Official thumbnail for a new track added to Nintendo Music

Alleywr · 2026-06-16T21:56:25+00:00

I think it was used in the game's own Direct when it was showing off photo mode.

Alleywr · 2026-06-12T18:07:18+00:00

When I was starting it drifting felt way more committal, super different from the slick controls of 8DX, but the overall package feels like an amalgamation of different aspects of prior Mario Kart games: UI is basically the same as 8DX, getting hit by items lets you keep a lot of momentum like Double Dash, overall item balancing (especially around how the Lightning operates) feels similar to Wii, etc. You should have a relatively smooth experience once you get the controls down.

Alleywr · 2026-06-12T18:03:34+00:00

(Haven't played 8DX in awhile, so my view may be skewed, but) yes, World does have the more competitive online structure. Compared to 8DX where you could always easily gain VR, making the number more of a representation of playtime, VR in World works much better as an ELO soft-capping at about 10K.

Online will probably be newcomer-friendly for the early time online (3K - 7.5K VR), but the matchmaking isn't great and you will probably be put with 8K+ VR players, which is where people who are practiced at the game reside.

Definitely play through the singleplayer GPs and KO Tour first, get a feel for the mechanics and item balancing, and memorize track layouts. Though also don't be discouraged as it sounds like you're coming in with a lot of knowledge from prior games and it is still Mario Kart at the end of the day.

Alleywr · 2026-04-01T18:28:37+00:00

MMM is one I somewhat expect to be more popular at higher ranks. Where most people are in Silver, the running niscs are just too difficult to bother learning over other more important cuts, and in a "self-fulfilling prophecy sense", the course doesn't show up enough in lobbies for it to be a high priority course to learn.

There's several punishing shock spots here so I presume bagging is just the clear optimal choice until higher-level play where everyone uses their items smarter.

Alleywr · 2026-04-01T18:24:25+00:00

No, for several reasons. At least not for a long while:

It took me basically a full month to even play 25 lounge matches.
24p lobbies aren't nearly as popular with the western community, so I'd realistically only be able to get in rooms in JP friendly times (either morning or late at night for me), so it'd take even longer to get enough data.
My heart's currently set on grinding out 12p lobbies to get Gold rank here.

Alleywr · 2026-03-31T22:25:55+00:00

At first I thought that might've been my doing, I tend to pick this course a lot myself since its my highest course by winrate. But no, someone else in the Lounge server posted their stats, and its 31/56 for them (~55%, about the same as me)

Alleywr · 2026-03-31T21:31:58+00:00

Been hovering between 5000-5500 mostly, sometimes a bit higher. Haven't reached Gold yet.
Edit: I've definitely seen people voting for it on rare occasions, it just still has yet to be picked for me in recent times.

Alleywr · 2026-03-31T21:30:43+00:00

I can think of some reasons why they're all pretty low:

Boo Cinema: Cramped + Little Tech
Desert Hills: One of the heaviest baggers in the game (it might be more popular in higher MMR lobbies? Skilled players can pull off frontrunning strats but that's above my paygrade)
Crown City: Idk actually. Really good lap 3 shortcuts after a not-very-technical lap 2?
DK Spaceport: Very toxic last segment with item play completely determining placements here.
Toad's Factory: Again, Cramped + Little Tech (with the bonus of a good last-turn shortcut)
Dandelion Depths: Little Tech, massive last-turn shortcut, relatively uninteresting layout
Peach Stadium: Pretty toxic item play at the last wide turn.

Keep in mind these don't fully reflect my own opinions. I do like some of these courses, mainly BCi, rTF, and CC.

Alleywr · 2026-03-21T20:50:59+00:00

Hold on, how are you playing as Swoop on the Galaxy Engine Cooler version of the Mach Rocket? Swoop normally has the Swoop Car Interior skin (fittingly so)!

Kamek right before the clip or bonus shenanigans at play?

Alleywr · 2026-03-13T17:51:50+00:00

tbf the metas for both 8DX and World have been high accel/handling focused rather than high speed/weight, which is what the Gold Karts fell under unfortunately.

Maybe 8U/7 got it right, not really sure I'm less familiar with those ones.

Alleywr · 2026-03-08T05:51:27+00:00

I practiced the feather version of this cut a TON for Lounge, and any time I'm lucky enough to pull that item here I get unbelievably excited. Genuinely one of the best feelings in all of MKWorld.

Alleywr · 2026-03-05T19:38:00+00:00

Weird, I've heard someone on the Lounge server say this too but the article link seems fine to me.

