If you've never heard of Super Mario Kart, then I guess you were living in a cave, as this game series which first appeared in 1992 on the SNES, was one of the most addictive arcade style racing games ever to appear on a TV screen. So to see someone try to create a Mario Kart like experience on the Amiga certainly caught my interest! Welcome to Micro Karting, a small proof-of-concept to see

Fast Food Wars is a bullet-hell shoot'em up game in a procedural generated restaurant with random power ups, wepaons and bad guys to kill....

My favorite part of the Kingdom Hearts franchise has always been the incredible diversity of all of the characters that make it up. Gaming icons such as Cloud Strife and Auron from the Final Fantasy series battle alongside Disney’s Donald and Goofy… all while exploring levels based on films featuring cinematic icons like Jack Sparrow or Tron. But this incredible mix of complicated protagonists and larger-than-life cartoon characters works because they’re all serving the same story in different ways… saving the world takes a team who understands that the things that make each of them unique and different from each other is what gives this team its strength.

We’re all called to serve the same Lord, but we will each serve Him in different ways… and the uniqueness of our calling and purpose means it will look different for every one of us. The diverse ministries of John the Baptist and Jesus meant that one of them lived off of locusts and honey in the desert while the other ate and drank with those He was sent to save… each of them served the same kingdom in different ways based on the specific calling they were given by the Father. Rather than expect every member of this team to follow Christ in an identical manner, let’s embrace the way we’ve been gifted to serve Him… as a kingdom of unique hearts joined together as one.

For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, “He has a demon.” The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, “Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!” But wisdom is justified by her children. Matthew 11:18-19

For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them. Romans 12:4-5a

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The Friday letters page has some choice words to say about Sony’s handling of the PS5 generation, as one reader thinks Mario Kart Arcade is a bad game.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Wasted generation
Just seen the news that Sony is shutting down Bluepoint Games and I’m appalled. That team put out nothing but top quality games and were specialists in remakes, which we’ve had more and more of recently, so you would’ve thought they’d be extra valuable to Sony right now.

Instead, we just see continued short-sighted, bone-headed decision making from Sony, who have been awful this whole generation. The PlayStation 5 has been a disaster and I’m not confident that Sony has any kind of plan to avoid permeant decline, all the while shutting down more and more developers. I definitely would be polishing up my CV if I worked at Bungie or Bend Studio.

The obsession with live service games, which clearly hasn’t ended at all, has been such a disaster. Not just in terms of failed games (remember, Concord cost $400 million!) but a whole wasted generation, where developers have had no time to make anything else, and are now being shut down before they have the chance anyway.

I detest Sony for how they’re handling all this, and I say that as someone that’s owned an original PlayStation console and everything else since. They shut down one of their best developers just so they could look good to their investors for five minutes and it’s obvious they’ll happily sacrifice more for the same reason.
Cranston

Pity the poor exec
Thank goodness that Hermen Hulst, Head of Worldwide Studios at PlayStation from 2019-2024, is here to protect the company from ‘changing player behaviours’ and ‘rising development costs’ by shuttering one of their most renowned studios.

Absolutely nothing else he could’ve done since 2019, to give players the type of games they expect from PlayStation. Nope, we all wanted 12 live service games, from studios who specialise in single-player games, so it’s our fault for changing our minds…

PlayStation has been on the slide since they consolidated and moved their headquarters to the USA. They’ve lost almost all of the riskiness and playfulness that made them successful in the first place. Hope the Bluepoint employees bounce back quickly.
Magnumstache

Never-ending Kratos
I was really hoping that Santa Monica Studio would be working on a new IP or sci-fi game but it really doesn’t sound like that’s what’s going on. I loved the last two God Of War games but the story’s over and I have very little confidence that there’s a good plan for what happens next.

Cory Barlog said he didn’t make the Norse games a trilogy because he didn’t want to work on the same story for 15 years but here we are and it’s looking very much like he’s just going straight back to God Of War.

I know the next game is meant to be a spin-off but how different is it going to be really? Unless it’s a flight sim or something it’s just going to be more of the same and that’s a shame.
Coolsbane

Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Experimental reasoning
It does make me laugh that Todd Howard has now publicly admitted that people find Starfield boring, but I’m sure he doesn’t really understand why. How someone of his supposed experience could have put out such a dull, badly made game I don’t know. He’s just lucky the Fallout TV show was a hit, as otherwise I think he would’ve fond himself out the door.

