appeared in the series since its debut in 64.
  • The Boohemoth from New Super Mario Bros. 2 returns as a background character in Boo Cinema, making its first physical appearance since its debut (though a statue based on him did previously appear in Twisted Mansion in Mario Kart 8).
  • One of the bikes is modeled after R.O.B., making his first appearance in a Mario Kart game since Mario Kart DS.
• ​Calacas: Dry Bones Burnout comes complete with Latin music and decorated dinosaur bones.
• The Cameo:
  • Although the Angry Sun from Super Mario Bros. 3 no longer physically appears in Desert Hills, its likeness is carved into the starting line, which allows the course's name to remain accurate in languages that name it after the sun (such as in Japanese and French).
  • Donkey Kong Jr. is not playable, but his 2D sprite from Super Mario Kart is depicted on stickers surrounding Mario Circuit, as well as during a scene in the ending credits that homages the Super Mario Kart title screen.
• Carnivore Confusion: Heaviliy implied. While we don't know where they get the meat products for certain types of Dash Food, like hamburgers and kebabs, there is nothing stopping the Cow from eating any of them when it's racing, nor do any ill effects occur during or immediately after eating them.
• Car Skiing: A new trick the karts can do is skiing on rails, which can be used to charge up Mini Turbos. The karts will also end up balanced on their side wheels if they make side bumps into objects or other vehicles.
• Character Customization: Like in Mario Kart Tour, main characters who aren't playable minor enemies have unlockable outfits.
• Chase Scene:
  • In Free Roam, Nabbit can be found off the beaten path and will run away from you. Knocking him over rewards you with a few coins, as well as a sticker when you do it for the first time.
  • Also in Free Roam, a Chargin' Chuck may appear with a "TARGET" prompt. You must hit him with the Green Shell item boxes he drops to obtain some coins, and on the first takedown, a sticker. Rarely, multiple of them will appear at once.
  • In the mission "Evade the Spikes' attacks and reach the goal!", the police finally stop being useless and pursue the Spike-carrying trucks along the road. However, the extra vehicles actually make the mission harder for the player due to there being more obstacles.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome:
  • After being playable in every mainline Mario Kart game since Mario Kart Wii, Miis are completely absent in this game, let alone as part of the playable roster. Likewise, none of the non-Mario characters from Mario Kart 8 (Link from The Legend of Zelda, Villager and Isabelle from Animal Crossing, and the Inklings from Splatoon) make a return.
  • While alternately colored Yoshis return in the game, the alternately colored Birdos and Shy Guys from Tour and 8 Deluxe have not, with Birdo and Shy Guy's alternate costumes all simply using their respective default colors of pink and red.
  • This is the first Mario Kart game since Mario Kart: Double Dash!! to not feature any retro tracks from Mario Kart: Super Circuit.
• City of Canals: Salty Salty Speedway is set in a town that vaguely resembles Venice and Amsterdam and has the racers drive on the canals.
• Clean Dub Name: Originally, Polish supplemental material for the Super Mario Bros. series have the turtle enemies named Koopa Troopa be identical to the English version, but pronounced KOH-puh, as "kupa" means "poop" in Polish. Starting with Mario Kart World, the first game in the Mario series to get an official Polish localization, the enemy is named Żółwnierz.^note A portmanteau name, which could be rendered in English as "Tortoisoldier"
• Clown Car:
  • The pickup trucks with enemies on the back, such as Spikes or Hammer Bros, can respawn them indefinitely should they be defeated. The only way to stop them from spawning a replacement is to wipe the truck out with a hijacked cargo truck, Bob-omb, hammers or Spiny Shell.
  • The UFOs don't have a cap on how many vehicles they can abduct, and they're roughly the size of a bus. This is especially noticeable when they abduct each other.
• Company Cross-References: To the other branches of the Mario franchise:
  • The Tiny Titan from Mario Kart Wii makes a return, which strongly resembles the Monster from Famicom Grand Prix II: 3D Hot Rally (Famicom Grand Prix predates Mario Kart as the first racing game series Mario and Luigi appeared in). In addition, the Mario Motors sponsor from previous games (which used artwork of Mario from 3D Hot Rally) is shown to return, and now has a logo more closely resembling the logo for the aforementioned game.
  • Three musical themes that can be heard in Free Roam and when racing between courses in VS Race are the ending theme from Yoshi's Story, the main theme from Wario Land: Super Mario Land 3, and "Voices Being Carried on the Waves" from WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgame$!
  • Among Wario's costumes, one strongly resembles his biker outfit from the WarioWare series, and another is a dead ringer for his pirate captain guise from Game & Wario.
  • Wario's sponsors, Wario Games and Wario Motors, both use iconography from the WarioWare series; the former references the Japanese title screen for WarioWare: Touched!, and the latter uses the stylized graphic of Wario's face from WarioWare: Smooth Moves.
  • Yoshi's "Biker" costume is a blue Yoshi in a leather punk outfit that resembles Boshi, though it isn't exactly the same to avoid legal firewalls with Square Enix.
  • One of the unlockable bikes is the R.O.B. H.O.G., which also doubles as a Continuity Nod to when R.O.B. was playable in a Mario Kart game.
  • Pauline's Aero biker suit is redesigned with a red and gold theme based on the color scheme of the Famicom.
• Compressed Adaptation: Wario Stadium is heavily condensed from its original Mario Kart 64 iteration in a similar manner to how Mario Kart Tour adapted courses like Sky Garden and Sunset Wilds, most likely to make it less of a Marathon Level. The entire middle portion that snakes back into itself is removed, making it more of a standard circuit.
• Console Cameo:
  • Above the starting line for Mario Circuit is a giant wide screen displaying the Mario Kart logo that's made to look like a Game Boy with Super Nintendo Entertainment System controller ports underneath.
  • The spaceship at DK Spaceport is themed after a Game & Watch (specifically Donkey Kong, naturally), and its thrusters in particular have buttons and a + Control Pad on them resembling the console. A giant satellite seen in Rainbow Road is also Game & Watch-themed and even has text reading "GW-80" stamped on, referencing the Game & Watch's debut in 1980.
• Continuity Nod:
  • One of Toad's costumes gives him the outfit of Captain Toad, another member of his species introduced in Super Mario Galaxy.
  • Many costumes are inspired by other Mario games. For instance, one of Mario's outfits is the Shine Sprite shirt and sunglasses from Super Mario Sunshine, and one of Peach's outfits is the Yukata she wears in Bowser's Kingdom in Super Mario Odyssey. Mario also has a costume where he's dressed up like a cowboy, referencing his appearance in Mario Party 2.
  • Some outfits, such as Peach's Yukata, are returning outfits from Mario Kart Tour. The only such outfits to have debuted in Tour are Rosalina's "Aurora" look and Waluigi's "Wampire" look (which still had its name changed from Vampire while Waluigi's skin was made paler).
  • DK Spaceport features references to the original Donkey Kong arcade game, such as pixelated images of Donkey Kong based on his original sprite, and the entire second half of the track being a large-scale recreation of 25 m (complete with the music). The track also references the Game & Watch version of Donkey Kong by using the same color scheme and button iconography from the console's design.
  • The funnel-shaped exhausts on most vehicles in water mode heavily resemble F.L.U.D.D.
