You pick a cartoon character, hop in a go-kart, and race eleven others through candy kingdoms, city streets, and tracks that twist upside down. Driving through floating item boxes hands you random gadgets, like a banana peel to drop behind you or a turtle shell that chases the car ahead. Even a total beginner can finish races thanks to optional steering help, which is why it comes out whenever friends are over.
Gameplay video
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Screenshots & review notes
Overall
It's the safest, most crowd-pleasing racer Nintendo makes, and honestly it deserves the sales numbers; there's a reason every Switch owner seems to own a copy.
Moment to moment
The anti-gravity sections and expanded battle mode add welcome variety, though the blue shell chaos still occasionally undoes a well-earned lead in frustrating fashion.
Art and atmosphere
Tracks pop with color and the frame rate stays locked even in four-player split-screen, which is no small feat on this hardware.
Worth your time?
With years of DLC courses folded in, this is basically the definitive kart game of its generation, ideal for family game night or serious online ranked play.
Frames captured from the gameplay video above; notes are our own take on the game.
What it's like to play
You choose a character, put together a go-kart with wheels and a glider, and line up with eleven other racers. Three laps later you have driven through a candy kingdom, along an airport runway, and up the side of a wall, because certain stretches flip your wheels sideways and let you drive on ceilings. Steering is simple, one stick and a gas button, but holding a drift around a corner builds a little boost, and learning when to release it is the whole skill of the game.
The part that makes it fun for mixed groups is the item boxes floating on the track. Drive through one and you get something random, a banana to drop behind you, a shell that homes in on the car ahead, a mushroom for a quick burst of speed, or a lightning bolt that shrinks everyone else. Whoever is losing tends to get the stronger items, so last place can rocket back into contention on the final lap. That also means a perfect run can be ruined by a blue shell fifty feet from the finish line, which is either hilarious or infuriating depending on who you ask.
You can pull the two halves of the Switch controller apart and hand one to a friend for instant two-player racing with no extra purchase. For anyone who has never held a controller, there are two toggles worth knowing, one keeps the kart from falling off the track and the other presses the gas for you, which lets a five-year-old or a grandparent actually finish a race. Between the ninety-six tracks, the balloon-popping battle arenas, and online play, this is the game that ends up in the console whenever people come over.