Well folks, another update for Mario Kart World dropped. What’s more, this one is a bit more interesting with the norm, with a surprising number of new tracks and features too.
Here’s the trailer for the update:
Plus, the full list of changes from the latest update:
Mario Kart World Version 1.8.0 Patch Notes
General
- Propeller Rally and Turnip Rally have been added to Knockout Tour.
- You can select these if you have played one of the rallies in Knockout Tour.
- The following courses have been added to VS Race, Time Trials, and races in Online Play and Wireless Play.
- Courses you can choose from Mario Circuit
- SNES Mario Circuit 1
- SNES Mario Circuit 2
- SNES Mario Circuit 3
- Courses you can choose from Ghost Valley
- SNES Ghost Valley 1
- SNES Ghost Valley 2
- SNES Ghost Valley 3
- Courses you can choose from Choco Mountain
- SNES Choco Island 1
- SNES Choco Island 2
- Course you can choose from Sky-High Sundae
- SNES Vanilla Lake 1
- Course you can choose from Koopa Beach
- SNES Koopa Beach 1
- Notes: Item panels will appear on these courses instead of item boxes. Item boxes will appear on the race that leads to Mario Circuit.
- The time for each lap is now displayed in Time Trials.
- The color of the time difference between the player and ghost data in Time Trials has been changed.
- When the player time is faster than the ghost, the color is red.
- When the player time is slower than the ghost, the color is blue.
- A filter was added to the frame that appears when using Photo Mode on the pause menu.
- You can now use the Y Button to switch the camera to the player’s perspective while spectating or playing in races, Knockout Tour, or Battle mode.
- You can now use the R Button to view participants’ real-time rankings when spectating during races or Knockout Tour.
- You can now switch to Spectator Mode when playing in a room in Online Play or LAN Play.
- This mode only allows players to watch the game without participating.
- Press the Y Button from the pause menu after joining a room to switch to Spectator Mode.
- Up to 26 players can now join a room in Online Play or LAN Play.
- Up to 24 people can join the game.
- When there are 24 participants, no one else can join the room until a participant switches to Spectator Mode.
- The amount of rate fluctuation in races now varies according to the length of the course.
- The method for calculating rates when the score is the same in Battle has changed.
- Adjusted slipperiness when covered in Blooper ink.
- Decreased the number of times that Green Shells, Coin Shells, fireballs, ice balls and Boomerangs bounce off walls.
- Reduced the amount of time it takes to return to normal after getting crushed by a Thwomp.
- Increased the amount of time you won’t take damage from Boo after it takes an item from you.
- Adjusted the probability of obtaining items from item boxes in races and Knockout Tour.
- Auto-Use Item can now be used even when set to Custom Items.
- Made it possible to see the following items your rivals may be holding:
- Coin, ? Block, Kamek, Blooper, Feather, Fire Flower, Ice Flower, Boomerang, Hammer.
- You can no longer wall ride around the edge of the road in Ghost Valley.
- Buoys have been added to the race leading from Acorn Heights and Dry Bones Burnout to Boo Cinema.
Fixed Issues
- Fixed an issue where swinging the controller while jumping at the end of a rail could cause you to jump higher than usual.
- Time Trials ghosts affected by this issue may be removed from View Rankings without prior notice.
- Fixed an issue where, after a crash, a player might become trapped after being pushed by a car driving down the road.
- Fixed an issue in Free Roam where opening the map just before entering a pipe could make the controls inoperable.
- Fixed an issue where a Spiny Shell would ride along the rail in reverse direction.
- Fixed an issue where, after going off-track on certain courses, the player would sometimes respawn significantly further ahead.
- Fixed an issue in Bowser’s Castle where a player could get stuck on the lava waterfall while moving through it as a Bullet Bill.
- Fixed an issue where players would pass through walls when using the Feather in Dandelion Depths.
- Fixed an issue in Crown City where the finish line tape would disappear after crossing the finish line.
- Fixed an issue where the final ranking could be wrong when using a Feather to take a shortcut on Mario Circuit.
- Fixed an issue where driving along the outer edge of a corner on Wario Stadium could cause the player to go off-course.
- Several other issues have been addressed to improve the gameplay experience.
Yeah, there are technically new tracks here. Since well, the SNES tracks from free-roam have now been added to other modes as well.
This means you can now play time trials on all the Mario Circuit tracks individually, as well as Choco Island 1 and 2, Koopa Beach 1 and the Ghost Valley tracks near Boo Cinema.
Plus, you can play them in vs mode and on online too. Effectively, Mario Kart World now has another 10 tracks available for it.
Of course, your mileage may vary as to whether they’re actually good ones. SNES tracks tend to be on the simpler side, with many of Super Mario Kart’s earlier ones feeling more like an introduction to the idea of a racing game than an interesting experience in of itself.
So, ten more of these is hardly going to set the world on fire the same way 10 fully original ones. These aren’t Waluigi Pinball or Maple Treeway level bangers with a ton of uses for rail grinding, wall-riding and other new mechanics.
But they do make a few interesting changes nonetheless. For example, most of these now have enemies and obstacles that weren’t on the original course. Hence Choco Island 1 and 2 have things like Fire Piranha Plants and boulders, Ghost Valley has Peepas, etc.
Add this to a few extra bits of geometry here and there for shortcuts, and changes like a different time of day keeping each thematically similar track unique in its own way, and there’s definitely been a bit more work than you’d expect. They didn’t just port them 1:1 from their respective free-roam missions and call it a day.
They also didn’t restrict the changes to these courses either. No, Knockout Tour got the usual update too.
Indeed, now the Propeller Rally and Turnip Rally have been added to the game, with some very interesting routes to race along. For the former, you’re going through Acorn Heights, Boo Cinema, Dandelion Depths, Moo Moo Meadows and Toad’s Factory before ending on Airship Fortress, while in the latter your tracks are DK Pass, Cheep Cheep Falls, Peach Stadium, Choco Mountain, Wario Stadium and Shy Guy Bazaar.
Definitely some creative routing there, that’s for sure!
Also in the changes are some much needed updates for time trials. For example, you can finally see lap records for each track like in the older games.
So, don’t worry time trial fans. Mario Kart World now has the same functionality as its earlier counterparts do.
And there are other minor tweaks and additions as well. You can view rankings in spectator mode, there’s a new photo mode option, you can see your opponents holding even more items and certain obstacles are more generous with their recovery times too. Nothing too game changing sure, but it’s all stuff that’s nice to see nonetheless.
Either way, that’s the latest update for Mario Kart World, and everything included here. It’s a neat setup, and we appreciate the extra tracks and features. We were admittedly hoping for actual DLC to be announced here (aka new characters, karts, tracks made from new assets, etc), and we were a tad disappointed that alternate routes like Daisy’s Palace weren’t included, but it’s better than many previous updates for the game nonetheless.
So, what do you think? Are you happy with the update?
Leave your thoughts in the comments below, or on our Discord server today!
Source:
Mario Kart World – Nintendo Direct 9.9.2026 (YouTube)