  • Mario Bros. Circuit has a sign based on the box art of Mario Bros..
  • Daisy's "Oasis" costume has the skirt trim design from her old dress◊ in Super Mario Land.
  • Wario's pirate outfit is heavily inspired by his Captain Wario persona from Game & Wario.
  • Yoshi's Biker outfit bears a huge resemblance to Boshi, giving him a nearly identical blue coloring and spiked red collar, plus similar sunglasses.
  • One of Chargin' Chuck's tricks has it jump in the air and clap, mimicking the behavior of Clappin' Chucks from Super Mario World. Certain Chargin' Chucks appearing as obstacles also do the same clapping jump.
• ​Convection, Schmonvection: As is typical in the Mario series. Dry Bones Burnout is by lava, but the racers are just fine (until you fall in).
• Cool Train: Alongside the Sunshine Express which frequently passes through Whistletop Summit, one of the unlockable bikes is the Loco-Moto; a steam-powered bike that's based on a train.
• Crate Expectations: The game tends to place wooden boxes on the inside of turns to signal that you can use a Dash Mushroom to boost through as a shortcut.
• Credits Medley: The game ends with a credits medley containing a portion of every new course (including the combined form of the three SNES Mario Circuits) in the game. It starts with the main theme, transitions into Peach Stadium, and ends in a grand rendition of the game's Rainbow Road theme.
• Creepy Jazz Music: Boo Cinema has a jazzy tune in a minor key for its theme, fittingly tying in with both its themes: ghosts and old-timey movies.
• Dagwood Sandwich: One of the Dash Foods is a very tall and stacked cheeseburger (a triple-stacked cheeseburger at its tallest, though the double cheeseburger is still quite large) that characters gulp down in one go to trigger an Instant Costume Change.
• Damn You, Muscle Memory!: Players living in countries that drive on the left such as Japan, India, the United Kingdom, and Oceania, and experienced past games didn't have much of an issue with highway and city courses. To be in line with the American cultural aesthetics of this game, all traffic drives on the right just like in North America. This ends up becoming averted once they begin Mirror Mode, where left-hand traffic applies.
• Death Mountain: Whistletop Summit, which is primarily a Minecart Madness course, takes place on a giant mountain themed after a steam train, with railways built above the course. The game also brings back Choco Mountain from Mario Kart 64 (now with an industrialized motif), and features tribute recreations of Choco Island 1 and 2 from Super Mario Kart
• Demoted to Extra:
  • After making his playable debut in Mario Kart Tour, and then returning in Wave 5 of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's Booster Course DLC, Kamek has gone from a playable racer to being summoned as one of the new items.
  • While their sponsors from MK8 are still present in the game, including as stickers, the Koopalings are otherwise completely absent from this entry.
• Deranged Animation: It's the first Mario Kart game to implement squash and stretch animation (albeit less wacky than Super Mario Bros. Wonder's animation). The characters and their karts are deformed when they jump, use items and are stomped. The artstyle of the game as a whole resembles the 2D artwork drawn for the series by Shigehisa Nakaue, which is known for being very fluid compared to the games proper.
• Developer's Foresight:
  • Every track has a road connection to all surrounding tracks. Some of these go unused by Grand Prix and Knockout Tour, but they're fully usable in VS Race.
  • It turns out the developers actually thought about players attempting to follow NPCs to see where they go, and thus NPC behaviour is surprisingly sophisticated for something the vast majority of players will never notice. Drivers will actually go places, park and even get out of their cars rather than just driving in circles (and, rarely, floor it and drive off the road to take a shortcut). Pedestrians will enter buildings^note Although they never return once they enter a building (e.g. restaurants). Buses will actually pick up and drop off passengers. Passengers will get off trains when they reach stations. Police cars make a point of patrolling the side roads and backstreets of Crown City when they return from their drives in other areas.
• Dinner Deformation: The characters briefly stretch their jaws (if they have any) when eating Dash Food.
• Ditching the Dub Names:
  • The WarioWare song that was originally named "声の漂う波間まで" (koe no tadayou nakama made) was originally translated to English as "Drifting Away". The English version of Mario Kart World gives it a title closer to a direct translation, "Voices Being Carried on the Waves".
  • Downplayed with Wario Shipyard, which is always called that on posters advertising the Star Cup, but is still called Wario's Galleon in-game in the British English localization.
• Do a Barrel Roll: When performing a trick in midair or via Charge Jump, you can boost yourself to the left or right by steering in that direction before executing it. This can be useful for evading incoming obstacles or items, or simply to correct your movement direction in midair.
• A Dog Named "Dog": Among the playable characters are Cow, Dolphin and Penguin.
• Drives Like Crazy: Actively encouraged. In addition to the typical Mario Kart zaniness of boosting and drifting, grinding on rails and riding on walls have been added to the gameplay mechanics, opening up a lot of potential tricks and shortcuts if you know where to look. A seasoned player tackling Time Trials is going to look like a lunatic behind the wheel.
• Drive-Thru Antics: Many courses have roadside Yoshi's restaurants where you pick up Dash Food, and eating them unlocks special driver costumes themed to the course and/or food.
• Driving Up a Wall: In the absence of the anti-gravity feature from Mario Kart 8, drivers now rely on enabling an attachment to walls by performing beforehand a jump boost or charge jump in order to ride them.
• Easter Egg: Akin to Mario Kart 64, the first-place results theme has a unique segment that plays after looping several times — in this case, after around five minutes.
• Eternal Engine: On top of bringing back Toad's Factory as a Nostalgia Level, the game's new version of Bowser's Castle doubles as an ominous-looking factory with high-tech monitors and smoke stacks. The latter also makes the track double as a Level in the Clouds, as the smoke produces a Bowser-shaped cloud that racers will drive through partway. The game also features DK Spaceport, a large construction zone shaped like the 25m stage from Donkey Kong (1981) that features an Humongous Mecha modeled after the eponymous gorilla, and giant barrels as obstacles.
• Extinct Animal Park: Dino Dino Jungle returns as a retro course, only now it appears to be a park with dinosaurs revived in a laboratory.
• Everything Fades:
  • Any vehicles that are destroyed by hijacked trucks, oncoming trains or Bob-Omb cars will vanish, alongside their occupants. This also happens to civilians who despawn through a pipe or building.
  • If you take one of the 24 main characters' NPC versions too far from their spawn, they will fade away in front of you and teleport back to their spawn point.
• Fanservice: Peach and Daisy, besides keeping their biker outfits from previous games (now under the "Aero" name), have new outfits that similarly emphasize their figures; Peach has a sightseeing outfit with tight pants, Daisy has a two-piece swimsuit and a Bedlah Babe outfit that exposes her midriff, and both of them have touring outfits with short shorts. Rosalina and Pauline also retain their biker suits, though only the former has other outfits.
• Feather Fingers: Since Para-Biddybud is a Waddling Head with no hands, it holds up items with its left wing when using them.
• Flying Seafood Special: A few of the NPC drivers; Dolphin and Fishbone are shown to being able to operate vehicles despite their bodies not allowing them to properly sit, as they appear to be floating.
• Food Porn: The Dash Food item comes in dozens of varieties that cater to all kinds of tastes, including really tall hamburgers, sushi boats, pancake stacks, fish and chips, pizzas, ice cream cones, and yogurts.