No one would love The Elder Scrolls 6 to be great more than me, but Bethesda is too high on its own supply nowadays and I really have much less confidence in them than I used to. He tries to paint Starfield as some big, risky experiment but all they do was take all the best bits out of Skyrim and replace it with nothing.

I’m not really sure what he’s on about with Fallout 76 either. It’s just a bog standard MMO cobbled together with left over bits from Fallout 4. It’s those two games that made me start to think less of Bethesda, not because they were risky ventures but because they were lazy cash grabs.
Shortround

Kart it off
I always wondered why Nintendo bothered with the Mario Kart arcade games. They weren’t very good, because they let Bandai Namco make them, and it hardly seems like Mario Kart is a series they have to get people interested in or promote. It’s not exactly an unknown brand, is it?

Putting Pac-Man in was extra weird too, as even though he’s a cartoon character he still looks out of place. Anyway, I still gave it a go. But paying £1 to play one race of the worst Mario Kart ever isn’t something I’d want to do again.
Biter

Bad business
The gaming world can truly change on a dime. Bluepoint Games has been shut down by Sony. After giving us fans a brilliant remake of Demon’s Souls and Shadow Of The Colossus, Sony has closed down the studio. One of their most revered, to say the least. It’s out of nowhere and quite a baffling decision. From what I understand, the studio was to create a video game based on an original IP and not another remake. So why Sony have chosen to erase that prospective idea is beyond my understanding.

Then again, we hadn’t heard any news, updates or any information from them in a long time, so perhaps it was inevitable. I suppose the silence was a reckoning or rather an ill omen in the shadows. I really would have liked to see what Bluepoint were making or what was cooking behind the scenes. To see the creativity floating around, but it either happens with a new studio that is formed, or it remains a what if?

It worked for Sandfall Games. After they broke away from Ubisoft, we were presented with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and the rest is history. So maybe the developers still have a semblance of a future. What that will be is unclear at this moment, so who knows what is next?

On another note, it’s a week from tomorrow that Resident Evil Requiem releases. A funny anecdote is that I pre-ordered it for £47.99, on Amazon. I take another look and it’s suddenly £59.95. Talk about a lucky move. It looks absolutely fantastic and since Leon Kennedy is my favourite male gaming character, I hope it reviews well.
Shahzaib Sadiq

Two for two
I want to recommend Pure Pool Pro on PlayStation 5. It’s a really fun game with excellent physics. It looks great and has an enjoyable career mode and trophies.

It’s only the second game I’ve bought for the PlayStation 5 after Everybody’s Golf Hot Shots. Keep up the good work.
EricBIG777 (PSN ID)

GC: Thank you.

Actually final
RE: Ochreblue. I find it hard to imagine, after the Final Fantasy 7 remakes have been completed, that another remake of a fan favourite would be made anytime soon, at least on the scale of Final Fantasy 7’s budget.

I think that so much money has backed these three massive games that it would seem nonsensical to risk another big venture so soon, due to what the actual returns were from a financial point of view. I can imagine that it would have needed a lot more sales to accommodate a reason to make, let’s say the sixth or ninth Final Fantasy games in the series, even if they definitely do deserve one.

Possibly a remastered version of Chrono Trigger would be interesting, with a fresh lick of paint and a new up-to-date remake of the original soundtrack would be a great winner for me and other fans. No need to go and rebuild everything like the FFVII Remake, but way simpler using artwork that is skilfully applied to the cute looking world whilst keeping the atmosphere peak.

But we definitely have to get into our minds that the Final Fantasy 7 remakes could be the ultimate Final Fantasies, encapsulating everything from the original and introducing so much more.

This asks the question of how powerful do the next generation of consoles really need to be and have graphical qualities reached their zenith yet? GTA 6 will probably be that zenith but it’ll be pretty obvious that GTA 6 will be earning a hefty profit when the sale figures start coming in.

But definitely it will be an exception compared to other big releases, who will be relatively successful but with way less titles being sold. Let’s see what happens over this year and the next.
Alucard

Inbox also-rans
Sony shut down Bluepoint Games? Make it make sense! Surely they should be remaking Bloodborne?
Zombiekicker

One positive thing about all these console delays is that parents could be saved the £400 to £1,000 yearly scramble to get a new toy for their spoiled kids.
Bobwallett

GC: Who is spending £1,000 on new consoles every year?

