Nintendo Just Blew Mario Kart World’s Record Race Wide Open

A surprise Mario Kart World update has breathed new life into the Switch 2 exclusive, but it’s one of the changes that goes unmentioned by Nintendo which could have the biggest impact on the game’s competitive scene.

While version 1.2.0 lists a ton of of notable changes, including dialing back CPU difficulty across every mode except battles, it doesn’t say anything about players getting a bigger speed boost from landing after performing in-air tricks. Yet that’s exactly what players discovered after the update went live today, with many breezing through their previous time trial records thanks to their newfound acceleration.

A new clip from RookieMK racing against their previous time trial ghost perfectly encapsulates the change:

While Mario Kart World’s big open map and Knockout Mode get the most attention for bringing fresh ideas to the long-running series, the Switch 2 racer is just as notable, if not more so, for how it reinvents the moment-to-moment gameplay by infusing it with a bit of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater. Players can now wall-run, grind off rails, and glance off mid-air objects to pick up extra speed boosts.

The most skilled players are thus effectively racing like they have a secret stash of Mushrooms. The new patch takes things even further, in particular increasing the speed boost after landing from ramp jumps and other mid-air tricks. “You get a ton of extra momentum,” YouTuber svcTyler said in a new video. “So much momentum to the point that it’s completely trivialized every currently existing world record in the game.”

The Mario Kart World records page shows exactly that. Only two new world record times were posted on July 29. Today, there’s been dozens. Nintendo’s stealth change has completely revitalized the speedrunning race, at least until all of the new optimal times get posted and players have to go back to eking out marginal improvements in times.

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