The launch racer for Switch 2, where instead of picking a track from a menu you drive across one connected world, rolling from a desert highway straight into a snowy town. Twenty-four racers crowd the road at once, and you can grind rails and wall ride to cut corners. It is easy to steer for a newcomer, and the free roam mode lets you just cruise around looking for challenges.
Gameplay video
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Screenshots & review notes
The short version
This is a friendly, easy way to spend an afternoon racing with family and it never feels mean spirited. The one downside is that with so many racers on screen at once the road can feel crowded and hard to read.
In the hands
You steer with the stick and tap a button to hop, grind rails and cut across the open world between races. Free roam lets you just cruise and poke at little challenges instead of always racing.
Look and sound
The world shifts from desert highway to snowy town without a loading screen, and the music stays upbeat throughout. It looks colourful rather than detailed, which suits the tone but will not wow anyone chasing realism.
The long haul
Short races make it easy to pick up for ten minutes or settle in for a long session. It suits families and newcomers best, since experienced racing fans may find the driving a bit forgiving.
Frames captured from the gameplay video above; notes are our own take on the game.
What it's like to play
You start on a normal looking road with a kart under you, the left stick for steering and one button for the gas that never really needs to come off. Within a minute the track stops feeling like a single track at all, the road bends off a cliff into a beach, then a beach turns into a snowy pass, and there was never a menu screen picking the next course. You hold a shoulder button to drift and let go at the right moment for a small burst of speed, and items you pick up from floating boxes get thrown behind or in front with the other shoulder button. Twenty three other racers are on the road with you, bumping and swerving, and rails along the sides can be hopped onto and ground for a shortcut if you time the jump.
The goal in a race is simply to finish first across a lap or two of this connected world, but a lot of the time you spend is actually in the free roam mode, driving wherever you like and looking for hidden characters, ramps, and small challenges scattered across the landscape. Races get harder as the other racers use their items more aggressively and the tracks add tighter turns and bigger jumps, and online races bring in real people who already know every shortcut. Nothing here demands quick reflexes at the start, the controls forgive wide turns and bumped walls, though staying near the front against experienced players takes real practice with drifting and item timing.
A session can be as short as one race or as long as an afternoon spent just roaming the map with no goal at all, which makes it easy to pick up for ten minutes or lose an hour to. It suits someone who wants something colorful and forgiving to play with family, since less experienced players can still finish races even if they rarely win. The one real frustration is that with two dozen racers and items flying constantly, the screen can get busy and your finishing position can feel like it depends more on luck than skill in the closest laps.