Did you know that Mario Kart World was originally planned for the Switch 1? That the game has over 200 music tracks? Or that the cow was added as a playable character based on a sketch by one of the game’s artists?

Yep, all of these facts and more were revealed in the latest Ask the Developer feature on the Nintendo website, this time focused on Mario Kart World for the Switch 2. It’s an interesting read, with a lot of intriguing details on the game’s development history, and one of the most surprising dev interviews in years.

So today, we’re gonna look at that interview and everything revealed about it. Let’s go!

A Switch Game?

Starting with the biggest bombshell in the article. Mario Kart World, was originally developed for the Switch 1. Here’s what Kenta Sato said in the interview:

At the time, we were developing Mario Kart World for Nintendo Switch, and we were analysing from a calm and collected programming perspective whether it would be possible to accommodate 24 players. In game development, you first finish making all the different elements and then optimise them to run on the system. But when trying to accommodate 24 players, we had to make all kinds of processing optimisations right from the start as we were making it.

Yep, the game was planned for the Switch 1, with the 24-player races being a hassle for that version of the game. And as you can imagine, development certainly wasn’t going so well on such a limited console:

When we were developing for Nintendo Switch, it was difficult for us to incorporate everything we wanted, so we were always conscious of what we were giving up in return. We discussed things like toning down the visuals, lowering the resolution, and we even considered dropping the frame rate to 30 fps in some cases. It was a tough situation.

So yeah, it was planned as a Switch 1 game, then moved over to the Switch 2 was that was announced. Kinda makes you wonder how different the game would be if the original direction had continued, right?

But the original system isn’t the only interesting detail revealed here. No, the choice of name and the situation with Mario Kart Tour are discussed too. As Kosuke Yabuki puts it:

If the idea had just been to add more courses, then I think we would’ve called it Mario Kart 9. But, that wasn’t our approach this time. We wanted to take the series to the next level. So, we decided to drop the numbering this time and go with a completely new title, Mario Kart World. So we’d already added “MARIO KART WORLD” to the concept art from the early stages of development.

In other words, it’s not a numbered sequel because it doesn’t continue with the same formula as the last few Mario Kart games. It’s a new thing in of itself, and the name reflects that.

Or does it?

Because as much as Nintendo don’t mention it, Mario Kart World is hardly the first Mario Kart game to drop the number in the title. No, the whole series avoided numbers up until Mario Kart 7, with the first 6 games using the name of the console in the name and the spinoffs continuing the trend.

So, we have to wonder… if the name was changed to show how different the new game was, why was the numbering system implemented at all? Why go from featuring the name of the console in the name, to a number?

It doesn’t really make a lot of sense to us. You could say Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was named that because it wasn’t the only Switch game, since World was planned for that system too…

But that doesn’t explain the rest of the series. Mario Kart 7 was the only Mario Kart game ever conceived for the 3DS, and Mario Kart 8 was always the only Mario Kart game planned for the Wii U. Why number them at all?

Ah well, it’s a Nintendo thing. Who knows what they’re thinking over there.

Still, they do confirm one interesting thing here. That being, Tour isn’t counted as Mario Kart 9.

No, with the interview mentioning World as a potential Mario Kart 9, it’s clear the mobile game was only treated like a spinoff and nothing else. So yeah, the old debate has now been settled. Tour isn’t a mainline Mario Kart game, and it was never meant to be.

Track Choices to Fit the World Design

They also confirm the tracks included in the game were added because they fit the world design:

Jikumaru-san drew up a rough map for us to start discussing where to place them. We first placed the existing courses in the world based on the directions of the compass and created a setting for them. For example, the climate gets drier as you go west, so we thought we could place the Shy Guy Bazaar course from previous games with its palace in this area, and perhaps place the Desert Hills course nearby. Going northeast, we thought we could make this region colder with a steep, snowy mountain as a landmark, and have a course where you can race at its peak. When designing courses based on the climate, we also tried to be creative so that the routes that connect courses are seamless and that the scenery around you changes before you know it.

So, if you’re wondering why the retro track selection is so… questionable, it’s because they were chosen to fit the world design rather than the other way around. It was easier to fit Choco Mountain and Mario Circuit and Moo Moo Farm into the world than put Waluigi Pinball and Squeaky Clean Sprint into a map like this.

Regardless, there’s something far more interesting in this interview than the world design…

How Many Songs?

That being, just how many songs are included in the game. Why? Because according to Atsuki Asahi, there are over 200 songs included in-game!

Altogether, over 200 for the “jukebox”. These are all brand-new arrangements, and we also did live recordings. We prepared pieces from quite a wide variety of musical genres. I believe those who are well-versed in video game music, as well as those who aren’t, will enjoy listening to them.

