Mario Kart World Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

Podcast Summary: Mario Kart World Review - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Podcast Information:

• Title: Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast
• Host/Authors: Tim Gettys, Greg “GameOverGreggy” Miller, Blessing Adeoye Jr., and Snowbike Mike
• Episode: Mario Kart World Review
• Release Date: June 13, 2025

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Introduction

In this episode of the Kinda Funny Gamescast, spanning over an hour, the hosts—Tim Gettys, Greg “GameOverGreggy” Miller, Blessing Adeoye Jr., and Snowbike Mike—delve deep into their week-long experiences with the highly anticipated Mario Kart World. Released just a week prior, the team offers a comprehensive review, dissecting every aspect of the game from its innovative open-world design to its stellar soundtrack.

First Impressions and General Overview

Tim Gettys kicks off the discussion by introducing the unique setup of the episode, noting that it's just the four hosts without additional guests or segments:

"[00:36] Snowbike Mike: What'S up? And welcome back to the Kind of Funny Games cast for Friday, June 13, 2025."

The team highlights that Mario Kart World marks a significant evolution in the franchise, being the first to incorporate an open-world environment, a feature that they've been eager to explore.

In-Depth Analysis

1. Open World Features

Barrett Courtney provides a detailed analysis of the game's open-world mechanics:

"[10:13] Barrett Courtney: ...I think in the first week, a lot of there's been a lot of weird things that I've noticed in Mario's Mario Kart's like, first foray into the open world stuff that I think it holds it back."

He points out that while the thematic park experience reminiscent of past installments like Mario Kart 8 remains intact, the integration of open-world elements introduces new challenges. The transition between race courses often feels like moving through a parking lot rather than being immersed in a cohesive theme park:

"[10:20] Barrett Courtney: ...it's like so much of this time feels like I'm not in the theme park, but I'm in the parking lot outside of the theme park."

2. Multiplayer Experience

Blessing Adeoye Jr. shares his excitement about the multiplayer aspect, especially the new Knockout Tour:

"[13:30] Blessing Adeoye Jr.: ...this is a lot of fun. Tim. This is the first time in a long time where I've grabbed a Mario Kart and I am actively excited to play it..."

He praises the introduction of 24-player lobbies, making races more chaotic and engaging:

"[17:02] Blessing Adeoye Jr.: ...the multiplayer experience is so much better than what it has been, right."

However, Snowbike Mike raises concerns about solo play in Knockout Tour mode, finding it frustrating compared to the more enjoyable multiplayer experience.

3. Soundtrack and Art Style

The Mario Kart World soundtrack receives universal acclaim from the hosts. Snowbike Mike emphatically states:

"[23:06] Snowbike Mike: ...this soundtrack is off the chain."

He and Tim Gettys discuss how the music enhances the racing experience, integrating live instrumentation and diverse genres that elevate the game's ambiance.

The art style is also lauded for its vibrant and cartoony aesthetics:

"[58:09] Tim Gettys: ...I love unlocking like a. Here's the Bowser Buggy. Here's the Rob Hog. I love that."

The characters and cart designs are praised for their creativity and visual appeal, contributing to the game's high production value.

4. Game Mechanics: Drift, Charge Jump, and Mirror Mode

Barrett Courtney expresses mixed feelings about the game's mechanics:

"[50:05] Barrett Courtney: ...the charge jump definitely feels inconsistent to me..."

The drift mechanics are critiqued for feeling too slow and bouncy, diverging from the tight controls fans expect from the series. Tim Gettys echoes similar sentiments regarding Mirror Mode:

"[52:26] Tim Gettys: ...Mirror Mode is the most uninteresting thing in Mario Kart."

Both modes are seen as unnecessary additions that don’t enhance the core racing experience, leading to frustration among the hosts.

Challenges and Critiques

While Barrett and Blessing commend the overall design and multiplayer features, they criticize the open-world exploration segments for feeling bland and disconnected from the vibrant racing action. The sticker system, intended as a reward mechanism, falls flat:

"[44:26] Tim Gettys: ...the sticker system... It’s such a boring thing to collect."

Moreover, the high skill ceiling introduced by new mechanics like rail grinding and wall riding is seen as a double-edged sword. While it adds depth, the lack of balance between casual and competitive play frustrates players seeking a more streamlined experience.

Future Content and DLC Expectations

The conversation shifts towards potential updates and DLC content. The hosts express hope that Nintendo will continue to support Mario Kart World with new tracks, characters, and features to maintain its longevity:

"[41:06] Snowbike Mike: ...they've launched this console with the Mario Kart and this is a world where like you expect DLC from Nintendo projects like this specifically."

They anticipate crossovers with other Nintendo franchises, which would enrich the game's universe and provide fresh content for players.

Audience Interaction and Chat Questions

Throughout the episode, the hosts engage with their YouTube chat, addressing listener comments and questions. Topics range from roster additions to specific gameplay mechanics, reflecting the community's diverse opinions and experiences with Mario Kart World.

Notable quotes from chat interactions include:

• "I don't think this is worth $80 from someone who loves Mario Kart." – Iconic
• "I want to squash up with a small party of friends to just do random rooms of like verses..." – Barrett Courtney responding to user Demon Hacker

Conclusion

In wrapping up, the hosts agree that Mario Kart World offers a solid foundation with its innovative features and exceptional soundtrack. However, certain design choices, particularly in gameplay mechanics and reward systems, leave room for improvement. The consensus leans towards an 8 out of 10, acknowledging the game's strengths while recognizing areas that could benefit from refinement.

Snowbike Mike encapsulates the sentiment:

"[24:39] Snowbike Mike: ... Mario Kart World is an 8 out of 10. I think you guys have really said everything how I feel about it."

They express optimism that Nintendo will continue to enhance the game through updates and community feedback, ensuring Mario Kart World remains a staple in the beloved franchise.

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Notable Quotes:

• Barrett Courtney [10:13]: "I think the highs are incredibly high... but the lows are just a bit lower that bring it back."
• Blessing Adeoye Jr. [15:16]: "It's real good. I love every single time that there's a new track played."
• Snowbike Mike [25:18]: "The soundtrack is the greatest game soundtrack of all time, period."
• Tim Gettys [48:46]: "You have to review what's there. You can't review what the game isn't."
• Barrett Courtney [57:02]: "This is the most expensive game Nintendo has ever made. And the only justification I can possibly make for that is the music."

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For those interested in a comprehensive discussion blending both praise and constructive criticism, this episode of Kinda Funny Gamescast offers valuable insights into Mario Kart World's current standing within the gaming community.

Transcript

[Tim Gettys]

What is Dadication?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

The thing that drives me every day.

[Tim Gettys]

As a dad is Dariona.

[Barrett Courtney]

We call him Dae Date for short.

[Snowbike Mike]

Every day he's hungry for something, whether.

[Tim Gettys]

It'S attention, affection, knowledge.

[Snowbike Mike]

And there's this huge responsibility in making.

[Tim Gettys]

Sure that when he's no longer under my wing that he's a good person. I want him to be able to.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Sit back one day and go, we worked together.

[Snowbike Mike]

We did a good job.

[Tim Gettys]

That's dadication. Find out [e-mail] brought to you by the U.S. department of Health and Human.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Services and the Ad Council.

[Tim Gettys]

Foreign.

[Snowbike Mike]

What'S up? And welcome back to the Kind of Funny Games cast for Friday, June 13, 2025. Of course, I'm your host, Tim Gettys. I'm joined by a very unique crew of gentlemen today. I don't know that the four of us have ever been on this desk. Just us. Right? Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Before.

[Snowbike Mike]

So that feels weird. Should be fun little Friday the 13th vibes for you. I'm Tim Yetis. I'm joined today by Blessing at EOA Junior.

[Tim Gettys]

Good day, Tim.

[Snowbike Mike]

Snowbike, Mike.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Motion control king. Remember that?

[Snowbike Mike]

I'll never forget it, Mike.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Come on.

[Snowbike Mike]

The pride you have when you told me how well you're doing in the Grand Prix using the motion control. Are you using the wheel or.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, I'm using the wheel.

[Snowbike Mike]

Good.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Exclusively using the wheel. And I'm having a blast to the point where I think my whole Mario Kart adventure now will be with the wheel.

[Snowbike Mike]

Good.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I'm in.

[Snowbike Mike]

Good for you, you big little child. And also we have Barrett, Courtney. Oh, God, no. Why does it have to be every joke? Normally, it's Dave's Day.

[Barrett Courtney]

For a minute, I see something.

[Snowbike Mike]

And the box here, it comes with a box.

[Tim Gettys]

What if there's a bomb?

[Snowbike Mike]

What if there is a. The bomb is in.

[Tim Gettys]

Play the ball.

[Barrett Courtney]

Take your time. Drake it.

[Tim Gettys]

Circle it around. I actually like the song.

[Greg Miller]

Aren't we paying you by the hour?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah. I like that song.

[Greg Miller]

Hello, Gamescast. Hello, Tim.

[Snowbike Mike]

Hey, Greg.

[Greg Miller]

What's that song mean to you?

[Snowbike Mike]

A lot of fear.

[Barrett Courtney]

What's it mean to me?

[Snowbike Mike]

Torture. Despair.

[Greg Miller]

What it should mean, of course, is celebrations. Tim. Thank you, Mike. Mike knows better than anybody when that song plays, I come out and I make the content. I come out. I make your life better. Timothy. All right, everybody, remember, there's a championship parade here in San Francisco, June 2020 8th. For me, it's a Saturday. We're going to walk the Embarcadero together. We're going to have a good Time in front of square pie. Guys, we will not be in the streets. It's not that kind of parade.