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The small print
New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.

You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.

You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

MORE: Games Inbox: Could memory shortages destroy the console industry?

MORE: Games Inbox: Will Resident Evil Requiem be worth getting?

MORE: Games Inbox: When will the PS6 be out?

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It took over 10 years, but some dedicated fans have finally made a pair of previously unavailable Mario Kart games available to play.

While Nintendo might officially treat Mario Kart World as the ninth entry in its go-karting series (10th if you count mobile game Mario Kart Tour), that’s technically not accurate.

That’s because Nintendo previously released Mario Kart arcade cabinets as part of a partnership with Sega and Bandai Namco. You might have seen them at an arcade but they’ve never been made available on consoles.

Recently, though, this often-overlooked part of Nintendo history was made more widely available thanks to fan efforts, although only via the legal grey area of emulation.

2005’s Mario Kart Arcade GP and its 2007 sequel are now playable through Dolphin, an emulator for Nintendo GameCube games.

While those two games never saw console ports, the arcade system they ran on, dubbed Triforce, was built on similar hardware to the GameCube, with the Mario Kart Arcade games using the same engine as GameCube title Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

This was also the same system used for the arcade release of another GameCube racing game, F-Zero GX, which was developed by Sega and can be played nowadays through the Nintendo Switch 2’s GameCube library.

The Mario Kart arcade games were made by Bandai Namco, which is why they feature some of the company’s characters, like Pac-Man.

Technically, a different group of fans did get these games running before, but through what is described as ‘suboptimal techniques’ that meant they weren’t entirely stable.

‘When we first started on this journey, most of us hadn’t had the opportunity to play any of the Triforce games on an original cabinet,’ says fan JMC47. ‘The best we could do was buy the core systems and games and try to get them running with what we had.

‘The experience on bare hardware was rarely good and never great, but that was not how they were meant to be played. Triforce games were designed to be a part of an arcade experience, with a cool cabinet, interesting features, and unique control schemes. Through emulation, we were able to bring some of that arcade magic back to these games that no longer have a cabinet to call home.’

A third entry, Mario Kart Arcade GP DX, launched in 2013, but that one wasn’t built using the Triforce tech, which is why it’s not been emulated on Dolphin.

There is a fourth Mario Kart Arcade game from 2017, but it’s a VR experience and is only available in a specific Bandai Namco arcade based in Tokyo.

Given the length of time, it’s extremely unlikely Nintendo has any interest in officially re-releasing these arcade Mario Kart games, especially when Mario Kart World is still fresh and expected to see long-term support.

That said, while there have been some gameplay updates since launch, Nintendo’s been shockingly quiet about post-launch DLC. There were theories of Donkey Kong related characters being added to coincide with Donkey Kong Bananza’s launch, based on voice actor credits, but nothing ever came of it.

Hopefully, Nintendo will have something to share during its next Nintendo Direct. After the Partner Showcase earlier this month, we are due for one focused on first party games, but there’s no official date yet.

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For more stories like this, check our Gaming page.

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From cosy museums and tropical islands to nightmarishly difficult adventures – and revamps of favourites including Mario Kart and Pokémon – there’s something for everyone

Nintendo’s newest console has been out for a less than a year but it already boasts an impressive catalogue of excellent new games, as well as a variety of enhanced Switch greats. Here’s our selection of the 15 best titles currently on offer, ranging from family favourites to grittier, more adult challenges.

Continue reading...

© Photograph: Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images

Aunt Gladys. Tyler, the Creator. That sex scene in “The Naked Gun.” These are the things Culture staffers couldn’t stop thinking about this year.

Paint Your Way Through Burnout

HIGH Extremely fluid movement and platforming.

LOW Borrows more than necessary from its influences

WTF Another self-sabotaging final boss?

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I have played more metroidvanias this year than any other genre. According to my Steam Replay, this sort of game took up over 1/4th of my total playtime this year (mainly because of Hollow Knight: Silksong) but out of everything I played, only about two of them have been worth my time — and of those, I’ve only reviewed one on this website. Constance, a hand-drawn, movement-packed metroidvania, is that one.