• Forced Transformation: Kamek is an item, and when he's called upon, he may use his magic to temporarily transform several racers into a different character. The character chosen depends on the area where he's summoned; an area like Sky-High Sundae turns them into Chargin' Chucks, while an area like Desert Hills turns them into Pokeys. This changes the racer's stats, i.e. kart size and weight, as though they had been selected at the start of the race. Kamek also generally summons a handful of equivalent enemies to serve as obstacles, though this doesn't always occur (for example, Piantas have no equivalent enemy, and Chomps have no equivalent racer). Being transformed into a new character for the first time permanently unlocks them as a selectable racer.
• Forest of Perpetual Autumn: Cheep Cheep Falls and its immediate surroundings are covered in red-leaved momiji/maple trees. Meanwhile, the other forests and grasslands in the overworld are as green as ever.
• Gangplank Galleon: Wario Shipyard from Mario Kart 7 is featured in the game, being a decrepit seaside with several wrecked ships. However, due to the removal of underwater driving, it is now traversed by going through the water's surface.
• Gimmick Level: DK Spaceport is unique for employing an A-to-B route design similar to those of Mount Wario and Big Blue from Mario Kart 8, but extended to five sections instead of just three.
• Gentle Giant Sauropod: Brachiosaurus are among the inhabitants of Dino Dino Jungle. While players can drive along their backs, the sauropods also wander the course and may step on the racers. They also happen to destroy any traffic in their path, with neither side making any attempt to avoid collision.
• Go into the Light: The transition from Peach Stadium to Rainbow Road in the Special Cup has the racers fly upwards into a stream of colorful light surrounded by star-shaped gates. The light eventually covers the entire screen (most likely so the game can unload the world and load in the massive track).
• Goofy Feathered Dinosaur: The Tyrannosaurus are now depicted with feathers on their heads. While fearsome, they look rather goofy due to the game's art style.
• Goomba Stomp: You can perform tricks by bouncing off obstacles (including Goombas) or even other racers.
• Grandfather Clause: The Batadon enemy from Super Mario Land is still called that despite it being a misreading of its Japanese name Patadon (a combination of the Japanese onomatopoeias for flapping and crushing).
• Gravity Screw: This game's Rainbow Road has this happening during the final two sections. After the racers follow the path from the river to the Glide Ramp that leads to the space station, they find that the station is weirdly oriented to the ground, and as they go through the station, they go upside-down, as though the Anti-Gravity mechanic from Mario Kart 8 returned (except you can't actually do Spin-Boosts this time and the karts retain their standard gravity physics aside from gravity going in the wrong direction). And come the fourth section, the racers are driving on a road that goes straight down, and not once do they fall off (unless you count driving off the edge of the road)!
• Green Gators: The crocodiles in Faraway Oasis are green.
• Green Hill Zone: The entire central region of the overworld consists of wide, scenic grasslands (including one that surrounds a lake shaped like a Starman powerup). However, with the exception of Moo Moo Meadows, none of the racetracks located here are explicitly themed around this biome.^note Crown City is a Metropolis Level, Choco Mountain mixes up Death Mountain with Level Ate, Toad's Factory is Eternal Engine, Cheep Cheep Falls combines Wutai with Forest of Perpetual Autumn, Dandelion Depths is a unusual mix of Underground Level with Eternal Engine, and Peach Stadium is a standard circuit themed around Athletic Arena Level.
• Group Picture Ending: The very end of the credits features the main characters of the game — that is, those who can't be summoned by Kamek and have their own costumes — having their picture taken at Mario Bros. Circuit.
• Guide Dang It!:
  • The requirements for unlocking Mirror Mode are not hinted at in-game, and are unlikely to be accomplished through regular play. Not only does Mirror Mode require completion of both the Cups and Rallies at 150cc, and finding 10 each of the Free Roam collectibles, but the Special Cup has to be completed again to actually activate the mode; the last task is especially unintuitive since there is little reason to replay a single-player cup after finishing it on the highest speed. However, you can also unlock it if you finish the 150cc Special Cup for the first time after completing the other tasks.
  • While most parts of the expanded trick system can be discovered intuitively, certain mechanics regarding wall riding are very unclear. First, while straight walls will force you to fall off, concave walls (curved walls where you can drive along the inside) will allow you to stay as long as the curve lasts. Second, ascending during a wall ride can only be done off of a ramp, including driving off the track. Some walls are also programmed to automatically let you ascend in a wall ride, making it even less likely for players to discover this intuitively.
• Hailfire Peaks: Boo Cinema is a movie theater located in a gloomy forest, playing a horror movie.
• High-Class Gloves: Besides Peach still having her usual gloves with her main dress, Rosalina's "Aurora" look (returning from Tour) maintains her own.
• Home Stage:
  • Mario and Luigi co-own Mario Bros. Circuit, which features some of their sponsors such as Luigi Tires. Mario also has Mario Circuit returning from Super Mario Kart, which now has a giant statue of Mario in the Standard Kart on top of a control tower. In Free Roam, they are below and above the former track respectively.
  • Donkey Kong has two; DK Spaceport, which houses a Humongous Mecha version of him, and DK Pass returning from Mario Kart DS. He's located west of the latter in Free Roam, while DK Spaceport is instead given to Pauline, due to it being based on Donkey Kong (1981), her first and most iconic appearence.
  • Daisy has Desert Hills, which is now Super Mario Land themed, with Tokotokos and Batadons replacing the Pokeys. In Free Roam, she's located above the course between it and Shy Guy Bazaar.
  • Shy Guy has Shy Guy Bazaar returning from Mario Kart 7, which has two of them on elephants at the start, and several more running stalls in the course. He is located north of the course in Free Roam.
  • Wario has two returning tracks, Wario Stadium from Mario Kart 64, and Wario Shipyard from 7, both which have his insignia on the course as well as some sponsors, and he also has a pirate costume to go with the latter. In Free Roam, he's located in Vanilla Lake, northwest of Wario Shipyard, while Wario Stadium is given to Waluigi instead as a nod to Waluigi Stadium from Mario Kart: Double Dash!!.
  • Due to being Promoted to Playable, Rocky Wrench has Airship Fortress, which has several of them early in the course. In Free Roam, Bowser Jr. also appears east of it.
  • Rosalina has Starview Peak, which has Lumas and a replica of the Comet Observatory. The music is even based on the hub level theme of Super Mario Galaxy. She is located south of the course in Free Roam.
  • Toadette has Sky-High Sundae, owing to the amount of sponsors featuring her. Ironically, she is located extremely far from the course in Free Roam, being north of Crown City on the opposite side of the map.
  • Koopa Troopa has Koopa Troopa Beach, returning from Super Mario Kart, which now features a DJ Koopa. He is located east of the course in Free Roam.
  • Peach has both Peach Stadium, a stadium around a replica of Peach's Castle, and Peach Beach returning from Double Dash, which in Free Roam is given to her baby counterpart who is west of it, whilst Peach herself is located north of Peach Stadium, below the star-shaped lake.
  • Birdo has Salty Salty Speedway, which has a statue of a mermaid Birdo as the most prominent landmark. She is also unlocked in the Banana Cup, which features the course, and is located north of it in Free Roam.