[Snowbike Mike]

You said parade. It sounded like you said raid. And I, I do want you to know it. You are raiding Pokemon Go Fest. You were trying to take this from me, something I hold sacred.

[Greg Miller]

That's just a coincidence. That's really just a coincidence. I didn't know that'd be a big day for you and all your friends would be out there being nerds. I didn't know. I didn't know.

[Barrett Courtney]

Definitely not co opting it all.

[Greg Miller]

It all lined up. That's a holiday this month, ladies gentlemen and bees, my championship parade. Go get your shirt right now. Kind of funny.com store. But you probably know there's another holiday this weekend. Father's Day. It's going to be a big day for me. I'm a dad. It's going to be a big day. Thank you. Hold on. Round of applause for Kevin. He's a dad. But most importantly, it's going to be a big day for Mike, of course, the fictional father. Fictional father who for years convinced Sarah Bond that he was in fact a father. And continuing the tradition, Xbox and Sarah Bond have sent Michael Father's Day.

[Barrett Courtney]

So I don't know what it is.

[Greg Miller]

There's a card on top there.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I'm excited to see such amazing. Happy Father's Day to me, Tim.

[Snowbike Mike]

Happy Father's Day.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It's been a beautiful journey and it's been a fun one. A lot of growth, a lot of smiles, a lot of memories.

[Snowbike Mike]

What are the kids names again?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Timmy and Susie, of course, you know.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Happy Father's Day. Hope you know how amazing you are.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, that's a while long though.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Dear Snowbike Mike, Happy Father's Day to you. A proud papa of the most well behaved, though rarely seen children in gaming. From the moment you became a dad, I knew you were determined for greatness. Not just in what would be video games, but in the world of parenting.

[Barrett Courtney]

Destined for greatness.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

To help the whole Snowbike Mike family level up, I've sent some brand new special edition. Open those up. Witcher 3 Wild Hunt Xbox controllers. Witch 1 for you and one for your little baby, mini Mike to enjoy in all your co op adventures that lie ahead. With admiration and absolutely no doubt you are doing the whole dad thing, Sarah Bond. Yes, no doubt you're doing the dad thing. If your kids even ever need a babysitter, I'll call in and I'll help out with some Minecraft coins. Thank you. Sarah Bond, you are incredible. Thank you to Sarah Bond Team Xbox for of course allowing me to live out my Father's Day fantasy. Me and the kids will enjoy some great co op adventures in Minecraft, grounded Sea of Thieves and some eso.

[Barrett Courtney]

Sorry, I know you were. I knew you were handing me that box, but you said it right as you said Mini Mike and I felt like that was going to imply that I was Mini Mike and I did not want that. Did not want that.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Thanks Sarah Bond.

[Snowbike Mike]

Jean jacket says Snow Trike Mike.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Snow Trike Mike. Thank you Sarah Bond for all the love and the support. I appreciate you. Thanks for making a memory that I will now never forget. I will have two framed Father's Day postcards from Sarah Bond in my household, which is great.

[Snowbike Mike]

I love you so much, Mike. And shout out to Xbox and Sarah Bond.

[Tim Gettys]

At some point we gotta have a conversation about how many controllers Xbox sends out.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I love it.

[Tim Gettys]

I love it. Like next gen PlayStation might have to like make those things cheaper. They're just printing these things out.

[Barrett Courtney]

What's the time of how quickly Gary Whitta hits us up about getting one of these controllers?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

He loves his actual font.

[Tim Gettys]

I do like the Witcher one.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

He loves controllers. Thank you Sarah Bond and the team and thanks for bringing the fun of course introing Barrett onto today's gamescast. The Big Dog. This is an episode all about you because we come to you for all of the thoughts on this game we're going to talk about.

[Barrett Courtney]

Well, as one King enters the field in motion controls for Mario Kart world, One King has to retire because he's fucking washed in Mario Kart. And we'll talk about all of that today here on this gamescast. Take it away, Tim.

[Snowbike Mike]

This is the kind of Funny games cast which every weekday we get together to talk about the biggest reviews, previews and topics in video games live on YouTube, Twitch and podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, please support us with the Kind of Funny membership on Patreon, YouTube, Spotify or Apple Podcast and that'll get you the show ad free and a daily exclusive show. Greg Way for a chance to be part of this show. Submit your thoughts and opinions as YouTube super chats as we go. So let us know what you think of Mario Kart World. What score would you give it on the Kind of Funny scale? One of the projects we announced at the beginning of the year was to celebrate 10 years of kind of Funny with another big video essay from Barrett. He's finally ready to show it to all of you. Next week is going to be a big one. This is every Naughty Dog game replayed by Barrett Courtney. Next week, Monday through Friday, we're going to be doing streams of a bunch of different Naughty Dog games. Start with Crash Bandicoot. We got some Jack and Daxter. We got Uncharted. We got Last of Us. And it all culminates on Friday with the YouTube premiere taking the place of Gamescast next week of Bear. Courtney's very long, very hard worked on video essay.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

You stoked?

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah, very. I'm more so tired than anything and like nothing like hits me anymore emotionally because of the amount of work that has gone into this in the last six months. I did one more watch of it this last week and it was like I didn't have any notes. But it was also like, man, none of the big like kind of emotional moments are hitting or like none of the big moments are hitting for me. But I think I've, it's just because I've been doing it for so long. So I'm like, I don't even know if this is good anymore or not. But you know, it'll come out next week. It'll be hopefully a fun time for all of y' all as I walk you all through my personal journey of replaying every Naughty dog game in 2024 slash 2025. Because I did it over kind of the, the winter break here and so it'll be a fun time. I'm excited to stream a bunch of games next week with all y' all. I'm sad to miss the Last of Us Part two day. That'll be carried by Mike and Nick. I've got to catch a very important baseball game. The Cleveland Guardians for the versus the San Francisco Giants.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yep. And what's extra cool is the reason you're doing this. It's the fifth anniversary of Last of Us 2.

[Barrett Courtney]

Well, that's not the reason I'm doing this. That's the reason we wanted it out this week. But yeah, the, the fifth anniversary of the Last of Us Part 2 is this coming Thursday, which is insane to think about. And that's the day y' all are going to be playing streaming Last of Us Part 2. But I actually talk about the reason why I made the video at the very beginning. Again, going through the whole journey.

[Snowbike Mike]

But yeah, we're an 11 person business. All about live talk shows. KFG covered a bunch of PlayStation news. After this, the boys are streaming Dune Awakening. That's exciting stuff if you're a kind of funny member. Today's Greg Way is a fun one. It's a guest spot from the one and only Rebecca Valentine telling you all about the best places in Kansas City. Why? Because one of you asked.

[Barrett Courtney]

Awesome.

[Snowbike Mike]

Thank you to our Patreon producers, Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney Twining. Today we're brought to you by xreal and Factor, but we'll tell you about that later. For now, let's start with the topic of the show, Mario Kart World. We've been playing it a little over a week at this point and we are ready to score it on the kind of funny scale and give our final reviews. I want to start with Barrett Courtney.

[Barrett Courtney]

Oh, gosh.

[Snowbike Mike]

Before I get there, actually this one. Release date June 5th Metacritic at 87. The first Mario Kart in quite a while. But Barrett, what would you give Mario.

[Barrett Courtney]

Kart World after a little over a week of play?

[Snowbike Mike]

Right?

[Barrett Courtney]

We got this kind of Wednesday night going to Thursday morning here. I believe I put in a little over 30 hours. After a week, I have 245 earned stickers because that's kind of your only way to like, kind of collect stats throughout this game. I have 24 P blocks, 12 peach coins, 13 question blocks, and I have three starred everything that is available to three star, including spoilers, mirror mode. After all of that, after a week, I would, on the kind of funny scale, give Mario kart world an 8. I think it's a great game. I think it's a solid, like, start for this and I'm excited for the potential future of this game. But I think in the first week, a lot of there's been a lot of, like, weird things that I've noticed in Mario's Mario Kart's like, first foray into the open world stuff that I think it holds it back. Right now I'm interested to see how if and how Nintendo kind of supports that and maybe adapts that over time. I think the highs are incredibly high. I think the highs match the highs of Mario Kart 8 in terms of the theme park feeling. To me, Mario Kart is at its best when you feel like you're constantly driving throughout a theme park and you know, you know, Rainbow Road, the, the Boo Theater, all that stuff. Like so many courses just give you this sense of, like, wonder and enjoyment. But with the open world stuff, kind of the biggest thing to me is that so much time is spent not in those moments because of this inclusion of the open world. I said it to Mike yesterday, but it's like so much of this time feels like I'm not in the theme park, but I'm in the parking lot outside of the theme park. Going from course to course going like when it's Knockout Tour going place to place in the open world or even just Grand Prix where you get the first race, that's three traditional three laps and then the rest of the Grand Prix is like a lap and a half of going from one kind of boring highway to the next place and all that, so on and so forth. And so I think there, there's like kind of an imbalance of kind of taking everything in and being in awe of what a Mario Kart can be. But again, the, the highs are still incredibly high. I think the lows are just a bit lower that bring it back and then we will get into this later. But I think the other big thing for me is just in terms of like gameplay feel and then balancing versus the level of the skill ceiling here, which we did have like kind of a long conversation last week after our first impressions, which I, I'm going to walk back some things. But then playing this over the course of the week have kind of proved some of my worries about the skill ceiling you can have in this game versus the other systems around the skill ceiling and you know, the, the way you can traverse with grinding rails, wall riding and all this stuff and then how Nintendo kind of balance all the other systems, I think is a really weird push and pull. But yeah, I think it's a great first, first attempt at a open world. I don't think it's mind blowing or anything. And again, I'm, I'm excited to see how Nintendo supports this going forward.

