Mario Kart World developers who aren't that great at actually playing Mario Kart were "favorites" on the team, according to general gameplay designer Shintaro Jikumaru, because they could spot things more proficient shell tossers couldn't.
Mario Kart's always been a series that appeals to pretty much everyone, from traditionally non-gamers who are just there to maybe ride a Bullet Bill for a short 'n' sweet time to sweaty pros prepared to whip their siblings with the Wii mote in order to secure a first place finish. (I'm not talking from personal experience, I swear.)
But that wide appeal doesn't come naturally. In a new Ask the Developer blog, senior team members describe how they'd ensure that the upcoming Switch 2 game was accessible to people of all skill levels.
"I've been working on the Mario Kart franchise for a long time, so I think I've got a good sense for how advanced players think," Jikumaru explains. "But newcomers to the series or those less familiar with video games might get stuck in places that we as developers didn't expect. So, when designing gameplay in any game, not just this game, it's important to have less experienced players test it out."
Nintendo went as far as to brand some members of the team as "favorites," Jikumaru continued with a laugh. "We handed the game to a developer with just the right degree of unfamiliarity and said, 'Off you go!' We had them play next to us, and we were like, 'Oh, so you don't get that. Interesting!'"
Elsewhere in the blog, the team also talked about adding lots of recognisable, eye-catching landmarks across the series' first ever open-world map to help guide players to key locations. And, of course, you'll also have your usual signs and arrows and road markers pointing you in the right direction during a race.
Mario Kart World started development as an OG Switch game in 2017, but went open-world because MK 8 Deluxe perfected "the formula that we'd been following" for 25 years.