In this title I played as the titular character Constance — a burnt-out digital artist with mental health struggles who falls into a dreamlike inner world. Her only hope of escape is to capture four “tears” and use them to escape the world and her creative abyss. 

Upon first glance, it’s clear Constance takes influence from a number of highly-successful metroidvanias and platformers – chiefly Hollow Knight and Celeste. There are portions here that aggressively pull from these influences, almost to its detriment. However, while Constance does draw from these sources, it still somehow managed to carve out a niche of its own. 

The first thing I noticed as starkly different from Constance’s predecessors is the world design. It’s not dark, dreary, and oppressive. In fact, it’s downright colorful. Pastel hues of blue, yellow, and pink highlight some of the more cheery areas of the dream world Constance is trapped in. Even the gloomy areas in the lower regions of the map, like the forest green-tinted sewer, were still nice to look at and gave a sense of peace and calm that’s fairly uncommon in these experiences.

This sense of calm is amplified by Constance’s movement and platforming. Given her background as an artist, Constance’s main abilities stem from a large paintbrush strapped to her back. It’s with this paintbrush and a vial of paint she keeps locked and loaded that she is able to dash through obstacles, whack enemies with extra strength, and turn into a blob to stick to walls. Combining these elements makes perhaps the most fluid platforming experience I’ve played in a long time.

However, some dark portions of Constance’s world come via difficult portions of combat and platforming gauntlets. Some of the platforming sections are not for the faint of heart, and require precise button presses and carefully-timed jumps to pass through without a scratch. Constance differs from other metroidvanias, though, by making its hardest areas almost always optional, and any difficulty spikes are almost always chosen by the player. When a gauntlet had me sweating, it was always to get additional resources not necessary to completing the main story.

On the other hand, while I could access every area once the traversal abilities were fully unlocked, some secrets stayed hidden due to limitations – chiefly her paint meter. Every action costs paint, such as dashing, wall climbing, and launching off of “dash points” hung in midair. I enjoyed some of these extra resources being hidden behind harder platforming challenges, but some of the hardest resources to get are extra paint vials, which are needed to get to more paint vials. It feels a bit like a self-defeating loop. 

Otherwise, Constance undertakes an impressive balancing act of creating a world that’s pleasant to be in while also being a delight to look at. At the same time, it outlines the underlying themes of Constance’s internal struggle with mental health. In support of this idea, she talks with NPCs including a damsel made out of a lampshade, a frustrated and discombobulated arcane professor, and a carnival director with split personalities. Each ones’ struggles makes Constance feel lighter about her own, and by helping them, she begins to understand her own mind better.

I had a lovely time with Constance. It’s not a lore-intensive metroidvania, it’s not particularly difficult unless the player wishes to test themselves, and it never outstayed its welcome. Among the titanic release of Silksong and other metroidvanias, Constance still managed to make an impression on me. Don’t let this one pass you by. 

Rating: 7 out of 10

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Disclosures: The game was developed by btf and is co-published by btf, ByteRockers Games and PARCO Games. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on PC. Approximately 8 hours were devoted to the game, and it was completed. There are no multiplayer modes.

Parents: This game is not rated by the ESRB, but it has mild depictions of fantasy violence and involves in-depth discussions of depression and burnout. This game is not made for kids.

Colorblind Modes: There are no colorblind options.

Deaf and Hard of Hearing Gamers: The only dialogue and sounds are communicated through speech bubbles. The text for these speech bubbles cannot be resized. There are no relevant audio cues needed for gameplay. This game is fully accessible.

Remappable controls: Controls are fully remappable.

The post Constance Review appeared first on Gamecritics.com.

Rest your mind by playing against the clock...

Nintendo has released a fairly substantial update for the entertaining Mario Kart World bringing the game to Version 1.4.0. This update includes a number of changes, fixes and general quality of life improvements. One of the most requested features is the ability to hear the amazing soundtrack, which is pitched rather low compared to the… Read More »Mario Kart World Version 1.4.0 is now available includes music slider and more

Source

The Thursday letters page asks if Total War: Star Wars will be announced today, as one reader is impressed by the new Mario Kart World update.

Games Inbox is a collection of our readers’ letters, comments, and opinions. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Coming soon
After the upset around Metroid Prime 4 I tried to look on the positive and see what Nintendo had coming up next, but it’s not very encouraging.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but their first game of next year is the Switch 2 version of Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and then it’s Mario Tennis Fever in February, and then Pokémon Pokopia in March.