[Snowbike Mike]

Snowbike Mike I like that I'm probably.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Going to come in with the least amount of time played, so I'll be your impressions. But most importantly, we're going to talk multiplayer with me. And so I'm excited to dive in, kind of give you the report on that side of what I like and don't like. But for me this is a lot of fun. Tim. This is the first time in a long time where I've grabbed a Mario Kart and I am actively excited to play it because I am wowed by some of the new ideas when they bring up the open world, the Knockout Tour, I really, really like that. I haven't felt this much fun playing a Mario Kart since Mario Kart 64. Right. Which was like my first time jumping in. Every time since then it's like, oh, it's more Mario Kart like, that's cool. I enjoy this. I jump out of it. This is the first time where I'm like, oh, wow, I'm having a blast playing this, and I want to play more. And I think a lot of that is driven by the knockout mode, which I think is a really cool, fun, different way to kind of break up the. Hey, we're on the track, we're doing three to five laps, right? It's like, I like as Baird, so well put. I do agree with you, Bear. When you look at the maps that are not three laps and they're kind of broken up into three to five stages, it is. I'm on a highway. Oh, I'm out in the forest. I don't get to see Peach's castle. Like, I want to, but I also enjoy not doing the same three laps over and over again. I really do enjoy the vibe of. Oh, I'm also like. I'm almost like Forza Horizon with the open world, where I'm just driving from one point to the other, and it. It feels fresh, it feels new, and maybe that's why I'm riding this high off of that. But I really have enjoyed my time doing all of the Grand Prix. I love the surprise of hiding Rainbow Road at the end and unlocking and having this big presentation of like, oh, wow, that's really cool to start this off. And the music. Holy cow, Tim Gettys. Let's stop. Put a pin on that music. That music. Are we talking soundtrack of the year?

[Snowbike Mike]

I mean, it's cheating a little bit.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

It's real good. I love every single time that there's a new track played. I love hearing tracks that I love, that they've remastered, that they've remixed. I think the music carries a lot of this, which is awesome. I think the characters are great. There's some cool outfits that I see. But also, man, I really wish we dove into the Nintendo backlog of all the characters before as bears brought up with link and stuff, because there's a lot of animals.

[Barrett Courtney]

We need.

[Snowbike Mike]

Mike.

[Barrett Courtney]

We needed room for crab.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

We need. I needed crab. I need coin coffer. Hey, man. Yeah, hey, man.

[Tim Gettys]

Well, watch. Just so you know, I realized coin coffer was in this game.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

There's like. There's like. I don't know what the quick count is, but there's like 20 creature characters. That's too many, Tim. That's too. Put Kirby in there. Get Link in there. Get the whole. Get the arms character in there. Like, it is odd. It feels so right. Kind of sticking to just Mario. But when we talk of Nintendo and kind of like the Smash Bros feeling of it all, it is odd that we don't have that. And maybe it looks better visually when there isn't all those characters that are kind of standing out. But at the same time, it's like when I unlock Coin coffer or Cheep Cheep or Snowman, I'm kind of like, I don't need that. You know what I mean? I'm never gonna play as him or them.

[Snowbike Mike]

Who are you?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Maiden Sidestep of the Crab? That's simply because I don't vibe with anyone. I don't vibe with any of the cast right now. It's like, I would go Luigi, but he's overused. I would go with Don Kong, but he's been there. I want.

[Barrett Courtney]

Mike wants a perfect balance. Mike wants a perfect balance between the best stats and someone nobody uses.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

You know what I want? You know what?

[Tim Gettys]

I want to open up Mario Kart and go, I don't vibe with the cast.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I want Yellow Pikmin. I want Yellow Pikmin. That's all I want. You put Pikmin in there, I'd be the Pikmin guy. You know what I mean?

[Barrett Courtney]

So I'm giving the Pikmin.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I want some Nintendo characters. But really what I was getting at is I have seen a really good push of trying to innovate. Innovate with quotes of, like, just making the multiplayer experience feel more modern in 2025 when we do with. When we know Nintendo makes weird Nintendo decisions. And I'm happy to report that they've gotten very close. They're not there yet, Tim. But, man, that multiplayer experience is so much better than what it has been, right? The idea that you can jump into a room of Grand Prix, of Knockout of Battle, right? Or you can host lobbies with your friends. As easy of. Here's the friend code. Everybody jumps in, right? Up to 24 players is a lot of people. And that's awesome. I always think the more people, the better. And to have that lobby leader have so much more control than what it used to be. Of, like, you pick one or the other and you're locked in. Or you have to quit everything and reset the room. Now it's like, oh, every single time we finish, I can choose. We're doing knockout. We're doing Grand Prix. We're going to do a battle.

[Barrett Courtney]

I can leave the room and someone else can take over.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, you want to do a battle? Let's do three teams. Two teams, four Teams like, they've given me so much more than they're not there yet. So I don't want to give them the full pat on the back, but it's like, hey, you've gotten better. Great job on that. And I'm going to touch a lot more in the multiplayer because that's usually where I look into this. But I will say I'm having a really good time with this. This is a great experience. It's something where I'm having more fun with Mario Kart than I have in a long, long time. So great job.

[Snowbike Mike]

Bless.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, I think this is a fun one to talk about. For me, there's a adage when we're talking about video game reviews that I believe I heard originally from Tamor, where he said that you have to review what's there. You can't review what the game isn't. You have to review what the game is. And that's kind of where I come in with Mario Kart World, where I think the best and worst thing about this game is the open world. When you play knockout, the knockout mode, that's. That's maybe the best addition you could ever make to a Mario Kart.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. That is so fun. It is so intense. I think the whittling down from 24 to 20 to like, you know, until you get to that top four and you. You're going for the winner there, that is such a genius thing. And that is only available because of this open world format and how they've created this world at the same time. I, while playing a lot more this week, I was having flashbacks to our previous conversation, our initial Nintendo Switch 2 impressions that we did a week ago. And in that we were talking about how I think like non distinct the tracks can feel at times or how like maybe they can feel a bit underwhelming or not as like standout as some of the previous Mario Kart games. And I realized that for me, it's not necessarily that the tracks aren't. It's that you're spending so much the Grand Prix in those in between spaces. You're doing the highways that you're talking about Barrett and doing all that stuff. And once I like went into just versus race and I started to understand exactly like how that stuff works as far as, oh no, you have the main track. But then like all these, like an individual track might connect to five different tracks. That's fucking cool. But I don't think they see that to its full potential.

[Snowbike Mike]

Right.

[Tim Gettys]

Like, I wish there was a Way to make your own knockout route or something like that.

[Snowbike Mike]

Right.

[Tim Gettys]

I'm shocked that that's not a thing. Right. And I would have liked to see, yeah, a lot of those in between spaces stand out a bit more, be uplifted a bit more and be more interesting. Because I think now you're left with what feels like a lot of just like downtime when you're going from one one track to another. I think it's a really good idea with not just the best execution. All that said, right. Like this is going back to the reviewing. What's their thing? The open world is where I struggle a little bit because I think back to how Nintendo has presented the open world both in their direct and within the game itself, where they never really propped this thing up to be a Forza Horizon. I think that's all been fan desire. Understandably so. Because a Mario Kart Forza Horizon game would be my perfect video game.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

But like even within the menu where it's at the bottom and it's Free Roam and you're there and it's the P blocks. Right. It's like, all right, this is really underwhelming for what I've wanted, for what I would have wanted this thing to be and I think even for what it is in the game. But I'm not going to get too mad at it because Nintendo never really wanted, seemingly never wanted it to be an open world thing. It seems like they still view Grand Prix and Knockout mode and online and all the other modes in the game to be more of the prime experience versus what Free Roam is, which is disappointing a little bit. But also I think comes around to where I land with this game where I give it an 8 out of 10. I think it's a great video game overall, but I think has a way to go. I totally understand what Mike is talking about as far as character roster. And I don't think it's. I don't think the issue is that it doesn't have other Nintendo characters because in my opinion. And this goes back to even the soundtrack, right. I love how much this game is a celebration of Mario. I think Mario as in as a franchise at Nintendo has enough meat there that you can make a Mario Mario as video game and have it feel full and lively and all these things. I think the characters that they chose are weird. You don't need to Mike's point, you don't need the 30 just random ass characters. Like, yeah, there are tons of Mario characters you can add that. I think People would get excited for you. Go to the Mario RPGs and, like, pick some of those characters you go to, I guess. I don't know if Geno is straight up owned by Square Enix or he is. Okay, maybe not Geno then. But I think there's definitely a roster of characters there that you can pull from that could help make this roster feel a bit more lively than. Yeah, getting to. No offense, Mike. Getting to crap.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I unlocked. I unlocked Fishbone Tim, and I said.

[Snowbike Mike]

That'S the hardest one to unlock.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I said, who?

[Tim Gettys]

Yes.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Like, that's the problem is, like, they're fun, they're cute, and I love, like, it does. It's the Mario world. That's right. This isn't Nintendo.

[Barrett Courtney]

It felt like a nice reset point, and I.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And it's cool.

[Barrett Courtney]

And I was frustrated by lack of, like, Link and some other characters, but it was like, okay, we've had Mario Kart 8 so long. I get of like, you want to refresh and maybe we add characters later on. That's my thing is stuff like that.

[Tim Gettys]

I would want those characters either be like, unlockables, and if they unlockables, I want them to be like the last unlockables or straight up dlc. Who's that guy?

[Barrett Courtney]

Concord.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, Concord. I want that world. But also, like, why aren't these side characters, these creatures getting outfits? Right? I played as the crab the whole time. Never unlocked a single outfit because you.

