Mario Kart World is being positioned as the largest point of sale of switch 2, and it is easy to see why. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe stayed at the top of Nintendo Switch sales lists undefeated for years, and remains the best -selling game on Switch and in the Mario Kart series. Nintendo is clearly trying to capture that ray in a bottle again for its monitoring console, with a new Mario Kart ready to accelerate the starting block along with the system. And with that supply of premiums comes a higher price: $ 80, a price that jumps over the price of $ 70 something expected for next generation games.
When Nintendo removed the Mario Kart World wraps as part of its Switch 2 presentation, the price was an important point of conversation. And more specifically: what made this game demand such a high price? When asked, Nintendo’s response was essentially that the test was in the pudding, which once we saw everything he had to offer, the reason behind the increase in the price would become evident.
“We will observe variable prices and things like that for software based on how robust is the experience,” Bill Trinen de Nintendo told us in an interview at the beginning of April. “People will learn more about that game. And I think that as they start learning more about that game, they will be quite excited about the content that is offered there.”
In that same response, he even specifically pointed out that a special Nintendo focused only on Mario Kart World. So, now that the Nintendo Direct has debuted, is it fair to ask: Did the presentation comply with the value proposal? Did the characteristics of this new game retroactively justify the price?
The way you spend your playing dollars is a personal decision, so the answers will certainly vary. But it is difficult to say that today’s presentation, positioned as the place to “learn more about the game” and open our eyes to the value proposal, made a particularly strong case that this Mario Kart game has a much larger reach than others in the series, or even much beyond what we already knew from the first practical session in the Switch 2 revelation event.
In the revelation event, we learned that Mario Kart World presents a great open world that you can freely explore in free Roam mode, and that, in addition to the standard Grand Prix, there would be a new elimination shift mode that eliminates players progressively along the control points. The list is larger to accommodate the new largest count of players, 24 runners at the same time, and runners can unlock a wide variety of costumes to vary their appearance. Mario Kart World is also positioned as a masterpiece for the new Gamechat function, which has been presented largely when friends pass the time and garbage while exploring the races.
So what did we learn about Mario Kart World today? We learned that, in addition to the Grand Prix and Knockout tour, Battle Mode returns with two competitive modes. We learned that Roam Free will have collectibles and secrets to find, although how you are rewarded for finding them is not yet clear. And we look at some new characters, we got more clarity on how to unlock costumes and learned about new tricks and skills such as Rewind function. The presentation even mocked Rainbow Road’s return as a reward to finish the other Grand Prix races, which is not exactly surprising, but affects our curiosity. What will this new version of the iconic track be? In general, it was a good and integral overview of a great launch game.
But in terms of new content, there was simply not much there. The battle mode is a good addition, but it was never the main raffle of Mario Kart Games. Free Roam missions could be hiding more depth than we believe, but it is difficult to know what we learned today. There was no greater scope with more Grand Prix races or a live service approach for the content after launch. Our understanding of the world of Mario Kart is not significantly different today than yesterday, so it is difficult to conclude that this presentation answered the persistent questions we all had when we first listened to the price.
It seems that the most likely explanation for the price is given by Serkan Toto shortly after the ad: Nintendo is setting the price of Mario Kart World to $ 80 because people will pay $ 80 for it. It is a great release game, it looks beautiful, it is the successor of one of the best Nintendo sellers, and will continue to be sold for years in the useful life of Switch 2. Nintendo is fixing it aggressively, but not beyond what consumers are probably willing to pay. That is capitalism, baby.
And to be fair to Nintendo, he is offering consumers a break if they want to take it. The Switch 2 package with a digital copy of Mario Kart World is only $ 50 more than the standard package, which makes it significantly less expensive than buying a new game to the letter, even on the original switch. However, that package is only available until the end of the year, and early orders have not yet been opened in the United States. We will have to see how easily the package will be available.
To be clear, Mario Kart World looks great. It is visually impressive, the appearance of the open world seems ambitious, the list is a delicious one that is for Nintendo fans for a long time, and most importantly, it is just wonderful to play. I’m going to get it as soon as I can, and I’m going to play. All Nintendo fans will do it, and that is just the point. Nintendo is charging a premium for a great aspect because he knows he looks very good. Nintendo Direct did not offer a shocking degree of content that suddenly makes $ 80 make sense, because it really does not need to do it. It is the world of Mario Kart, and we are only living in him.