That’s it for games with a date, but you’ve also got that new Yoshi game and the Switch 2 version of Super Mario Bros. Wonder. Then things get really sketchy, with The Duskbloods and Fire Emblem maybe sometime in 2026.

I know they probably have plenty of things they haven’t announced (Splatoon Raiders doesn’t seem to be down for any particular year) but I hope that do that sooner rather than later because while the disappointments this year may have been relatively small, they’re still disappointments and I don’t need the Switch 2 to turn into another PlayStation 5 situation.
Connor

GC: You left out Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream and Rhythm Paradise Groove, but then they are Switch 1 games.

Undead old school
Excited to hear that proper zombies are going to be in Resident Evil Requiem. I would’ve actually guessed the last time they were in a mainline game was Code: Veronica, but I guess they were also in Leon’s bits in Resident Evil 6. That game was so terrible, my brain has tried to save me but making me forget most of it. It’s so bad I think Resident Evil 7 is a bit underrated for how much it turned the series around.

Everything I’ve seen and heard of Requiem looks great and I am absolutely on board for it already. I just hope they manage to get the cheese right too. I enjoyed the Reader’s Feature about trying to make a straight-up comedy and while I wouldn’t go that far it is important for me that the game shouldn’t take itself completely seriously.

It’s difficult though, because the original’s was all unintentional and trying to copy that comes across as cringy. Hopefully they figure out something.
Janson

Retro definition
I am so over the HD-2D style from Square Enix. It was a fun gimmick at first but it’s actually pretty ugly and always seems to be too dark. I’m seeing rumours of a Chrono Trigger remake or sequel and at first I thought it might be good to do it in that style. But it really wouldn’t.

I know that Dragon Quest one was apparently good but a game of the quality of Chrono Trigger deserves a more personal touch. I don’t mind keeping kind of a retro look to it, but it shouldn’t just be a cheap job with the HD-2D engine, they need to maybe make something in 3D, maybe with voxels, to make it look unique. I’m not hopeful though.
Shatner2

Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk

Don’t please everyone
I think we’re all going to be sick of hearing about Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 by the end of this month, since it’s obviously gong to sweep The Game Awards, but while we’re still this side of it I’d just like to say I think the game deserves all the praise it’s going to get.

I get that it’s not for everyone but I think that’s one of the great things about it being so successful. We need more games that aren’t for everyone. The very worst games are those bland, artless ones that are specifically designed to appeal to the lowest common dominator and end up doing nothing worthwhile or interesting, no matter how expensive they are.

It may sound odd, but I hope that whatever the next breakthrough hit is, it’s not my cup of tea. Just to prove that I’m not saying that because it happens to be something I like. Keep knocking out new and interesting games, that’s all I want. And I’ll probably buy them, to try them, even if I don’t think they’re my thing. I just appreciate the effort.
Cranston

Better late than never
Never played a Metroid game before but it’s still a shame to see a Nintendo game getting disappointing reviews. Personally, I think they’ve spread themselves too thin, given the amount of games released this year, and I think that’s very obvious in something like Drag x Drive, which was a fine enough idea but was so bare bones there was never a chance anyone was going to care about it.

I think it’s probably a mix of wanting to get as much out there as possible for the launch year and maybe having trouble adapting to a more powerful machine. That said, I’m not very confident that the new Fire Emblem will be anything special and nothing else from Splatoon has been very good in single-player so I’m not too excited about Splatoon Raiders either.

The Switch 2 could end up being a bit of a late bloomer.
Hannibal

Total secret
Just a heads-up for those that care, but there’s a Total War livestream today (Thursday) at 4pm for them to unveil new ‘historical and fantasy’ games. I know there’s been a lot of rumours of Total War: Star Wars but that doesn’t really sound like what they’re trying to hint at.

Star Wars gets called space fantasy a lot, rather than actual sci-fi, so they could be riffing on that, but we’ll see. Funny thing is, it seems to rule out Warhammer 40,000 as well – which was the other rumour. I guess you could also call that fantasy as well, but I don’t think anyone ever really does.

They could just mean fantasy in the sense that it’s not real or historical, but I guess it depends how desperate they are to put people off for the next 12 hours or whatever.