  • Lakitu has Great ? Block Ruins, owing to its Level in the Clouds theme, and is west of it in Free Roam.
  • Cheep Cheep has Cheep Cheep Falls, which features them swimming up in the second half of the course.
  • Para-Biddybud has Dandelion Depths, which has many of them scattered throughout and also has buildings featuring Para-Biddybud Construction.
  • King Boo has Boo Cinema, owing to the large amount of Boos (and Boohemoth) there, as well as it being in the Leaf Cup where you unlock him. He is located south of it in Free Roam.
  • Dry Bones has Dry Bones Burnout, which has a giant Dry Bones-like dragon in it, in addition to them appearing as enemies outside of it.
  • The Cow has Moo Moo Meadows, which now has a giant Cow statue on a bike, in addition to the existing cows all over the track. Monty Mole also is Promoted to Playable and is still featured here.
  • Chargin' Chuck has Choco Mountain, owing to them and his sponsors being prominent in the course.
  • Toad has Toad's Factory returning from Mario Kart Wii; although the Toad sign before the main factory has been removed, it is now home to Toad Manufacturing. He is located east of it in Free Roam.
  • Bowser obviously has Bowser's Castle, which has a giant Bowser-shaped cloud. He is located on top of a large wall south of it in Free Roam.
  • Stingby and Wiggler share Acorn Heights, which both being featured there. In addition, Baby Daisy is located south of it in Free Roam.
• Humongous Mecha: A giant robotic Donkey Kong named "Robo DK" patrols DK Spaceport, tossing barrels down slopes. He appears once more during the final lap of Rainbow Road, riding the train at the end along with several others.
• In a Single Bound: The Feather item allows you to make a large leap for potential shortcuts. You can also perform a Charge Jump by holding down the drift button while moving straight ahead and releasing it when sparks appear. Though not as powerful as the Feather, this can be used to leap over obstacles, dodge certain incoming attacks, or hop onto rails or walls.
• Informed Species: The ceratopsians roaming around Dino Dino Jungle are identified as Triceratops, but they more closely resemble Nasutoceratops in that they have bull-like horns and a flattened nose horn resembling a nasal boss.
• Instant Costume Change: The new Dash Food item has the effect of changing the characters' appearance, ranging from looking like other powerups across the series to sportswear. Drivers revert to their original outfit at the start of the next race, although the costume is permanently unlocked as a driver in the character select screen (the "NPC Drivers" cannot change their clothes, however).
• Invisible Anatomy: Many of the newly playable species don't have visible limbs to operate their vehicles. Some, like Goomba and Cataquack, have no arms to hold the wheel; others, like Peepa and Dolphin, have no legs to reach the pedals; others still, like Pokey and Snowman, have neither arms nor legs.
• Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Much like the previous games, this trope is invoked in a racing style by the four princess-type characters. Unlike Mario Kart Wii and 8, however, they maintain their usual dresses on bikes (and Rosalina also has her "Aurora" look returning from Mario Kart Tour letting her consume certain Dash Foods and keep this trope active).
• Journey to the Sky: Thanks to the game's courses being part of an interconnected overworld and requiring players to head to them on their own in-game via routes, it is now part of the gameplay to take drivers across an upward travel to the courses located in the skies, namely the Great ? Block Ruins and Rainbow Road. The former course makes up the final destination in the Banana Cup and Cloud Rally, and is reached through a very powerful geyser located in the middle of a swampy lake at ground level. Meanwhile, the latter is accessed during the Special Cup after driving across Peach Stadium in the third race, and its gateway is a huge, rainbow-colored Pillar of Light that drags the drivers upward to the skies (going even higher than the geyser leading to Great ? Block Ruins); in turn, Rainbow Road itself features a key part where drivers ascend even higher, reaching outer space (though the final segment goes back down to complete the extensive loop of the course's layout).
• Jurassic Farce: Dino Dino Jungle has been heavily revamped as a map, now being surrounded by modern-style chain-link fencing and concrete walls, and centring around a facility called the Dino Dino Laboratory, suggesting the dinosaurs having been revived à la Jurassic Park, rather than the track taking place in a Lost World this time.
• Laser-Guided Karma: You can hijack a UFO, and then use it to abduct other UFOs. Don't ask how they can fit inside.
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Yoshi's alternative "Biker" costume resembles Boshi, being a blue Yoshi in leather punk gear, but it's not quite an exact match to skirt around any legal issues surrounding Boshi's character, as he is co-owned by Square Enix.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The end credits display a newspaper story about Rainbow Road making an unexpected return. While it's most explicitly about how Rainbow Road gets magically conjured into the game world after completing all the other Grand Prix cups, it also references how Mario Kart World is the first new Mario Kart game in a long time and how this is the first new version of Rainbow Road since Mario Kart 8 in 2014 (the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe DLC and Mario Kart Tour released in the meantime instead featured Nostalgia Level takes on previous Rainbow Road iterations).
• Legendary Carp: Cheep Cheep Falls features as a minor stage hazard Cheep Cheeps swimming against the current of a waterfall, which is a Mario spin on the Japanese myth about koi becoming dragons by climbing waterfalls.
• Level Ate:
  • The returning track Sky-High Sundae is a gigantic resort made out of ice cream and other frozen treats, which is run by Toadette considering it's got her name branding over them. The credits also have a newspaper article noting that the nature of the resort purely selling sweets resulted in a rise of dentist cases.
  • ​Downplayed with Choco Mountain. The course itself is a massive oil drill with elements of a monster truck arena, with the oil actually being liquid chocolate. It is still a step up from the course's prior appearances in the series, where it was strictly a Death Mountain location and its name only alluded to an Edible Theme Naming inherited from the courses of Super Mario Kart (which in turn carried over the theme naming of the levels from Super Mario World).
• Level in Reverse: Like in most cups from Mario Kart Tour, certain courses in VS and Knockout Tour modes are traversed in reverse. Mirror Mode, a series staple, also returns and can even be accessed in Free Roam after it's unlocked for other modes by going to the castle at Peach Stadium and going through the big stained glass window of Princess Peach in the central tower.
• Level in the Clouds:
  • The Great ? Block Ruins course intersects with Floating Continent as, while the titular ruins take place within a very large floating landmass (much of which can be explored during Free Roam to find ? Block panels and P Switch challenges), the second half of the course also goes through the outdoors area with several floating platforms of smaller size and bouncy cloud platforms.
  • The second half of Bowser's Castle takes you up into an ominous cloud resembling Bowser himself (one being produced by the fiery smoke from the volcanic factory in the castle).
• Long Song, Short Scene: Each segment of Rainbow Road (including the route from Peach Stadium) has its own theme that plays until you reach the next segment, but if you are racing at 150cc or in Mirror Mode, you are only likely to hear the entirety of the final section's theme. The course can be completed in under five minutes, possibly under four if you're a skilled player, but the complete themes for each segment add to a little over eight minutes of music without looping.
• Macro Zone: "Acorn Heights" takes place around a supersized oak, where the racers drive across and beneath giant grass leaves, platform off of mushrooms, and dodge gigantic rolling acorns.
• Mad Bomber: After its absence during the game's initial release, Bob-omb Blast from Double Dash!! and 8 Deluxe makes a return, allowing drivers to relentlessly throw Bob-ombs at each other.
