Mario Kart World will launch with at least 60 different playable characters and outfits when it releases on June 5th, 2025. We recently got hands-on time with the Switch 2 launch game, and you can check out our impressions of Mario Kart World here.

Namely, the two most notable games I played were Mario Kart World and Donkey Kong: Bananza. The latter isn't a launch game, but they both made strong first impressions – not only as games themselves, but also as demonstrations of what the Switch 2 can do. Let's dig in.

Mario Kart World is an open-world racing game in the style of Forza Horizon, in which fields of 24 racers compete across a huge map with different regions. It has many features associated with more realistic racing games, including a photo mode, dynamically changing weather conditions, and time-of-day that will affect the racing experience.