Mario Kart World's fancy movement mechanics were in part made by devs who would spend their lunch breaks skateboarding.
Mario Kart World may be catching some strays thanks to its glut of intermission tracks breaking up the actual track racing, but when you ignore that fact, I can't think of a Mario Kart game that feels better to play.
Rather than play about with anti-gravity again, Nintendo introduced a ton of movement mechanics that ironically make you feel like you're driving in anti-gravity more than Mario Kart 8 did. As a result, it feels like Mario Kart by way of Tony Hawk Pro Skater more than a conventional racing game, and it turns out there's a very good reason for that.
Speaking to Famitsu (translated via Automaton), Mario Kart World producer Kosuke Yabuki said the game's vehicle controls programmer is a big fan of extreme sports, and thus implemented them into the driving of Mario Kart World.
That love seems to extend to a lot of the development team, "we even have some staff members who go skateboarding or ride their bikes outside of the development team’s office building during lunch breaks."
As a result of the movement mechanics, players are going absolutely ham. One look at the top time trial replays will show all manner of driving tech that would result in a person's certain demise if they tried to drive like that in real life. Wall jumping off of the tiniest elements of the stage, driving underneath the track, and enough flips to make prime Jeff Hardy look like nothing.
But even then, Yabuki reckons players haven't found all of it, "We’ve also prepared many different gimmicks that are in between the courses, and I get the impression that there are still not many people who have practiced or fully played through them."
So if Mario Kart World speedruns are already this wild, imagine what they'll be like in a few years once everything is discovered.
Donkey Kong Bananza will have some framerate drops, director admits, but he's fine with that: "We prioritized fun and playability."