• Marathon Level:
  • Each Knockout Tour rally consists of a nonstop transcontinental race across six select tracks. Each track in turn serves as a checkpoint, with the last four racers per checkpoint below the threshold eliminated until only four remain.
  • This game's incarnation of Rainbow Road is easily the longest individual track in franchise history, with elite Time Trial players recording times exceeding four minutes, and likely to take over five minutes to finish in a standard race. Unlike Mario Kart 64's versions of Wario Stadium and Rainbow Road, it's broken up into segments instead of consisting of multiple laps (four, to be exact, five if you count the transition from Peach Stadium). By extension, this also gives the Special Cup the distinction of being the longest cup in the game and the series, as it also has the lengthy Mario Circuit (a combination of the first three SNES Mario Circuits) and what's by far the most prolonged route in Grand Prix (namely between the aforementioned Mario Circuit and Peach Stadium, including a pass through Moo Moo Meadows from the Lightning Cup).
• Mêlée à Trois: For the first time in the series, more than just two teams can be pit against each other in Battle Mode and VS Race, with a maximum of four teams.
• Merry in Minor Key: Downplayed in the first movement of this game's Rainbow Road theme (routes discounted). Most of the movement has a major key, but the B section is written in the minor counterpart to the A section's major key, but retains the cheeriness and triumphant sound of the rest of the song.
• Metropolis Level: Crown City is a large, populous city with large buildings and wide roads. Much like the city courses in Mario Kart Tour, it has three different racing routes, though unlike in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, they're never played together in Grand Prix. The first route is used in the Mushroom Cup, the second is played in the Shell Cup, and the third is exclusive to VS races. However, parts of each layout do make up for a longer, unified race in Time Trial (as well as VS mode when it's selected without being the destination of a prior route). Due to its size, it has twice as many collectable ? Panels as any other course in Free Roam.
• Minecart Madness: Whistlestop Summit takes place in a mountainous town inspired by the Wild West era of the United States, and much of its layout incorporates the rail transport of a steam train that is reminiscent of a JNR Class C58. Drivers can actually ride on the rails, like they would on any grindrail in the game.
• Mining for Cookies: Choco Mountain has been heavily industrialized with oil pumps and mineshafts, with the twist that the workers are digging for veins of chocolate syrup.
• Misplaced Wildlife: Bison are among the inhabitants of Faraway Oasis, despite the map being based on African plains and having otherwise appropriate fauna such as giraffes and elephants.
• Mistaken for Granite: The moai-like Tokotokos and Batadons on Desert Hills will start off mostly dormant before waking up on later laps and moving around the course.
• Monstrous Scenery:
  • In the Boo Cinema course, crowds of Boos and a few giant Boohemoths leer at and taunt the racers from the course edges.
  • In the Spiny Rally, in the transition between Peach Beach and Wario's Shipyard, a huge Dragoneel can be seen arching in and out of the water beyond the track's boundaries.
• Multi-Slot Character: Like in Mario Kart Tour, separate slots are used for characters with alternate versions having unique costumes and dresses. In the absence of the Gacha elements from Tour, these character versions are unlocked instead by eating meal items during races in Grand Prix and Knockout Tour.
• Musical Nod:
  • In Free Roam and when racing between courses in Grand Prix and VS Race, arrangements of many tunes throughout the Mario franchise can be heard, ranging from songs for Mario Kart courses that are otherwise absent from World, to songs from mainline platformers such as "Dire, Dire Docks" from Super Mario 64 and "Space Junk Road" from Super Mario Galaxy, to even other spin-offs such as Mario Paint and the Yoshi's Island and Wario franchises, all the way to "The Mario Drawing Song" from Flipnote Studio.
  • The music that plays throughout DK Spaceport is a jazz arrangement of the 25m theme from the original Donkey Kong arcade game. Moreover, the music that plays during the final section of the course is an arrangement of the Hammer theme from the same game.
  • The music that plays in Starview Peak includes parts of "Rosalina in the Observatory" from Super Mario Galaxy in its melody.
  • The music that plays during the final section of Rainbow Road includes a brief quote of the staff credits theme from Super Mario Kart.
• Musical Pastiche: Several of this game's arrangements are style pastiche of famous artists. For example, "Super Bell Subway" is clearly done in the style of Casiopea (i.e. "Take Me"); "Tostarena Ruins" sounds like "Tequila" by The Champs; "Hisstocrat" is a definite Herbie Hancock homage (i.e. "Chameleon"); "Purple Coins" is distinctly the Pat Metheny Group (i.e. "Third Wind").
• Mythology Gag:
  • Super Mario Kart:
    • West Greens Park, a public park near Crown City, bears a plaque that said it was established in 1992, the year of Super Mario Kart's release, the first Mario Kart game.
    • The billboards on Mario Circuit have numbers reading 1992/8/27.^note The Thwomp Construction billboard has the Thwomp obscure the numbers; you can see the 7 in the bottom right, showing it's still there. Super Mario Kart released in Japan on August 27th, 1992.
  • One of the businesses seen in a city track is a Koopa Hotel.
  • A sign in Moo Moo Meadows notes the farm was established in 2008, referring to the year Mario Kart Wii, where the track originated, was released.
  • The primary karts for Mario, Peach, and Toad in the trailers are the standard kart, a bike, and the Tiny Titan, bringing to mind the vehicles they choose in The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Meanwhile, the Super Star item now has an iridescent jewel-like texture to it similar to its depiction in the movie.
• Nerf: A number of offensive items have had their effects lessened, likely to account for the fact there are now double the number of racers as before, so the likelihood of being struck by another racer is much greater (as is the scenario of being stun-locked by being struck by several items in rapid succession).
  • The Bullet Bill item is much slower than in previous games, where it was the fastest way to travel, and can now be outrun by mushroom boosts. Combined with the far larger tracks to evade them, their effectiveness is much lower. In addition, colliding with another racer in this state no longer guarantees a tumble, instead having a similar effect to bumping into a moving vehicle. Also, you can no longer use it to take most shortcuts because it will just backtrack and rejoin the road. Most of this was undone in the 1.6.0 update, with the speed increased in sections with increased speed^note These are found on Starview Peak, Bowser's Castle and Rainbow Road., it is able to take shortcuts again and it turns easier.
  • The duration a racer is flattened by a Mega Mushroom user is significantly shorter, almost lasting two seconds before returning to normal. Additionally, it now stays in the item slot until it wears off, so waiting until the next item box set before using it isn't a viable strategy anymore.
  • The Lightning item no longer shrinks all opponents, instead only shrinking the players ahead of the user. In addition, the duration of the shrinking has been drastically reduced.
  • The Fire Flower's ammo has been reduced from 10 to 8 fireballs.
  • Due to tumbling being physics-based now, getting hit by a shell or banana is not nearly as punishing; rather than spinning in place and losing all momentum, you're likely to fall forward when struck and not lose so much distance.
  • While you still get a speed boost for bumping into the Triple Mushrooms of another racer, you can no longer steal them and the speed boost you get is smaller than from using your own Mushroom.
  • In version 1.2.0, CPU drivers in game modes other than Battle Mode were made weaker.
  • Being maxed out on Coins now only adds 5% to your top speed (down from 50%), which is still noticeable.