[Barrett Courtney]

Don'T unlock penguin, a little hat or something.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

You tell me we put 20 of these characters, that none of them get an outfit. Put them in the second outfit. Come on, help me out.

[Tim Gettys]

But for me, that.

[Snowbike Mike]

The.

[Tim Gettys]

That conversation extends to the soundtrack as well. If they drop the Mario, like, celebration thing in the character roster, they delivered in the soundtrack. I'm with Mike. I think this is the best soundtrack of the year. And I love Expedition 33 soundtrack. Don't get me wrong. I think that maybe that's the second.

[Barrett Courtney]

Best of south of Midnight.

[Tim Gettys]

That also has a really great one as well. But fucking, dude, I don't know how you can make an argument against this one. Dude. There is. There's jazz remixes to, like, fucking dire. Dire docs here up. Like, this soundtrack is off the chain.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Bless. I listen to it and I'm like, whoever's making this music, like, you got to stop video games, like, go somewhere else.

[Tim Gettys]

You're amazing.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

We deserve you. But, like, you are so good at this. We don't deserve you here in a Mario Kart game. Yeah, whatever you're doing, you're cooking, teaching.

[Tim Gettys]

A like university or something. I don't know. You got skill. But yeah. All that said is a great game. The Grand Prix I really enjoyed. Like, I it's at its core, it's Mario Kart, and Mario Kart has to be a certain level of quality. And so, like, it's not gonna be below an 8 for me. You know what I mean? But yeah, I think there are some things that I wish were here. I wish there are some things that were adjusted as far as those open world elements, but I think there's always DLC as far as what we could see for more tracks and more characters and all that stuff. So I'm happy with this.

[Barrett Courtney]

Timmy, how do you feel after a week?

[Snowbike Mike]

After a week, I can definitively say objectively, the Mario Kart world is a 10 out of 10 masterpiece. It's a little weird to spend $80 on a collection of music that comes with a video game. Yeah, yeah, but the game's not a 10. You know, the game. I don't know what the game is. But.

[Barrett Courtney]

Wait, so you're saying the soundtrack.

[Snowbike Mike]

I'm just joking.

[Tim Gettys]

Ok, joking.

[Snowbike Mike]

I'm just joking. Real talk. This is the game, the soundtrack of the year. This is the soundtrack. This is the greatest game soundtrack of all time, period. Hard stop. Like, I, I think it, I, I, I'm going to make a real argument here, Barrett, for it. Like I, I'm not just being hyperbolic here. I stand on it. Like the sheer amount of music here, the variety of genres and styles, the amount of live instrumentation, the commitment to the bit for it all.

[Barrett Courtney]

Oh yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

I can't believe it.

[Barrett Courtney]

Like so, so many little moments have made me smile. Just like when I have done the Free Roam and just like random little tracks will pop up like fuck yeah. And unlocks memories for me. It's so good.

[Snowbike Mike]

It's so good. There's like such a destined theme to it all. Like every Mario Kart has kind of a different vibe. This one being the big Road trip, more that harmonica kind of like rocky sound, but applying that to all the different areas, having different vibes and styles. The more kind of like chill acid trip hop going on for some of the Peach Circuit stuff. Like it is so well designed and so well thought out. How deep in the roster we get with some of these songs. Like there's Yoshi's island remixes to songs that have never been arranged, period. Like we've talked about the Smash Brawl soundtrack being the yes, it's cheating, but it's the greatest Soundtrack of all time.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

We have a new king like this, I think is steps above what Smash was able to give us because of the live instrumentation and the arrangements being off the chart. But I think we're overlooking how good the original songs are in this game. There's so much new original music and these songs have melodies. This is video game music at its freaking best. And we can't overlook it and just be like, oh, of course we like. Because just old songs. This is the best those old songs have ever sounded. And all the new stuff are going to be classic.

[Barrett Courtney]

They all, they all hit. Like. I remember when I Streamed Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for quote unquote, the last time it was one of those like hearing that main theme, I was like, there's no way they can top this. But every time I load up Mario Kart World and that main harmonica theme pops up, I'm like, fuck yeah, let's go. Like, it's such a good hit, hard hitting track. And all of the new original stuff.

[Tim Gettys]

If you want to speak to that, if you want to speak to the volume of tracks in this thing, there's like a YouTuber that I've been following that's been uploading the soundtrack.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah. And like 246 over here.

[Snowbike Mike]

Oh, but that incomplete. Like that's the thing is I'm. I'm hearing new songs every day.

[Tim Gettys]

And that's the thing is he's been. Or this person has been uploading soundtracks songs from the soundtrack every day. Like multiple songs. And he put an update out either yesterday or the day before where he's like, hey guys, I've. I've. I've barely hit halfway and I can't do this anymore. He was like, I got it. I have school. I have to focus on my life. There's too many songs. I'm sorry other people finished this.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, it's. It's crazy. I heard just yesterday there was the Yoshi's island final boss theme and I was convinced that I had heard every song in this game already. Like, how is there still. I Finally heard the Mario 64 file Select Remix which goes way too hard. But anyways, getting out of the music because obviously it is. It's so damn good. My real score for Mario Kart Mario Kart world is an 8 out of 10. I think you guys have really said everything how I feel about it. The one thing I will add that I think I kind of differ from you guys on is we keep talking about the theme park feel. I don't think that any Mario game, period, Kart or otherwise, has ever nailed the AM amusement park feel as much as this game has. This truly feels like Mario Kart world in the way that a Disney world. They're having the different biomes having such personality. I think that the open world, the world itself is immaculate. It's just the things we're doing gameplay wise aren't the design of it and the how much it feels alive as a Mario world is mind blowing. I can't imagine being a little kid learning about all these worlds and characters and seeing how they all interact. Little Yoshi's getting on a bus like this stuff would have blown my mind as a kid and opened up my imagination to like unforeseen levels at that point. And Mike, you talking about, oh, all the Mario, like the random creatures and stuff, like, yeah, I don't really care about this but if I was a kid I'd be freaking out about like oh, that's that thing's name that I've ran over in Mario 3D world or all these games. I think that Mario as a culture is so well celebrated in this, both music wise but also just like sticking to this isn't Nintendo, this is Mario Kart. We'll get the Nintendo stuff, we'll get that dlc, I can guarantee it, and we'll get music to match and it's going to be fucking awesome. But I do think that this game is at its best in its details and it's at its worst in its details. It gets wrong and I think unfortunately most of the details it gets wrong are the gameplay side of things. I think that the skill ceiling in this game is much higher than the previous games. I don't vibe with it though. I don't like the rail riding, I don't like the charge jump. Like I'm have not been able to wrap my head around it and I don't think I'm ever going to get to the point that I do. So I'm continuing to play this game like it's eight because to me that was perfect. And I'm sure there's going to be people that prefer this style of game. I'm not one of those people. We're talking minor tweaks here and there. It's not like it's like the craziest thing because this is still gameplay feel wise, close to perfection. It's just some of the more advanced things that I want to be playing at. I want to be playing at an advanced level and I don't feel Supported in my endeavors.

[Barrett Courtney]

The charge jump definitely feels inconsistent to me of just like just going straight and trying to do a jump to go off a wall. I don't know if that's like a weird controller thing or something, but I. And I know you have to be at a certain speed to do it, but even sometimes there, I feel like when I do the jump and I'm. Or trying to do the jump and charge up and stuff, it doesn't always hit and it's like, what are we doing here? I. I do think the skilling, the. We had this very, like, after me playing two hours of Mario Kart World last. Last week of back and forth of the skill ceiling and stuff. And I. I do concede of where you were talking about, Tim, of the additive nature of like, the, the grinding and wall riding, all that stuff is going to present a much higher skill ceiling. And this is the thing I wanted to kind of get back to from earlier in the show. I think everything Nintendo has designed around those things doesn't support that skill ceiling. Because the thing that convinced me is I saw someone post up a Instagram reel because I'm 50 years old of some play. Someone playing as like Toadette in like, one of the, like, just like classic. I think one of the places in the sky, like maybe question block, whatever it's called, doing insane pixel perfect, like, shortcuts, almost jumping off of the level to like jump back up and all that stuff. And that's where it clicked for me. I was like, oh, this is like a pixel perfect 3D platformer, which is not what I really want out of a cart race.

[Snowbike Mike]

Because all of it doesn't really apply the drift mechanics that we've been playing with for 20 years.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

You know, it's like the drifting's in this game. Drifting is not this game.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah. And. But the other thing that really stuck with me from that video is like, oh, this is a time trial. And I feel like the skill ceiling that they have Nintendo has given you for this game for the sickos who. I don't think I will ever get there, but I'm. I'm starting to kind of like, figure out the motions of like, going between rail grinding and wall riding, all that stuff, I don't think I'll ever get to that Toadette. But I think the amount of players that are available in multiplayer or even just doing Grand Prix and knockout tours, the slew of items that have either returned from, like, I believe, like, Mario Kart Wii, or even like Super Nintendo Mario Kart and all that stuff. The amount of chaos that is in this game is much higher than Mario Kart 8 and the skill ceiling is also higher than Mario Kart 8. But I think those two things kind of conflict. So I think there's like a weird imbalance of like, I don't know if Nintendo intended for that skill ceiling to be different and higher with it's like, with like the, the design around these courses and what you can do with them, but I feel like they're kind of their attempt at like making that rubber bands like much more intense, I think is like, it's a weird imbalance that I don't know if like the, the high ceiling skill players are going to flourish in typical Grand Prix and Knockout tours. That's the thing I'm still unsure of. And I, I again, maybe through updates throughout the years and all that stuff, we'll get a bit more of like a, a better balance of those things because yeah, there's a lot of crazy stuff that that happens.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Jumping off the map and hitting that pole perfectly and then 360 spinning and getting the boost is sick.

