Mario Kart World won't get legendary characters like Link anytime soon
Nintendo just explained why we don't have non-Mario characters in Mario Kart World
🤔 Nintendo has shared why we can't play as non-Mario characters in Mario Kart World
🥺 According to the game's producer, Kosuke Yabuki, it's because they weren't the right fit for the new game
👍 Yabuki also explained that it didn't seem necessary to add those characters in, given the possibilities that already existed with Mario characters
🐮 Other characters have been added in to Mario Kart World, such as Cow and Cheep Cheep
If you've been wondering why some of your favourite non-Mario characters haven't made it to Mario Kart World from Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Nintendo just explained why.
In a recent interview with Ouest-France, producer Kosuke Yabuki explained that other Nintendo characters that aren’t part of the Mario universe weren't the right fit for the new game, and that they already had enough possibilities and routes to go down with existing characters from the series.
Mario Kart World at Best Buy - $79.99
Mario Kart World at GameStop - $79.99
To be specific, Yabuki said that “As developers, it would have seemed incongruous to add characters from other games to this universe. And it didn’t seem necessary, given everything we could already do with Mario."
He went on to note that it would be interesting to see how players would react to the "cast" of characters in the game, highlighting that "there are so many characters and so many costumes that there’s sure to be something for everyone.”
In a previous Nintendo interview, Yabuki also touched on the fact that Mario Kart World added some unique characters such as Cow, who had previously been part of the scenery or an obstacle on one of the Mario Kart circuits, and adding them in seemed to fit well with the game. They also also added Cheep Cheep and Pokey, and coined them "NPC drivers".
Mario Kart World initially started out in development as a game for the original Nintendo Switch, but moving to Switch 2 provided a "ray of hope", given the console's increased power.
The game was also chosen as the Switch 2 pack-in title because of how accessible and far-reaching the game is for both new and seasoned players, and how well Mario Kart 8 had done in demonstrating the appetite for racing games on the Switch system.
We believe Mario Kart World is one of the best Switch 2 games right now. In fact, it sits top of our list but could be dethroned by Donkey Kong Bananza, which releases on July 17.
Reece Bithrey is a journalist with bylines for Trusted Reviews, Digital Foundry, PC Gamer, TechRadar and more. He also has his own blog, UNTITLED, and graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in International History and Politics in 2023.