Ten courses from the original Super Mario Kart are becoming standalone races in Mario Kart World with a free update that goes live later today, revealed at this morning’s Nintendo Direct. The Super NES tracks have been sitting inside the game’s open continent since launch as scenery you drive past, and the update pulls 10 of them out as proper VS Race courses, including Choco Island, Vanilla Lake, and Ghost Valley. They come with ? Panels on the track that hand out items when you drive over them, the same way the 1992 original worked.
The update also adds two new Knockout Tour routes, Propeller Rally and Turnip Rally, which is the part I’m most interested in. In my review, I called Knockout Tour the most fun I’d had with Mario Kart World when I wanted something competitive, and I said it would be interesting to see whether Nintendo expanded the mode in future updates. Two new routes is a decent answer, but it’s the first time Nintendo has added to Knockout Tour since launch rather than adjusting it.
Rounding out the update is a Spectator Mode for watching friends race online or over LAN Play, which should help anyone running local tournaments. This is the first sizable content drop since Ver. 1.6.0 added Bob-omb Blast to Battle mode in March, and Nintendo hasn’t shared a version number or patch notes for today’s release yet. Mario Kart World is available exclusively on Switch 2.
