The Nintendo Switch 2 is the home of Mario Kart World. It carries on the racing series’ legacy, and an interesting interview with key members of the game’s development team has revealed the sequel wasn’t initially slated for the Switch 2.
Mario Kart World‘s development team was recently interviewed by Nintendo, which included Kosuke Yabuki (producer), Kenta Sato (programming director), Masaaki Ishikawa (art director), Shintaro Jikumaru (leader of the planning team), and Atsuko Asahi (music lead).
During the conversation, they discussed the game’s original goals.
Mario Kart World Was Intended for Nintendo Switch 1, Not Switch 2
Development on Mario Kart World began as early as 2017: “We were thinking about what to do for the next Mario Kart game even during the development of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and we began prototyping in March 2017. It was at the end of that year when we officially started work on it as a project,” said Yabuki.
After realizing Mario Kart World’s scope was becoming too grand, the team decided they didn’t want to make any sacrifices to the core experience.
He continued: “We worked on it while kicking the can down the road in terms of deciding what to give up on, so at some point, we knew it was going to get messy. But as we’d decided to release Mario Kart 8 Deluxe — Booster Course Pass, we thought that would give us a bit more time to continue development. That’s when the conversation of moving it to the Nintendo Switch 2 system came up, and this suddenly opened up a bunch of possibilities on what we could do. It was truly a ray of hope.”
The idea to shift gears towards the Switch 2 happened as early as 2020. Sato explained: “When we were developing for Nintendo Switch, we often worried whether we could find the right balance between planning and performance. Of course, the Switch system’s performance is sufficient for developing different kinds of games, but if we had included everything we wanted to in this game’s vast world, then it wouldn’t have run at 60 fps and would have suffered from constant framerate drops.”
The power of the Switch 2 has led to Mario Kart World’s creation and the team achieving their vision. It’s set to launch as a Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive, and it’s unlikely we ever see it come to Switch 1. Are you disappointed by this? Let us know through the Insider Gaming forum.
For more news, check out GTA 6 causing Avengers: Doomsday to be delayed, and Half-Life 3 rumors resurfacing again.
Andy is Insider Gaming's Senior Evergreen Editor and has been in the games journalism sphere in one way or another for over 7 years. His video game taste is as…
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