[Snowbike Mike]

It's satisfying what happens.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And then accidentally time trials is so cool of like putting the ghost of like, who has the world record. And you can race with the ghost, seeing them and tracking and following them and going, oh, wow, that guy's on a rail that I've never seen before. Oh, he's off the map. He's under the map, grinding the wall, jumping back off. I think it's so cool and fun and yeah, it's really dope. I, I, I do have to say, like, yo, that's cool to see and fun to do.

[Snowbike Mike]

So going into a little bit more about the my deeper thoughts on the actual game modes of this. I think that Knockout Tour is the best Mario Kart's ever been in terms of party and having fun and playing with friends. I think that is, it's awesome. I think Knockout Tour solo kind of sucks. And I'll go as far as saying really sucks. It's, I don't really like the challenge of having to three star it by being first for every single thing. Just seems like there's not enough thought put into the pacing of that tour to tour. And I say this as I've now two starred all of the Knockout tours. Three starred, a handful of them. I will at some point have all three, but I'm not having fun with it. It feels more frustrating than anything.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

And I think that's because the Knockout Tour is taking you off road in parts of the free roam map that are just not interesting.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

And I think a problem with this game is we look at it all as like, oh, it's all this one world. And when we are essentially using the same courses to do different things, it starts to feel a little bit samey over time. And the knockout tour in between levels is the least interesting part of the game. Having said that, I don't think Grand Prix is getting enough love for how actually awesome those courses are. And even the. The designed like highways, the roads in between, when you just allow yourself to. Don't focus on the race, just focus on the experience they are guiding you. It feels like a Disneyland ride, the Grand Prix going through it. The amount of like fun set piece moments just visually of you're in the safari and all of a sudden the zebras are running next to you. They're only running in that one place. They're not running in the rest of the free world that the knockout tour brings you through. Right. And when you just like zone out, have the music on. I enjoyed Grand Prix so much more and this should go without saying, but I think it's important to say because I think a lot of people are playing this without sound at all, just on their handheld switch like, or like watching TV and playing like I've been for my three star stuff when I'm just like I am focusing on this Grand Prix music on looking at this shit. It's some magical stuff. And I'm not just talking about the rainbow road. I think every Grand Prix does such a good job of having the vibey music that's like genre toned, correct for the area you're in. But having these big moments of when you approach Peach's castle, then that theme kicks in.

[Tim Gettys]

Yes.

[Snowbike Mike]

And it's like we're going, Jesus Christ. That scared me. But I, I think they did such a good job that I would go as far as saying I think that these are the best Grand Prix that the game has had in terms of experience. In terms of. Yes. Like the gameplay and like the challenge.

[Barrett Courtney]

And the highs of the theme park feel of that I will agree with you. Like some of the moments when yeah. Where you're getting to this course for the first time. Peach's Castle especially. I do think again this is you know, their first attempt at doing interconnected world, open world, quote unquote, whatever you want to call it. I think for like the, the lows of like how long we're spending, especially in like a knockout tour. Sometimes in Grand Prix as well. Because yes, like the moments of driving by the zebras or the seagulls approaching you as you get to like one of the islands and one of the Grand Prix is like a really good moment. I think if they had condensed it down just a little bit just so the some of the in betweens weren't as long, I think that's where we would maybe be hitting in terms of like design for this new style of Mario Kart, like a 9.9.5 in terms of where we could be with this game. Which again I'm excited to see how Nintendo iterates upon this idea in 12 years time when we get a follow up.

[Tim Gettys]

Do you think they fill in the world with more points of interest? Because like it does feel pretty spread out and I understand that's probably so they can transition things a bit more seamlessly and not make it feel like all right, I'm in the winter winter place one second and I'm in the fiery place the next second. Right. But like I wonder if maybe over, over years they start plopping things in there if we start to get that feel of oh, now things are shorter.

[Snowbike Mike]

That's a great question that we'll answer after a word from our sponsors. This episode's brought to you by xreal. Y' all know that a few months ago my life changed forever when I brought a pair of Xreal 1AR glasses on a long flight to New York. I legit could not believe how easy it is to use and high quality. My experience was playing games, watching movies, TV shows on the plane without just too much extra stuff around me. Or especially not a giant goofy headset around my head. No joke. This is my favorite new tech product in years and it has earned a permanent spot in my travel bag. It is only hard to believe that it works as well as I'm saying until you try xreal1ar glasses for yourself. And then you will see that the future is now. The tech is here. Connect xreal1 glasses to wherever you are playing. Whether it's a handheld console, a PC phone, home console. You just get a massive 150 inch virtual screen anywhere, anytime for any game. Gaming on the go, like a long haul flight, you need the xreal One neck starting to hurt from staring down at your handheld. We've all been there. You need an xreal One A screen as big as your wall. Instant plug and play with all of your devices via usb. C built in audio with sound by Bose Anchorage. Your screen anywhere in space. It's awesome. It just works. Zero latency at 1080p full HD. These are what make Xreal 1amust have. And we hear Xreal 1 Pro is coming soon with an even bigger virtual screen. Hit our link below to get your xreal glasses today. There's nothing better than when a sponsor of Kinda Funny is something that we are legitimately obsessed with. And that is exactly the case here with xre Real. You're going to hear me talking about these forever. Go to kind of funny.com xreal that's kind of funny.com xre a l I promise you, you are going to love these things. This episode's brought to you by Factor Summer Game Fest is here. The Switch 2 is here. The sun is here. So many summer things are here. And the number one thing you don't want to be doing all summer, spending hours cooking inside. That's where Factor comes in. Factor Chef crafted dietitian approved. Meals are ready and just a two minutes. Taking the hassle out of eating. Well, we love Factor here at Kinda Funny and Greg's often making and enjoying meals quick in between shows here in the studio. I just had a roasted garlic chicken and I'm telling you, you would have loved it. Factor Meals arrived fresh and ready to eat. Perfect for any active lifestyle over summer and beyond. With 45 weekly menu options, you can pick gourmet meals that fit your summer gains and goals. Choose from options like calorie, smart, protein plus keto and more. Get started at Factor Meals.com kinda funny 50 off and use code kinda funny 50 off to get 50% off plus free shipping on your first box. That's kinda funny 50 off at Factor Meals.com Kinda funny 50 off for 50% off plus free shipping. Factory meals.com kind of funny 50 off. So bless. You were asking if you think they're going to add points of interest to this world map. Yeah, my gut says no. I do think we're going to get more content. I just imagine it'll be like a different continent, a different like a smaller.

[Tim Gettys]

Open which makes sense. Like it's hard to imagine. It seems like it'd be such a hard task to just plop something in there. But also like I do like the idea of a brand new car. If you have like a world that's maybe half the size or a quarter of the size of this one where you add in just a new grand prix, like a set of four stages, that could be cool.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Especially if you get into the crossover stuff. If you start to add in like an F0 track or an animal crossing track. That's where that gets really cool because that turns into a Nintendo world.

[Snowbike Mike]

I mean, I'm very fascinated by what the update plans for this game are going to look like. The fact that we have launched this console with the Mario Kart and this is a world where like you expect DLC from Nintendo projects like this specifically. And with Mario Kart, we've seen that they will continue to support the game even years after it seems like they're done with it. I wonder what it's going to look like here, how early and how consistently and throughout the entire lifecycle of the switch to. We're going to continue to get more.

[Barrett Courtney]

Because Deluxe was like a weird one where it's like they put it out, then it was like kind of radio silence for a while and then eventually after like what, three, four? Yeah, it was like three or four years. They're like, hey, we're putting out dlc. It's like, okay, yeah. I feel like this game, especially this being a launch title, this being a new Mario Kart, is really going to live a die on how Nintendo supports it in terms of people majorly, like in a major way coming back to it time and time again.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Because you also imagine that whatever DLC they had has to conform to the format of this game. Right. Like if they add a new Grand Prix, you expect to be able to ride from track to track. Right. You expect a knockout.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Knockout.

[Tim Gettys]

You gotta have, yeah. Be able to do it for knockout tour mode. And so whatever they, whatever they add, especially if it's crossover content between whatever, like that's gonna, that's gonna be hard to make. Like that's gonna be some, it's gonna be hard to make, but also really exciting. Like that's gonna be sick ass content if you're able to pull that off.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, I, I, it's funny because I, this is more an observation than, it's definitely not a compliment. It's, I don't like this about the game because of the type of gamer that I am. I am a Nintendo gamer that wants my Nintendo games to give me a lot of things to do that I want to do.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

And I like, I know that sounds like no, but it's like really like the best Nintendo games to me are the ones that I want to do. Every shrine, I want to get every star or moon or whatever it is. And this game I feel actively goes out of its way to not want me to do that. Like when it has Its open world. And although the P blocks and the question mark things and the peach medallions and all that, this game to continue with the amusement park conversation. This feels like when you're at the like, carnival part of the amusement park where you're, you know, throwing balls at targets to like win little prizes and stuff, or you go to the arcade and you play some games or scanning.

[Barrett Courtney]

Specific areas on your phone. In Nintendo.