  • Stars no longer give a speed boost although they still let you drive off road without being slowed down.
  • There are more items the Boo can't steal. Instead of just the Bullet Bill, it also can't steal Super Horns, other Boos, Boomerang Flowers, Mega Mushrooms, or Dash Food. However, this time there's a tradeoff because while under the effects of the Boo, you can drive offroad without slowing down like you could in Mario Kart DS. Also, the Boo item no longer makes you fully invisible to other players, but you still get the off road and invulnerability benefits.
  • The Boomerang was nerfed twice. On release, it now has a time limit after the first throw^note Although it will freeze just before zero, allowing you to throw it one more time., and it stays in your inventory when throwing it, preventing you from throwing it and then using a Mushroom to take a shortcut before it returns. Then in 1.6.0 the number of throws was reduced to from four to three^note Seven to four if you faced a wall when throwing it, not that it would be a good idea., and its range was reduced.
• Non-Indicative Name:
  • This game's version of Desert Hills removes the steep hills at the end of the course. This discrepancy is the result of a Dub-Induced Plot Hole: the Japanese name of the course literally translates to "Sun Sun Desert".
  • The revamped version of SNES Mario Circuit is actually three circuits in one. In a standard race, you won't complete a full circuit due to the way the three tracks are connected, but they're all fully available in Free Roam.
• No Ontological Inertia: When a Spike is defeated, any spiked balls thrown by it that are still active will immediately vanish in a puff of smoke.
• Nostalgia Level:
  • Retro tracks make a return, but unlike in previous games, they can now be found in standard cups alongside new tracks instead of dedicated retro cups (similar to the DLC cups of Mario Kart 8); they're are also integrated into an interconnected overworld, befitting the game's open-ended nature. The classic tracks have received drastic overhauls to take advantage of the game's mechanics and engine. The returning Desert Hills course has been revamped to homage Super Mario Land instead of Super Mario Bros. 3, with Batadon and Tokotoko enemies appearing as obstacles.
  • Several racetracks from Super Mario Kart are recreated in World via tribute challenges activated with P Switches; they take place in specific sections of routes that recreate, to varying degrees, their original layouts. The corresponding original music for each track is heard as well. The courses in question are Koopa Beach 1, all three Ghost Valley courses, both Choco Island courses, and the first Vanilla Lake course.
• Oblivious Transformation: The cutscene that plays when Mirror Mode is unlocked shows Mario and Luigi looking at the big stain glass window of Princess Peach at Peach Stadium as it get magically flipped. They don't initially realize that the whole game world and everything in it was similarly flipped until Mario looks at Luigi and realizes that the latter's monogrammed L's on his hat and kart were horizontally flipped^ExplanationMario's M wouldn't have given anything away regarding Mirror Mode because it looks exactly the same in either horizontal scheme.
• Obstacle Ski Course: One of the routes that connect to DK Pass (of Mario Kart DS fame) is a wide snowy slope with slalom flags where some Shy Guys practice skiing. This is the route used by the drivers in the Star Cup to reach Starview Peak (which is located in a higher altitude, making it a rare case where the ski section has to be traversed upward instead of downward).
• Obvious Rule Patch: Lakitu is much stricter when it comes to picking up players during races, due to the addition of Charge Jumps and the return of the Feather item otherwise would allow the player to perform crazy shortcuts.^note These shortcuts can be done in Free Roam, as he is more lenient there.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Characters will visibly react with fear and panic whenever a Spiny Shell is about to crash down to them. However, most of the Mooks will have a Dull Surprise expression instead.
  • Nabbit will freak out when you spot him in Free Roam, starting a Chase Scene.
• Old-Timey Cinema Countdown: In Boo Cinema, one of these countdowns plays as the players enter the theater screen. Interestingly, it follows the player's movement: if the player slows down or comes to a stop, so does the countdown.
• Outside-the-Box Tactic: When playing in single-player matches, using the Time Rewind Mechanic is a great way to "dodge" a Spiny Shell, since being moved backwards provides less of a movement penalty than being struck, and won't result in losing items or coins.
• Palmtree Panic: Both versions of SNES Koopa Beach make a return, though only the second one is identified as an active course (being part of the Shell Cup). The first one is just part of the overworld and not part of any cup; however, there's a Free Roam challenge that pays tribute to it. GCN Peach Beach makes a return as well, and now part of its route goes through a resort owned by Princess Peach.
• Pass Through the Rings: Several P Switch challenges in the overworld require the driver to pass through luminescent blue rings to gain extra seconds and thus reach the goal before time runs out. Additionally, there can be gold rings that give a speed boost and occasionally activate a gilder.
• Patchwork Map: Downplayed; the world map features many biomes grouped together with abrupt transitions, but in actual gameplay, the transitions are smooth and gradual. For example, the desert is surrounded by canyons, which naturally segue into rural highways that take you into the city. That said, these biomes are still in much closer proximity than they would be in real life.
• Pillar of Light: The pathway to Rainbow Road in the Special Cup begins with an intermission route past Peach Stadium that takes drivers to a huge, rainbow-colored pillar of light that takes them upward to the cup's (and game's) final destination. The pillar appears in the exact spot where the bridge connecting Faraway Oasis with Crown City opens up.
• Platform Game: The hopping mechanics and new track features can make certain sections feel like a vehicular take on the mainline Super Mario Bros. platformers. Many Free Roam missions see you bouncing across ramps, springs, rails, and floating blocks to reach goals and/or collect Blue Coins. With the right technique and timing, you can even pull off a Goomba Stomp on fellow racers, NPC vehicles and Mooks.
• Player Elimination: In Knockout Tour, the last four players to reach a specific checkpoint are eliminated from the rally. It starts with 24 racers, then whittles to 20, 16, 12, 8, and finally finishes with the top 4 to aim for first place.
• Police Are Useless: Among the traffic vehicles in Free Roam are police cars driven by Toads. However, despite having sirens on at all times (just like in Japan), there's never any "crime" to stop, and they won't interfere with the races no matter how violent they get. A notable exception is the P-Switch mission "Evade the Spikes' attacks and reach the goal!", where three police cars are chasing each truck carrying a Spike throughout the mission. They can't catch them, but they're at least trying.
• Power-Up Food: The new Dash Food item gives the racer a speed boost and changes their costume depending on the type of cuisine (if the character has one). Upon unlocking said costume, it becomes a permanent addition to the roster.
• Production Foreshadowing: This is the first game to use Donkey Kong's new design, a month before its proper debut in Donkey Kong Bananza.
• Promoted to Playable: Multiple racers have previously appeared as NPCs or even obstacles in previous entries, including Goomba, a Moo Moo Meadows cow, Cataquack, Snowman, and Para-Biddybud. Humorously, some of the species of these racers still appear as obstacles. The Sidestepper holds the distinction of being the character with the most years between their debut (Mario Bros.) and their advent as a playable character, just under 42 years.
• Punny Name: One of the newly introduced creatures are Whamps, whose name comes from "Whomp" and "ramp". They're Whomp variants that smash face-down like the regular Whomps but whose backs are sloped, so that they become temporary ramps in the process.
• Rain of Something Unusual: Occasionally in Free Roam, it will rain item boxes or coins for a short time, although most of them are in the background and the ones that do hit the ground expire extremely quickly. A P-Switch mission in the desert forces a coin rain for the duration of the mission.