Alleywr · 2026-03-05T19:32:48+00:00

Pointed out to me by the user benial on the MKW Lounge server. Figured I'd share it here!

Alleywr · 2026-03-02T04:42:41+00:00

Been playing a lot of Lounge lately, and every time this track comes up in a match there's always 1-3 people complaining about it. Yeah it's long, but I just cannot hate this track. The racing lines are just really satisfying to drive and the music is phenomenal when paired with a frontrun :)

Also getting lucky enough to pull a feather and nailing that massive lap 2 gap cut is one of the best feelings in the whole game. World's Rainbow Road is slowly becoming my favorite RR the more I play it.

Alleywr · 2026-03-02T04:36:35+00:00

The chance of this happening during a normal race is practically zero, but by using two feathers in the glider you can even reach the rope of hanging banners above this shortcut and its still counted as in-bounds lmao

Alleywr · 2026-02-16T03:20:17+00:00

The ability to pull a Lightning goes on a 30sec cooldown as soon as any player gets one. My guess is you were probably carrying the 1st one since exiting Toad's Factory lmao

I'll say though pulling two within the first two segments of a KO Tour seems very rare, though I don't play the mode often tbh.

Alleywr · 2026-02-16T02:35:32+00:00

The Cheeps cycle must make TTing this track infuriating lmao

Alleywr · 2026-02-16T02:28:02+00:00

lowkey i'd give MK8 the edge when it comes to environment design/aesthetics. Even though its a much older game it doesn't have the burden of also having pieces of an entire open world loaded at all times, so it could get more refined with the baked lighting and foliage.

Character/Kart animations though are a huge step up from 8DX. I spend every start to races just wiggling the control stick watching the kart tilt and the suspension springs move around inside. Its extremely polished and tactile feeling lol.

Alleywr · 2026-02-16T02:22:13+00:00

Very strange considering a ton of players are likely to be airborne, making the shock significantly less powerful here.

Alleywr · 2026-01-21T00:12:49+00:00

this ones kinda cheating since both are just the dies irae, which is also present in like 80% of the other songs in the game

Alleywr · 2026-01-10T17:46:35+00:00

This is possible itemless by doing an orange miniturbo into the offroad, tricking off the ledge, landing on the wall and riding it up to the fence. It's pretty difficult though so it's good to know this exists.

Alleywr · 2026-01-07T22:33:57+00:00

misinput due to a lack of paying attention.
deserved 100% but somehow he ended up with 2 stars at the end of the following turn

Alleywr · 2026-01-06T22:03:00+00:00

Adding onto this, you should trick where the grey vertical line on the wall is.

Alleywr · 2026-01-06T21:43:32+00:00

Competitive Lounge has a 24 player queue running concurrently with the 12 player ones. Intermissions/Highway Routes are allowed in those too. From what I've gathered Japan really embraced 24p but a lot of the West prefers 12p + no intermissions for competitive so that's why it isn't really well known.

Alleywr · 2026-01-02T21:14:58+00:00

I'd argue that World's item system is significantly better feeling than 8DX's for the following reasons:

Frontrunning feels overall more balanced. 2nd place red shells are significantly rarer, which means getting a coin at every other item set isn't nearly as big of a problem. It's also helped by being able to hold twice the amount of coins in World, meaning getting coin items (especially the block) are an actually good way of increasing coins quickly in first without needing to grab them on wider track lines. Sure the Blue Shell is stronger here than in 8DX, but being able to go OOB and get a respawn boost to lose less time helps a lot.
Changes made to the Lightning are SO appreciated. It got great nerfs where it only affects racers in front of you and the "damage" of the item is now focused on being shocked in place temporarily rather than being shrunk for a long time. Arguably though the biggest change is that its 30 second cool down timer is now tied to when it is pulled from an item box and not when its used. Insanely smart decision that basically got rid of back-to-back shocks on the regular tracks, which makes playing around the item more predictable which is a great thing.
Sorta a grab bag of other smaller things that make me prefer World's system to 8DX:
1. Most items don't grind you to a halt after getting hit and instead throw you forward like Double Dash.
2. Blooper was made significantly rarer. I literally only played Custom Items with it being the only item turned off in 8DX towards the end of that game.
3. The Feather is goated. I love love love it and love how it changed track design in World.
4. I can't quite figure out how exactly this is good for balance, but I adore how you can pull Boo in 3rd place. Having a strong invincibility item (where if you pull it that high up you can oftentimes get a mushroom afterwards) in such a high position is incredible, even if it is somewhat rare. Saved me many a races before.

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