[Snowbike Mike]

The actual Nintendo world. Exactly. It kind of just feels like getting the costumes and getting the. The characters on, the random characters unlocked. It's not about collecting them all. It's about the fun joy that you get in that moment. And it. All of those things, those moments are supposed to be created equally. No one person's supposed to have the same experience. And I'm like, well, I'm a gamer, man. I want to. I want a game like that. But I get what they're doing and I feel like it very much is just trying to be like, yo, this stuff doesn't matter. Just have the fun you have in those moments. I'm like, well, yeah, that is such a letdown. When I do think the world is so beautiful and so unique. Like when you actually are driving around, it's not like just a bunch of assets being reused over and over and over. The amount of custom animations and characters and just even just like formations of land and buildings and things that they have going on, I'm very impressed by. Yeah, it's just the things you're doing in that dude are just boring.

[Tim Gettys]

It feels like they. It does feel like they dissentivize you to want to like, really take the open world as seriously. Like, it. For me, it feels like you're going to a theme park or like it feels like you're going to Times Square and everything's closed. As a tourist, right, you're like, oh man, it's cool to be here. Not shit to do here though. And like, I. I think my biggest critique for system in this game is the sticker system. Even though I like the stickers, I think the stickers are fun and I like looking at them. And I do like that each of them represent like a thing that you've done. They're such a boring thing to collect. Especially when everything is just a sticker, right? Oh, I drove a thousand kilometers. All right, here's a sticker. Oh, I did a P block. All right, here's a sticker, right? And it like, it doesn't. It doesn't give me the fanfare. And I, I think that is A purposeful decision. And I don't like it as a purposeful decision. Like, I. I don't know. There are so many things to Tim's point, right to the open world where when I'm just casually driving and I see a charge and chuck and the game's like, oh, take out the charge and chucks. I'm like, oh, that's.

[Barrett Courtney]

That's.

[Tim Gettys]

That's fun. That's like a cool emergent thing. And then I do it and nothing happens. Maybe I got a sticker or maybe not. It's. I don't know. Like, I just don't. It feels like such a weird idea of how to approach making this open world.

[Barrett Courtney]

It feels like an over correction of like Mario Kart 8 or I don't know, like what their goal was there. But. Yeah, like not having a dedicated stats page.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Barrett Courtney]

Which is something that you had in Mario Kart 8, but it's replaced by the sticker system where you. Okay, this sticker represents you drove this many things. All that and like not having rewards for people who want to be completionists. I. I do think is a very weird direction after Mario Kart 8. Like I threes, I have three star to everything. I got nothing from that. Not even a sticker, which I think is weird.

[Tim Gettys]

My sticker?

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah, it's like, not even like, you know, Mario Kart 8, you know, he had the. The special gold cart or like the secret cart. Right. Where you get the. The gold card and then if you do a certain thing, you get the gold wheels and the gold glider and all that stuff. And I think it's really weird of like, like, you know, you have to jump through hoops to unlock mirror mode and then even three starring all that. It's like nothing. And it's like that's what.

[Tim Gettys]

What it feels like to go out of their way not to have.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah, it's really.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That's Mario Kart at its core. Right. Why do I still have the same stat page from way back in the day for all the carts and players, but I know every single one of those is different. They're like, oh, yeah, that's the same speed as this one. And I'm like, well, I know it's not because, like, I've seen plenty of times that this. With this character matchup or this is different.

[Snowbike Mike]

Would you know why, Mike? I. I'm just explaining it.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

There's.

[Snowbike Mike]

There's hidden stats, there's always the thing.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That's what I'm saying.

[Snowbike Mike]

There's a mini turbo stat that they don't show, which is one of the most important stats in the game. And then now like cool. This bike and this bike have the exact same stats, exact same speed. It's like, well that's not taking into the fact that there are speed stats for driving over water, driving over dirt, driving over road drive. It's like why even have this like inaccurate at the end of the day stats page for the card slash bikes and characters when there's information that like if you're going to have that at all, either don't. It doesn't matter or it matters.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That's the thing with Nintendo. Like what you guys are getting at is like they make some of these weird decisions where you're like what are we doing here? Because I know this matters and you're like half showing it. Full step it and get there. Because I shouldn't be guessing on this.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Barrett Courtney]

105 AI in the chat says they don't understand how Nintendo works.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

We do.

[Barrett Courtney]

And they did all of like a lot of the things we're talking about were things that they did in Mario Kart 8 and now even less so. And then yeah now with like the, the stats even only being on like just carts entirely and all that stuff. Like it's weird of again I feel like there's this weird disconnect of things that they wanted to carry over From Mario Kart 8 But wanting to walk away from as well of like stats not being as important but we're still going to include it and they're still going to be care like character specific stats and all this. It's just, it gives me shades of.

[Tim Gettys]

Like it's all over the place like Smash Brawl where they're like let's add tripping for no reason to like just incentivize like a more competitive play and like make it more about the fun. Even though this is literally a fighting game, right? Like Mario Nintendo. It's. They make weird decisions because they want to preserve I think the casual play and also preserve the magic of discovery and having to figure these things out. But at the end of the day I think like there is these, there are these things that for us as I guess 30 year old adults, right, like it's like no, I just want to know. I just want to. I just want to know how fast my cart goes on water or whatever. Yeah, just give me the information.

[Snowbike Mike]

Just give it to me. Or don't like don't show it to me. And then it's all right, cool. We just don't know, and that's just kind of how it is. And I'm picking Rosalina because I like Rosalina, you know, and like that's it. And more than that, like the P blocks and all that, it's like similar to Barrett. I care about the stars and I want to complete all the things the free roam actively doesn't want me to do that. It's like you go to the menu and it's like you see how many peach medallions, how many P blocks and how many question marks you found. Not in sections. Like each section there are the question marks, you see how many you get. But like, I don't know how many P switches there are in any one section.

[Barrett Courtney]

The only thing that you can check on the map is how many question mark blocks are at each location. Like the specific tracks.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah.

[Barrett Courtney]

And that's all there is.

[Tim Gettys]

That's it.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah. And so that stuff, it's like, I understand that maybe they don't want the map to start looking like other maps, but you look at Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild, they clearly don't care. Like those games allow you to just put as many damn markers as you want. All that. It's like, I don't know, it's just frustrating because I want to play the game they made and it seems like they don't want me to do that.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

Because I'm not having fun just at this point roaming. I'm done. I'm done with Free roam. Like, I'm not. I'm not going to continue until they add an update that allows you to track that stuff, which I assume that they will at some point. But yeah, for now it's like I'm not playing Free roam anymore.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah, I might get bored and eventually go after the. All the costumes and shit. But yeah, in terms of. And I feel like that's going to be the easiest to do in Free Roam. But yeah, besides that. Yeah. Unless like someone does. Did all of the question mark blocks and unlocks something actually cool instead of mirror mode, which we'll talk about then. Yeah, I'm done.

[Tim Gettys]

Should we talk about it now real quick?

[Snowbike Mike]

Just the last thing I want to say about the Free roam stuff is something that's really unfortunate to me is I actually really like the content that is there. The P block stuff, like the challenges, the majority of them are legitimately challenging and I feel like are fun to do. I don't like how similar they all are. I don't like a lot of the mechanics around it. The try Again, stuff is, why is it so bad? Why does it make you. Wait a second. Yeah, let me just hit it.

[Tim Gettys]

At any point. Let me just refresh anything.

[Snowbike Mike]

Little details that just get in the way of it. But it's like when some of the best of the P Switch stuff are the most fun, different ones, I'm like, this reminds me of Tony Hawk's pro skater. Oh, my God, this reminds me of that. Like, this is actually challenging. I feel like they did a really good job of finding the right time to give you for each challenge. Like, none of them have been, oh, that was the easiest thing ever. No, all of them are like, I need to kind of actively try to do this.

[Tim Gettys]

And a lot of them, I think, have taught me. Like, I. I learned how to fly way better because of one of the P switch things. It's like, oh, wait, no, it's a great float. I can, like, spin this way to do this way. And, like, I love that. And I think the Tony Hawk comparison is so after. There are times where I'm doing the P Switch stuff where I'm. I'm thinking back to playing Tony Hawk's Underground 2, and I'm like, man, it'd be. It'd be so cool if I had to talk to a toad. And toad gave me this thing to do, and it felt like more of a, you know, curated, created world. And again, I understand that that is very much not what they wanted to do with this, but you. They're, like, getting close in some places, and then they're like, all right, but don't make it too good, because we don't. We don't want people to think this is the main thing. This is a side thing.

[Snowbike Mike]

All right, now we can talk about mirror mode.

[Tim Gettys]

Wait, hold on, hold on. Was that a maze?

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah. Cool, right?

[Barrett Courtney]

There are some cool challenges, but, like, with the amount of P Block challenges there are, they all just start to feel like noise and bury some of the more fun ones like this, you know, that are just, like, kind of weird in zany, which I like. Yeah, yeah. So mirror mode, which has been around, I believe, since the gamecube days.

[Snowbike Mike]

Maybe before that. Did you look into it?

[Barrett Courtney]

I can look up N64, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't on the N64. Mirror mode is essentially just 150cc, but backwards, everything is flipped. So instead of doing a right turn, you have to do a left turn on a course. And it's the most uninteresting thing in Mario Kart. And it's I don't know why it's there. It adds nothing. It was one of the like, especially when DLC tracks started being added to Mario Kart 8 DLC. And the. The way Mario Kart 3 starring works is that if you get three stars in 150, that counts as three stars for everything 150 and below. It doesn't count for Mirror Mode, and it doesn't count for 200cc. You have to do those separately. So doing all the courses again at 150cc but, like, flipped is just, like, not interesting. And it's kind of filler for filler six. Now, you might be wondering, Barrett, why are you focusing in on this? It's because the game specifically, you kind of jump through hoops. To unlock Mirror Mode, you have to get gold on all of the Grand Prix and Knockout Tours. Then you have to collect 10 peach coins in the open world. And then you have to get gold again.

