It seems that Nintendo doesn’t see Mario Kart World as an open-world game. This was explained by Kosuke Yabuki, the long-time producer of the Mario Kart series, just a few days before the game’s release on the Nintendo Switch 2.
Yabuki stated, “We actually don’t use the phrase ‘open world’ in development. I think for us it’s just a little bit too ambiguously defined. Even though we are creating this vast interconnected world with racing routes, you still do need some traditional elements. … That’s why we have this opportunity to pull in classic courses from past titles and remake them for ‘World’.”
The Real Definition: Free Roam
So, what term does Nintendo use internally? It’s simply free roam. This term emphasizes the freedom to explore without strictly following the rules of an open-world game. This approach is reflected in the game’s design, where tracks are no longer separate entities but part of a larger, dynamic system.
Mario Kart World will include more than 100 courses, including all the variations from previous episodes. This makes it a big and rich title, regardless of whether it fits the exact definition of an open-world game.
As for the size of the game world, some reports say it takes nine to ten minutes to travel from one end of the Mario Kart World environment to the other. That’s a lot of time for a game of this type, showing just how large the world is.