That’s an insane number. Indeed, with Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s soundtrack only having about 112 songs, Mario Kart World has about double that already.

What’s more, it’s a damn varied soundtrack too. Indeed, while previous games had unique songs for every track, and a few others for modes and menus, Mario Kart World has a soundtrack mixing songs from all across the series. Whether it’s remixes of past tracks like Squeaky Clean Sprint and Coconut Mall, of songs from the platformers like Bowser’s Road and Gusty Garden Galaxy or surprise spinoff inclusions like the Wario Land 1 theme, it’s clear that Nintendo has gone all out this time around.

Intermission Design

The interview also mentions the challenges of designing interesting track intermissions. You see, the straight-line design critiqued by many YouTubers and content creators is a deliberate choice here, to make sure the player knows where they’re meant to be going. As per Shintaro Jikumaru:

For example, when going from point A to point B, we tried placing lots of bends along the way like we always do. But with too many bends, you lose sight of your destination. Then your goal of travelling from point A to point B becomes more difficult. That said, driving for ages down a straight road isn’t much fun either. So we figured what we were lacking was some kind of gameplay mechanic for straight roads, and that’s where the idea for some of the game’s new elements, such as Rail Ride and Wall Ride, came from. The development team collectively referred to these new features as “tricks”.

It’s not automatically fun to drive down a straight road. So, they added mechanics like the rail ride and wall ride to overcome that. To provide options for alternate routes without needing to add lots of extra paths and bends in the track.

Will it work? Only time will tell…

The Origin of the Cow

Regardless, something that definitely did work out was the Cow as a playable character. And as per usual, the devs explain the logic behind that inclusion too:

That’s right. In previous games in the series, Cow was part of the scenery or an obstacle on one of the courses. But when we were working on an early version of a course in this game set on a ranch that players can drive through, this sketch came up. (Laughs)

And honestly? It makes sense. It’s an eye-catching concept, and a great way to differentiate Mario Kart World from the rest of the series. So, the cow as a playable character just feels so right here.

Interestingly, this is also what kicked off the addition of the other ‘obstacle’ characters to the game too. As put in the article, the inclusion of the Cow made them look to other background enemies and obstacles as racers too:

So we thought maybe we could include other obstacle characters, and decided to add Cheep Cheep and Pokey as racers. As a result, the idea of taking obstacle characters, usually found in courses in past games, and having them participate in races made sense to me in terms of an interconnected world.

So, if you’re a fan of Dolphin, Penguin, Para-Biddybud or Snowman, you can thank the Cow for inspiring them all. The devs saw a funny sketch of it driving a lorry, then decided that background obstacles would make great racers because of that.

Also mentioned are the Kamek item (which turns everyone into a particular enemy character), and how obstacle characters like Camel and Giraffe were inspired by the Cow.

And this is very interesting to us. Why? Because it leaves it in the air as to whether those other characters could potentially be playable characters or Kamek summon as well.

Are we getting a playable Camel now? Or is the comparison merely a way to talk about how it fills the Cow’s original background role in the Savannah track?

Hmm, we’ll have to wait and see there.

More About Missions

Another thing that was briefly touched in the interview were the P Switch missions. These were first shown in the Mario Kart World Direct earlier in the month, and feature timed challenges involving things like coin collecting and ring passing.

And they were added to the game so new players could learn the techniques and world design:

P Switch Missions involve going to places you normally wouldn’t, or repeating actions you wouldn’t often perform. But when you go back to racing after completing a mission in Free Roam, you’ll realise, “Hey, I know another route here!” and feel like you’ve improved a bit.

So yeah, the reason these exist is so you can learn the mechanics and find new areas in the world. They inspire you to think outside of the box and go places you otherwise would.

A Ton of Concept Art

Finally, the article also includes tons of neat concept art for the game as a whole. Okay, there’s obviously the Cow artwork that inspired the character’s inclusion.

But there’s also a fair bit of other stuff too. So, for convenience sakes, we’ve added it all into a nice gallery below:

As you can tell, there are a lot of food and location designs here, as well as some very neat outfits for the game’s playable characters. Huh, who knew Mario and Daisy could rock urban fashion so well? Or that Pauline actually does have a touring outfit after all?

Regardless, that’s everything interesting in the latest Mario Kart World interview. There’s a lot of other stuff included that we didn’t cover, so we’d definitely worth checking out the original article if you haven’t already. It’s one of the most detailed interviews Nintendo has conducted in years, and contains tons of awesome insights into the new game because of it.

Still, what are your thoughts? Are you surprised that Mario Kart World was planned for the Switch 1, or that the Cow was added because of a funny piece of concept art?

Leave your thoughts in the comments below, or on our Discord server today!

Source:

Ask The Developer – Mario Kart World (Official Nintendo Site)