[Snowbike Mike]

No, you have to get a certain amount of P switches as well.

[Barrett Courtney]

Oh, you do, okay.

[Snowbike Mike]

And then you have to play special.

[Barrett Courtney]

Cup again again to unlock a cutscene, which is a cute cut scene.

[Snowbike Mike]

They give a whole cut scene for.

[Barrett Courtney]

A whole cut scene of, like, Mirror Mode. And it's cute, you know, like.

[Snowbike Mike]

Like, it is cute.

[Barrett Courtney]

Mario and Luigi are like, what the happened? And the Mario looks at Luigi's hat and he's like, yo, the L is backwards. That's crazy. And then it's like, oh, you unlocked Mirror Mode.

[Tim Gettys]

Oh, that's cool.

[Barrett Courtney]

And then I'm halfway through three starring all of the stuff in Mirror Mode. I'm like, there's nothing added here. There's nothing.

[Snowbike Mike]

You don't need gold. You don't need gold for. You just need to beat them all.

[Barrett Courtney]

Oh, you just need to beat them all. Okay.

[Snowbike Mike]

Which again, like, this, like, people are confused because a lot of this is kind of weird.

[Barrett Courtney]

And it's just like one of those, like, Mirror Mode adds no new challenge. So it's just one of those. Like, why include it? It just feels like. I think it's doing more stuff to just do more stuff.

[Tim Gettys]

And it's that much like a tradition.

[Barrett Courtney]

Why shouldn't it be 200cc?

[Tim Gettys]

I think, honestly, to your point, I think, yeah, I think it should be. They should replace mirror mode with 200cc going forward. Because for me, I remember back in N64, unlocking mirror mode as a kid and it being the coolest thing of. Oh, shit, I didn't know this is here. And I think it makes. Makes more sense in that game. Because you don't have dlc. You don't have, like, they're not adding in new tracks, right? And, like, those tracks are also way more simple compared to where we're at today with Mario Kart. And so to flip those levels back then, I think met a lot more to the longevity and the replayability of that stuff versus what we have, Mario Kart World, where the levels are already so complex and so interesting that, like, honestly, you put me in a flip version of one of these levels, I might not even notice.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah, exactly. And that's like. Like, that's something I even felt with, like, Mario Kart 8 a little bit as well. Is that, like, I feel like there's this assumption that you only get good at the courses because you've memorized them. And when you get to a certain level of Mario Kart, it's not because you've memorized them. You just know what it. What you need to do to get a certain type of turn and stuff like that. And so just flipping that around isn't gonna like, oh, I went right the last time. Oh, now I gotta go left. That's crazy. I don't know. It's just like one of those, like, it's such a nothing mode. And I. I just think it's we. That it's propped up as, like, the secret thing you have to do.

[Snowbike Mike]

I've been annoying about mirror mode for a long time with Mario Kart. Like, I actively dislike it, and I feel like it's silly to say, like, I hate it, but real talk, I have a hate for mirror mode. It's because it's like, again, and this is more. There's a reflection of who I am as a person and as a gamer. But I do like to complete these games. I do like to do all the things that they present to me, and I don't like when they give me fucking filler homework. Like, there's. Mirror mode is not fun. It's not more fun. I would never, ever prefer to play mirror mode over the original. Why? And when you present mirror mode as if. All right, hey, here's literally double the content you've already done. If you three starred all those, you have to three star all these. I don't even want that option. And I. I know people just don't care. It's like, well, why is it here? Why. Why is this the unlockable? Why are they presenting it this way? There's like, It's a weird 200cc would have been so much better of a replacement for this.

[Barrett Courtney]

Honestly, anything. Like, it didn't have to be 200cc. It should have been 200cc. But even just secret cart something, you know, just to. To give that completionist of like, hey, you three starred everything here. Or it did all of these. Jump through all these hoops to do something here I think would have been much more interesting than. Than mirror mode. I know this. This is just gonna fall on people who are just like, who cares?

[Snowbike Mike]

Here's a big thing I do. You care? I care. This is an $80 game.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

This. This is the most expensive game Nintendo has ever made. And the only justification I can possibly make for that is the music. And I'm not kidding there. It's like, I get it. Like, that shit cost money. This game's not worth $80. Like, real talk, this is insane. The Mario kart world is $80.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Snowbike Mike]

And I understand the state of the world, whatever, but. And I know that we haven't played Donkey Kong Bananas to completion yet, but that game being 70 and this being 80 truly baffles me. And I need to say that because this game, I spent $80 on it. I bought the physical copy of this, and I love this game. I gave it an 8, and I stand by it. I'm gonna play this game for the entire generation. But this game being $80 with the expectation that we're paying for DLC.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yes, exactly.

[Snowbike Mike]

Right. Like, I don't think they're like, that's.

[Barrett Courtney]

Going to be the longevity of people coming back for years and years and years is new characters and we're gonna assume new locations and new tracks and stuff. But having the $80 kind of entry point there seems insane to me. And yeah, I will say I. I.

[Tim Gettys]

Do love the art style this time around to bring it back to positive. Yeah, like looking at the characters, looking at the. The carts as well. I love the card options. I wasn't the biggest fan of having to choose the different parts for your cards to then determine stats, even though we all now know that stats don't really matter. But like, I. I love unlocking like a. Here's the Bowser Buggy. Here's the Rob Hog. Like, I love that. The Rob Hog. I. I like how everything looks and also how the color colors pop. And like, I.

[Barrett Courtney]

The level of animation too. Like, everything's been updated to feel a bit more cartoony. Like, I hate lightning as power. It always fucking annoys me. Like, don't take away my items when I get zapped.

[Tim Gettys]

Just.

[Barrett Courtney]

Just make me tiny. But the animation for Getting hit by lightning is so much like more like whimsical and funny and all that stuff. Like they, they definitely more into the cartoony vibe with all the animations which like makes this pop and feel different enough for than Mario Kart 8 in a way that feels new and fresh and honestly, better.

[Snowbike Mike]

Yeah, yeah. I mean the animations are wild. Like the amount of custom stuff that I just keep coming across is so cool. Like I was showing you a couple days ago, like Daisy, if you just leave her idle and the Mario Land music's playing, like she just starts dancing to the music and it's like, that's awesome. And I've now seen on Twitter multiple other characters doing that. And it's that little level of just charm that is everywhere in this game. And yeah, the art style they commit to, it's so hard and it, it looks great. Like this game just kind of runs flawlessly and like you look at it and it's like you see the production value all over this thing and that's the power Nintendo. It doesn't need to be anything more than a good art style with backed up by tech that can actually handle the performance. And that's what we get here.

[Barrett Courtney]

One last note before I know Mikey.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

We gotta talk multiplayer play.

[Barrett Courtney]

All this last thing. After a week, I can definitively say I don't think the Drifting feels good. It is too slow, it is a little bit too bouncy. I know this is a different game than Mario Kart 8, but I think again they did an over changing of the Drift that just like it feels weird and indifferent and in ways that like, you know, they want to encourage people to do other things, but then they still have courses that are designed a lot around drifting. And I think it just feels weird. Especially with like, you know, there's the Super Mario bro classic like circuit that you have and even like Rainbow Road. There's a lot of like there's no other frills here. You just got to know how to drift. And like after playing those courses a lot just to get the feel of the drifting, I think it feels off in a way that I don't think they're going to change it because I feel like a lot of the game is designed around how that feels, which is unfortunate.

[Tim Gettys]

Also I'd like charge jumping. Drifting on the same button is weird. I. I'm. That's been me up a lot.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

All of a sudden you think you're supposed to drift, but you're technically in the charge jump and you're like, yeah, what's happening? And then he jumps up. You're like, no, no.

[Tim Gettys]

For me, it's always the reverse of, like, all right, let me try and get on that rail. And then I start drifting. I'm like, oh, all right, cool. I guess I'm doing this now. I also want to give a shout out to specific tracks. I actually want to ask you guys, do you guys have, like, a top two, top three tracks? Because, like, DK Spaceport.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Cool. Roll up to that. The CDK in front of the robot and then run away.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

And the music is so cool.

[Snowbike Mike]

They go through all the different course themes of the original Donkey Kong game.

[Tim Gettys]

It's great. It's so good.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I like Dino Jungle with the dinosaurs jumping in the screen. That one's fun.

[Tim Gettys]

I was gonna say Boo Cinema is another one that's gonna call that one.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

That's right.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Barrett Courtney]

I love a good Bowser's Castle. And I think this one is fantastic. And then also the one near it, the Airship Fortress, I think is really fun.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah. Sick.

[Barrett Courtney]

Getting to that one for the first time and realizing, like, oh, it's The Mario Brothers 3. Like, you're going on the ship, and they even have the Monty moles pop up and all that stuff. Like, that level of detail is so good. And then obviously, like, Rainbow Road, like, not what I was predicting for, like, what Rainbow Road was gonna look like. And I think the Grand Prix for Rainbow Road is a little bit of a letdown of, like, yeah, just kind of like doing the slow roll up to Rainbow Road, and it kind of feeling a bit more like a knockout tour than Grand Prix, which I find very weird. But getting to Rainbow Road and, like, that entire journey throughout, it's like, that might be my favorite Rainbow Road.

