The Mario Kart World Kamek item is a brand new power-up for the Switch 2 game. You may well know the word Kamek as they're a pretty key character in Super Mario games over the years. They're an old yet powerful Magikoopa, an adviser to Bowser (even if he doesn't always take their advice) and a high-ranking member of Bowser's army.
In Mario Kart World though, they've been turned into an item you can use in races to turn your rivals into a variety of Super Mario enemies and NPCs, and scatter that same enemy across the track as aggressive obstacles.
Here's how to get the Mario Kart World Kamek item and all the unlocks you can get with it.
How to get the Kamek item in Mario Kart World
Don't let the above screenshot deceive you, getting the Mario Kart World Kamek item is so rare I've not actually gotten it yet - despite my many many hours in the game so far.
The Mario Kart World Kamek item is a random drop from ? Mark Blocks in races, but it's so rare that you can go through multiple Grand Prix or Knockout Tours and not see one feature at all.
From everything we've heard, it can drop for anyone from 24th up to 3rd, but 2nd/1st place won't get the drop.
Despite its rarity, it's a very valuable item to both get in the race, and be hit by.
What happens is when someone uses Kamek, Kamek themselves will fly ahead and turn anyone in front of you into an enemy or NPC racer. They'll also drop the same character all over the track as attacking obstacles.
Being hit by Kamek and transforming is the only way to unlock these characters to race as in Mario Kart World. However, it's worth noting that you're not guaranteed to be hit by Kamek if you're in front of the person who used it, so it's a very frustrating system all round.
All the Mario Kart World Kamek unlocks
There are 11 characters that the Mario Kart World Kamek unlocks. You can read more about how to unlock Mario Kart World characters over in our complete guide, but these are the 11 character you can unlock by being hit by Kamek's spell:
- Cataquack
- Chargin’ Chuck
- Coin Coffer
- Conkodor
- Dolphin
- Fish Bone
- Peepa
- Pianta
- Rocky Wrench
- Spike
- Swoop
As far as we can tell, the character you turn into is completely random. It's not seemingly linked to the track you're racing or which character used the item for example.
We'll update this guide if we get any more information or confirmation, but for now, this is one of the rarest and most useful of the Mario Kart World items in game.
Check out the full Mario Kart World roster for all the characters available, or head over to our guide on how to unlock karts in Mario Kart World if you need some fresh wheels.