• Remixed Level: Mario Circuit, as it appears in this game, is a fusion of Mario Circuits 1, 2, and 3 from Super Mario Kart in the form of a single interconnected track. Each section of the race is based on one of these circuits, similar to the combined sections of the city courses from Mario Kart Tour when adapted to 8 Deluxe.
• Retcon: The two desert courses from previous games (Desert Hills and Shy Guy Bazaar) are uniquely redesigned to match the Birabuto and Easton Kingdoms of Sarasaland. These include Gao statues, Tokotokos, Batadons, and a Daisy-inspired palace. Desert Hills originally took heavy inspiration from Super Mario Bros. 3, while Shy Guy Bazaar in 7 was primarily a Subcon-inspired track based on Super Mario Bros. 2 and its basis game, Doki Doki Panic (where Arabian references were more overt due to its characters).
• Revisiting the Roots:
  • After several games where karts and bikes had customizable parts (7, 8 and Tour), World simply has a selection of pre-made vehicles with their own specific stats, similar to Double Dash!!, DS, and Wii. However, like in games from 7 onward, vehicles are not restricted in any way^note vehicles in Double Dash!! and Wii were restricted by weight, while vehicles in DS were restricted by character until clearing certain milestones.
  • This game has a much cartoonier art style akin to the series' 2D artwork drawn by Yoichi Kotabe and Shigehisa Nakaue, making it more reminiscent of Super Mario Kart and Mario Kart 64. In particular, explosions cause a Written Sound Effect like in 64.
• Rhyming Names: Peach Beach from Mario Kart: Double Dash!! returns.
• Ribcage Ridge: Dry Bones Burnout is a course located in a volcano, and is traversed across a large skeletal structure.
• Ridiculously Cute Critter:
  • Para-Biddybud is a Waddling Head whose voicelines consist of happy high-pitched chirps, and whose trick animations typically involve fluttering in the air while doing eyes-only smiles at the camera.
  • The Swoop is cute as a button, being seen rubbing their face with their wings as races start and emitting cute little squeaks and showing its Eyes Always Shut face to the camera when doing tricks.
• Road Trip Plot: The separate theming of some of the courses and their respective biomes aside, World's overall aesthetic is that of an old-fashioned road trip across the USA, complete with long stretches of road across wide-open spaces, huge and exotic landmarks to see, diners to stop at (or blaze on past), and American country/folk-esque music with plenty of harmonica accompaniment. The credits even include iconic Americana items like faded newspaper highlights and Polaroid pictures of the things that caught the traveler's eye, with handwritten notes on them.
• Rubber-Band A.I.: Back in full force for the first time since Mario Kart 64^note Most games still had some form of rubberbanding, but Super and 64 were the most aggressive. The version 1.2.0 update toned it down slightly. On rare occasions, a rival CPU can even rubberband themselves into a massive frontrun that only a Spiny Shell can stop. In 150cc races and especially in Mirror Mode, the NPC drivers will use advanced moves with the frequency of a human player but almost always perform them flawlessly.
• Scenery Porn: Like 8, the stages have very pretty and detailed backgrounds. Thanks to the addition of Free Roam, now you can explore every inch of them up close.
• "The Scream" Parody: Inside the movie at the Boo Cinema, there is a film reel showing monochrome images of Princess Peach in her Vacation outfit (one of her available outfits) with her hands on her face screaming in front of a haunted forest.
• Secret Character: As with all Mario Kart games since Double Dash!!, there are several characters that need to be unlocked.
  • Donkey Kong, Daisy, Rosalina, Lakitu, Birdo, King Boo and Bowser Jr. are unlocked by completing the Mushroom, Flower, Star, Shell, Banana, Leaf and Lightning Cups respectively.
  • Spike, Cataquack, Pianta, Rocky Wrench, Conkdor, Peepa, Swoop, Fish Bone, Coin Coffer and Chargin' Chuck are all unlocked by transforming into them, either via the Kamek item or hijacking a UFO.
  • Prior to v1.1.0, Monty Mole, Sidestepper, Cheep Cheep, Pokey, Cow, Stingby, Penguin and Para-Biddybud also needed to be unlocked via Kamek, but they were made base roster characters in said update.
• Sequel Escalation:
  • This game has the most spacious courses in the series so far (with all the courses being interlinked on a world map), the biggest roster of any console installment (50 distinct racers, excluding alternate costumes, which exceeds Mario Kart 8 Deluxe's 48), the most useable items (28, exceeding Deluxe's 21^note 22 counting the Feather in 8 Deluxe's Battle Mode), having an increased coin cap of 20 (up from 10), having 24 unique characters on the track (up from Double Dash having 16) and allowing 24 racers per race, which is double the previous limit.
  • This game's version of Rainbow Road deserves a mention all its own. Instead of a mere race through the sky or space like in previous games, this version of the iconic finale course combines recurring features of its predecessors in spectacular ways with a four lap race that takes racers from the ground, to the sky, to space, and then a dive back through the back to the ground, all done seamlessly with no breaks.
• Shifting Sand Land:
  • Desert Hills and Shy Guy Bazaar are back, and this game also introduces a new course titled Faraway Oasis, which takes place in an open savanna with elephants and giraffes.
  • Battle Mode has Chain Chomp Desert, which takes place within a wide, round pit of quicksand similar to Thwomp Desert from Mario Kart Wii (and also plays a remix of its original theme), while also featuring rolling Chain Chomps like those of Chain Chomp Wheel (also from Mario Kart Wii).
• Shout-Out:
  • The cave in the second half of Dino Dino Jungle has been replaced with "Dino Dino Laboratory", which seems to reference the various laboratories from Jurassic Park.
  • The mission "Race through dinosaur-filled streets!", where the dinosaurs from Dino Dino Jungle run loose through Crown City, brings to mind the climax of The Lost World: Jurassic Park, where a T. rex escapes and goes on a rampage through the streets of San Diego.
  • Dash Food are obtained from fast food containers that have a smiley face on it, akin to McDonald's Happy Meals.
  • The map icon for Faraway Oasis features rock formations that look similar to Pride Rock from The Lion King.
  • Robo DK rides the flying train at the end of Rainbow Road while doing the same Riding the Bomb arm gestures as Major Kong from Dr. Strangelove.
  • The mission "Weave through the most dangerous traffic ever!" brings to mind Frogger.
• Shown Their Work:
  • Donkey Kong's victory animation has him doing his Primal Chest-Pound with his palms like real gorillas, rather than his fists as in previous appearances.
  • The Tyrannosaurus now have feathers to reflect current paleontology. But instead of a full coat, it only has tufts on its head based on fossils which suggest it was mostly scaled due to its large size and living in a warmer habitat.
  • The ostriches have a clawless outer toe.
  • The plesiosaur has a horizontal manatee-like tail fluke as proposed by recent studies (although shark-like vertical flukes are not out of the question).
  • Police cars always have their sirens on, even though they never rush to an emergency and obey traffic laws like an ordinary car. In Japan, police always have their sirens on, even when just on patrol.