[Snowbike Mike]

Me too. And I think it's because the designers of it, I think, really were like, hey, let's just capture everyone's favorite memories of playing Mario Kart ever. And playing Rainbow Road really feels like playing through the credits of an old Nintendo game where you're going through. You have this, like, amazing music playing the credits music, Nintendo games often the best song. Right. And a celebration of the game. Like, you usually get hints of, like, all the other things that you've experienced. This Rainbow Road does that. But the old, like, Mario World, whatever would, like, show, like, the cast of characters. You know what I mean? Like, you'd see the thwomp and you'd see whatever. This game does that in gameplay. Like, you're driving through and you see the dinosaur and the From Dino, Dino Jungle and the, the DK and all stuff like this is magical, man. I, I absolutely love it. And last week when we were giving our first like day one impressions of Mario Kart, I brought up, I was like, I don't know that years from now Mario Kart World, world's levels are going to stand out. To me, it all kind of feels the same. A week later, I was wrong. Like, already I'm just like, I, I do think that I stand by the knockout tour kind of taking you off course through the open world. Not that isn't memorable at all. These Grand Prix are going to stick with me and specifically these courses. There's so many bangers.

[Tim Gettys]

I agree. Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Let's end the show with a quick multiplayer minute with Snowbike Mike. I gave praise to the multiplayer with certain things that they've added and I had a lot of fun with it. I think 24 players in a lobby is awesome. It is chaotic and wacky and wild. But to be able to get that many of your friends or the community or just the world playing together is really, really dope in today's 2025 age. A couple quick praises really fast. The camera usage. Yo, shout out. What a fun, dumb, inventive way of like, hey, Game chat is a big thing that we're pushing on the switch hardware. You could turn on your camera. We're going to put a big circle above your head and if you hit a banana, it's going to spin in a circle. Right. It's like small, dumb things that I think families, friends, small kids will love. Right? You will laugh at. I'm sure we will do a day.

[Snowbike Mike]

I mean, Wes did it and we will literally. I couldn't stop laughing.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, it is a cool implementation of like, hey, we're pushing game chat on all of our, you know, our hardware here. Let's get it in the game. And they did a great job with that. Some question marks, right? I gave it a bunch of praises. There's still so many question marks of like, what are we doing? Head scratching moments where you say, Nintendo when I get knocked out in knockout rounds, why am I only watching first place? Yeah, we're playing with 24 of my friends. I should be able to spectate anyone I want. Why is there a question of when we're in a knockout or Grand Prix? What lap is it or what? What position are all these people in? Right. Like, these are small things to the HUD that should be on there. So I'm having an enjoyable experience instead of Going well. I got knocked out at 24 or 16. I don't want to wait here. Like I remember I played with Janet last night. I just randomly joined their lobby. I got knocked out at 16. I like half fell asleep. I was changing the channel. I looked down, I was like, oh shit, we're on the next race. Because I was. I'm taken out of the experience now and I don't care what's happening on the screen. So like get me in there to have some fun.

[Barrett Courtney]

There's a lack of incentive to stick around if you get knocked out early.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Like Smash Bros did so good of having the lobby system. And then there's people fighting and there's a spectate area. We should have that. There's people racing. I should be able to spectate my friends. I should be able to see all of the racers. We should have a mini map. There should be a top 10 of like what's happening here. Like they're just things on this that are still baffling of Nintendo. What are we doing?

[Tim Gettys]

It's such a funny company. Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

And so that's your quick multiplayer moment. I think they've done a really good job with this one. I'm really pleased that you can have more control. 24 people, the battle, the races, the knockout Grand Prix. I think it's great that I have that kind of ownership. You guys brought it up. It's like how cool would it be if I could make my own knockout round? Like yeah, yeah. That's far beyond just my small multiplayer stuff. But like the getting there, it's not there yet, but it's great.

[Barrett Courtney]

So my question to you because this has been a big hang up for some other people. How do you feel about not being able to squat up with like a small party of friends to just do random rooms of like verses and knockout tour where you're like kind of gaining coins and like the kind of competitor space like especially essentially like making an old tiny, like a tiny lobby not a room to be able to jump.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

In because you want. Because they keep adding what computers onto it.

[Barrett Courtney]

Well, no, that. But also just getting into the competitive space of like trying to race against some of like the best players out there that you might not not have on your friends list. Right.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I think that. Yeah, that would be cool. Bear. And I think that will kind of elevate to the point where it's like Mike is hosting the very best and like I'm privately DMing you like the switch code. Right. To get in. You'll probably see that in the weeks coming up. But yeah, there should be something. It's just not perfect yet. It's not 2025 standard, but man, is it better than a lot of multiplayer games we've seen from. From Nintendo.

[Tim Gettys]

Remember, no communication Strikers so far.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Remember Strikers.

[Barrett Courtney]

Don't talk to me about strikers.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

No communication.

[Tim Gettys]

No communication error.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

So I've never had a communication. We did battle with 24 people is mayhem and it should be dropping people. Doesn't really happen.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah, yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

Incredible.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah, yeah. Even like playing like I would assumed, like even on wi Fi, just playing handheld mode, like I'd get up. I have seen a little bit of like, you know, racer will stop and I'll pass them and then they'll like come again forward just because there's a bit of disconnect with the server. But that's like the most I've seen. But yeah, like the, like, if I go into this race mode, not down into friends, I should be able to squat up with somebody. And then we go into like.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, and then we go into that.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, I like that bear. Yeah, totally. I mean, these are the small things that we've always questioned this company about. It's just so odd that we're here and it's like, yeah, this is your launch title. This is the flagship. And maybe they see it more as like, hey, this is a couch co op experience. This is Greg and Ben playing it. It's not Mike Blessing Baird who's like, yo, this is my life here and I want this to be better. But they'll get there eventually.

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, they go, Nintendo goes out of the way sometimes. Make it like, oh, listen, we're not an online company. Listen, we're not an open. This is not an open world. So you know what I mean.

[Barrett Courtney]

Our YouTube chat is being bombarded by bitcoin bots and I'm going and I'm trying to fix it.

[Tim Gettys]

Thank you, Barrett. Well, while you're doing that, Tim had an appointment, so he had a skedaddle. So I'm taking us to land the plane. And as I'm doing that, that I'm hoping in super chats real quick, Mellow fellow writes in and says, where's Gooigi E Gadd? Etc? I want to do. And this probably won't make a great Gamescast episode, but I want to do an activity where we sit down and write who should the roster be? Because I feel like we could find 30 characters.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Well, it's Gooigi in it. You said it's more of a Mario World. So would go easy.

[Tim Gettys]

No. Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Or no.

[Tim Gettys]

I would add yes.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Googy should be in the Mario World umbrella.

[Tim Gettys]

Yes. Where's Diddy Kong? I know we're not getting all the Kongs because we're. We want to make it a Mario game, but Diddy Kong should be in there. Okay. Okay. Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

I mean. Okay.

[Tim Gettys]

Chat. Keep listing people, because I'm sure. Is Troopa not in there?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

No, it's the flag man now. He kind of looks close.

[Barrett Courtney]

No, Koopa trooper is in here.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

No, I don't think so. I don't think the traditional. Where's all the Bowser?

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah, he's right here. Sorry, the chat. Somebody in chat. Where are the. Where are the Bowser kids?

[Barrett Courtney]

Kids?

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

What happened to them?

[Tim Gettys]

Yeah.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Lemmy.

[Tim Gettys]

I don't know, man. Mozart.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah, that was. I think his name.

[Tim Gettys]

There's no way his name is Mozart.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

What's Mozart's first name?

[Snowbike Mike]

Aren't they.

[Tim Gettys]

Aren't all the Bowser kids named after, like.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah. What is Mozart?

[Tim Gettys]

Somebody says Larry. Larry Mozart.

[Barrett Courtney]

All I'm thinking is Amadeus, but I don't think that's correct.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

We got all these.

[Tim Gettys]

Wolf, That's Mozart. Wait, what? Yeah, that's what we're asking.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Oh, sorry, Wolf.

[Barrett Courtney]

Wolfgang.

[Tim Gettys]

No, no, the Bowser kids are named Wolfgang. Never mind, Chad. Keep listing, people. Is King Bob OMB in there? From Bob on's Battlefield?

[Barrett Courtney]

No, no. Yeah, again, we got King Boo. There could have been. There was a plethora of characters that stand out in their own way that I think. Like. Like, give me a thwomp.

[Tim Gettys]

A thwomp would make. Give me. Give me 30 minutes of prep time before a games cast and let me. For the first.

[Barrett Courtney]

Let Blessing cook.

[Tim Gettys]

For the first three minutes of the games cast, I'll tell you exactly who the roster should be.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Okay.

[Tim Gettys]

Iconic writes in and says, I don't think this is worth $80 from someone who loves Mario Kart. This one is toward the bottom of the list for all the racers. It's really only above Super Mario Kart and maybe one of the DS ones.

[Snowbike Mike]

Wow.

[Blessing Adeoye Jr.]

Okay.

[Tim Gettys]

That's damming. Newbie Productions writes in and says the DK Spaceports P switch was interesting. It wasn't mirrored, but more so doing the course in reverse. I thought that was interesting. That's fun. I like that. Cabal's writes in and says 6.5 out of 10. Loathe the punishing RNG and filler items. It's what always spoiled Mario Kart stickers as the only reward. Sucks Real pretty. Hdr, though.

[Barrett Courtney]

HR is great. Game's game looks beautiful.

[Tim Gettys]

Game looks hot.

[Barrett Courtney]

Yeah.

[Tim Gettys]

And then last one comes from Demon Hacker, who says they should have brought back Team Driving from Double Dash. And that is it for your super chats. And that is it for your episode of Kind of Funny gamescast where each and every weekday we get together and talk about the biggest reviews, previews and topics in video games live on YouTube, Twitch and on podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, please support us with the Kind of Funny membership on Patreon or YouTube to get all of our shows ad free, watch, record them live and get a daily exclusive Show. Catch today's KHD on YouTube or podcast services and know that until next time, it's been our pleasure to serve you.