How to rewind in Mario Kart World

Mario Kart World looks simple at first glance, but it holds many secrets and a handful of useful mechanics that you won’t pick up right away. Since the game does a poor job of teaching players how to make the most of the new additions as they play, we’ve spent some time answering questions such as how to rewind in Mario Kart World and when it’s a good idea to do it.

You can rewind by pressing (down) on the direction pad to recover the last five seconds or so. Since this is a very short amount of time, you won’t be able to redo massive screw-ups, but it’s useful to get another chance at taking one shortcut or giving a difficult jump another go... as long as you hit rewind fast enough. Much like using the Dagger of Time in the early 2000s Prince of Persia trilogy, the rewind feature won’t fix all your problems as sometimes you’ll need more time, but it’s a nice crutch for casual players that don’t take races super seriously. There are some big caveats though:

• Unlike in Forza Horizon, computer-controlled characters won’t rewind.
• The timer in Free Roam challenges and Time Trials (or other timed activities) isn’t affected either. You’re effectively losing time when you rewind.
• You can’t use rewind in multiplayer modes.

So, when should rewind be used if there are so many negatives to its use? Well, we’ve found it to be quite useful to learn tricky courses such as those in the Special Cup or to reach difficult spots in the Free Roam mode. Just don’t expect it to be a shortcut to win races easily.