• Slippy-Slidey Ice World: DK Pass (from Mario Kart DS) for a snow-based track, and Starview Peak (original, but taking inspiration from 3DS Rosalina's Ice World and Wii U's Ice Ice Outpost) for an ice-based track. Both are introduced in the Star Cup. Due to the game's open world setting, the two tracks are connected, their environments gradually blending into each other; the icy landscape of Starview Peak extends to the outskirts of Sky-High Sundae (a track that is otherwise not this trope, unless one counts ice cream), and any routes beginning from either DK Pass or Starview Peak (and most from Sky-High Sundae) will include a portion of snow or ice world driving. In addition, free-roaming the outskirts of Starview Peak will take you to an area where you can race a "tribute" to SNES Vanilla Lake 1, complete with the original music.
• Snack-Stealing Seagulls: One of the photos seen in the end credits montage shows a seagull, with a written message below saying that it "Stole my fries..."
• Speaking Simlish: Wario Stadium has a Shy Guy announcer whose commentary is in the usual gibberish Shy Guy grunts, only sounding more excited to reflect its role.
• Springy Spores: The grassy section in "Acorn Heights" has several giant bouncy mushrooms that racers can spring off of if they manage to get on top of the leaf platforms.
• Stealth Pun: Boo Cinema is a literal drive-in theater.
• Stock Desert Interstate: Mario Bros. Circuit, which serves as the first course of the Mushroom Cup, is a classic American-style desert canyon with Mushroom-shaped buttes, and restaurants with Yoshi sponsor billboards.
• Striking Oil: Choco Mountain has been massively redesigned into an industrial oil drilling theme. A facility named Chargin' Chuck Monster Trucks is built into the mountain with the aforementioned enemies being plentiful, oil pools are off-road hazards, and the stage music has been given a rock remix. Even in the world map, the mountain can be seen in an oil field between the desert and field biomes. However, fitting with the course's name, the "oil" is actually stated by a few Free Roam missions to be liquid chocolate.
• Studiopolis: Boo Cinema combines this trope with Big Boo's Haunt, being a haunted movie theater where drivers go through a road shaped like a film strip, while the walls show clips taken from a horror film starred by Princess Peach. There's even a moment when drivers enter through a projection screen showing an Old-Timey Cinema Countdown.
• Sudden Name Change:
  • The cows in previous games were originally known as "Moo Moos", as evident by the official game guides for Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart 8 referring to them as such and the Moo Moo Mii Racing Suit from Mario Kart Tour. In this game, the playable cow is simply named "Cow".
  • The Snowman is back to that name after Mario Kart Tour called it Snowperson.
  • Koopa Beach 2 from Super Mario Kart returns in this game under the name "Koopa Troopa Beach".
• Tactical Suicide Boss: The Chargin' Chuck bikers during Free Roam have to be hit by the Green Shells in the item boxes they drop to eliminate them and make them drop coins. You can bypass this with a Super Star from other item boxes or the occasional overworld ones dropped by flying vehicles, however.
• Take It to the Bridge: A centerpiece of the world map is the Crown Bridge, which stretches across the entire southern bay. Several routes between courses pass underneath its center or across it, most importantly the only one to Rainbow Road, which transforms the stained-glass Mario Kart logo on top of it into a path upwards. The logo also lights up as the Special Cup trophy passes by it in the unlock cutscene.
• Temper-Ceratops: Dino Dino Jungle features Triceratops that roam the raceway acting as potential obstacles. Downplayed in that they can be used as ramps.
• Terrifying Tyrannosaur: Tyrannosaurus act as obstacles in Dino Dino Jungle. They also have feathery crests on their heads.
• Thanking the Viewer: In true Mario fashion, after the credits has rolled, a text appears thanking the player for playing the game.
• Thematic Sequel Logo Change: The logo has a globe to represent the game's world being a Wide-Open Sandbox.
• Thunder Equals Downpour: A variant: the Lightning item, once used, will immediately summon rain. Though the rain lasts for all of five seconds before returning to normal.
• Time Rewind Mechanic: Played With. In single-player races, drivers can retrace their steps by returning to an earlier position if they want to do something such as reattempting an alternate passage. The catch is that it only rewinds the driver; time still moves forward for the rest of the racers. You can also use it in Free Roam missions, but the timer for the missions keep counting down even when you rewind.
• Title Scream: Much like previous entries, Mario shouts the title of the game. However, this only occurs once—when you start the game up for the first time.
• Transforming Vehicle: Karts can transform into planes and boats to fly or travel on water. This is notably different from previous entries, where the karts would spring open gliders in the air or drive underwater unabated, respectively. The tires will also automatically grow in size if the driver veers off road.
• Tree Trunk Tour: Downplayed with Acorn Heights, which takes place mainly among the roots of a giant oak tree, with a section heading up within its trunk while dodging giant rolling acorns before gliding back down once it reaches the canopy.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential:
  • Downplayed with Toads, Shy Guys, and Yoshis wandering around in free-roam mode. You can run them over to get a boosted jump (and even pull a trick afterwards), but they won't suffer any harm. Of course, there's nothing stopping you from running them over all day long.
  • You can destroy certain objects in Free Roam mode, such as benches, tablets, and camping equipment. Ironically, civilians not only won't mind you doing this, but will cheer the player occasionally, even though you just ruined their camping trip.
  • You can control a cargo truck as long as it has red neon signs on the sides of it by entering from behind. Any vehicle you run into will be tossed aside and vanish. Bob-ombs, Hammers and Spiny Shells will cause a similar effect.
• Video Game Perversity Potential: Daisy has been victim to players using the camera feature to take some questionable images, with screenshots of the character in her swimsuit being particularly common thumbnail images for videos about the game in the months after launch.
• Wall Jump: One of the new mechanics allow drivers to ride and bounce off of certain walls.
• Wicked Wasps: One of Wario's outfits gives him a wasp suit, which is even called Wicked Wasp.
• Wide-Open Sandbox: All tracks exist in an open world. The Grand Prix mode sees players traveling from course-to-course while a Free Roam mode allows you to drive around the entire map.
• The Wild West: Whistlestop Summit takes place in a mountainous town with a vibe strongly reminiscent of the steam power era of the United States (18th to 19th century).
• Wintry Auroral Sky: A beautiful pattern of auroras can be seen in Starview Peak during night, showing faint shades of green, blue and purple. The course is even called Aurora-Ausblick (Aurora Outlook) in the German version.
• Written Sound Effect: Various item effects now cause written sound effects in the vein of Mario Kart 64, such as "BOOOM" for Bob-omb explosions, "KABOOOM" for Spiny Shell explosions, and "BEEEP" for Super Horn honks. In Mirror Mode, they're drawn backwards like several other elements.
• Wutai: Cheep Cheep Falls take place in an area filled with Japanese pagodas.
• Your Size May Vary:
  • The Cow playable as a racer is roughly the same size as Mario and the others. The non-playable cows on Moo Moo Meadows, in contrast, are about three times as big as a kart.
  • In general, the characters and buildings in the world are scaled much larger relative to the size of the kart drivers. Yoshi, Shy Guy, and Toad NPCs are all at least twice as big as the Yoshi, Shy Guy, and Toad drivers, while Peach's Castle is now humongous.
• Zip Mode: In Free Roam, going to the map allows you to pick one track to go to automatically. You can also select one of the other characters on the map to begin playing as them from their current position.