I’ve always liked the Total War games, even as someone that’s not usually that big into strategy, and the Warhammer ones have been easily the best for me, so I’m happy to see more fantasy ones.

It’s an interesting series too, because it’s one of the few that is still PC-only and given the controls and the horsepower it needs is probably always going to stay that way.

I hope whatever’s revealed today is interesting and hopefully a setting they haven’t done before.
Torsman

World of difference
Thanks to that Mario Kart World update I have finally unlocked all the bad guy characters – the ones you can only get from the Kamek power-up. I followed your advice and made it the only power-up that appears in a Vs Race and it became a lot easier to get them all.

Not only that but playing the game like that is wild. I advise anyone who has it to give it a try, as it constantly fills the course with giant obstacles, like dozens of Thwomps or giraffes or Chomps. It makes races even crazier than usual and it’s also impressive that the Switch 2 can do it all without even a hint of slowdown.
Onibee

Everybody hates Myles
Sad to see Metroid Prime 4 turn out to be only okay but I can’t say I’m very surprised. Like the other reader said, Nintendo has made almost no effort to promote it, so they obviously don’t think it’s going to do very well. More importantly, while it’s developed by Retro Studios there’s not many people left there that worked on the original.

The director left ages ago and I believe two of the tech leads died, which is sad. Sounds like they still did a good job in terms of the graphics and mimicking the originals, but not when it came to adding anything new.

I think the problem is that Nintendo doesn’t really get Metroid and if it was as niche in America as it is in Japan it would’ve been mothballed years ago. They definitely don’t know what to do with Samus Aran but it sounds like the story in general is very childish and basic, which is the opposite of what fans like me would like.

I’ll see what it’s like for real when I get my hands on it, but I’m expecting to be as frustrated as I am entertained. Although at this point I think I know what to expect, including hating Myles MacKenzie.

It really is so strange how he and the others have been added. You would’ve thought the first thing they’d identify is that that’s not what fans want, but they went ahead anyway.
Chaser

Inbox also-rans
I keep forgetting that Sega has announced Alien Isolation 2, which seemed a pipe dream for so long. Am I right in thinking they haven’t shown anything of it yet, though?
Cospe

GC: Yes, not a thing has been said or shown of it, other than saying it exists. Technically developer Creative Assembly does have a showcase planned for today, as mentioned by a reader above, but as far as we know it’s only for Total War.

I did not know they did that mech suit thing with shorter characters in Fortnite. I get why, but that is a really ugly solution to the problem. Reminds of playing as Oddjob in GoldenEye 007.
The Bishop

Email your comments to: gamecentral@metro.co.uk

The small print
New Inbox updates appear every weekday morning, with special Hot Topic Inboxes at the weekend. Readers’ letters are used on merit and may be edited for length and content.

You can also submit your own 500 to 600-word Reader’s Feature at any time via email or our Submit Stuff page, which if used will be shown in the next available weekend slot.

You can also leave your comments below and don’t forget to follow us on Twitter.

MORE: Games Inbox: Has Nintendo had a bad year for games?

MORE: Games Inbox: Is Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 overrated?

MORE: Games Inbox: Do you care about AI use in gaming?

Comments Add as preferred source

Nintendo has released a new update for Mario Kart World, with custom item options and new course layouts for intermission tracks.

Mario Kart World may have launched in a flawed state, but Nintendo has gradually rolled out updates to address issues in the months since then.

These updates have improved the free roam mode, added online matchmaking to Knockout Tour, and reverted changes made to the frequency of traditional three lap races, among other minor fixes. However, there are still some irritations, like the overwhelmingly cluttered character select screen and the lack of a soundtrack jukebox.

Nintendo has now rolled out another update for Mario Kart World, and while those specific complaints haven’t been addressed, there are some surprising additions, which might be indicative of future updates to come.

The most unexpected change are altered layouts for certain intermission courses – specifically routes to and from Koopa Troopa Beach.

These include new obstacles across the water sections, with vines you can grind across and jumps, and some new turns (as disocvered by X user MaritheKity) to liven up the dull stretches of straight road.

Additionally, on any course heading toward Koopa Troopa Beach, you’ll now have to complete two laps of the circuit at the end instead of one – presumably because it is the shortest track in the game. These updates only apply to local Vs Race and Online Play.

While it’s unclear if Nintendo is planning to revamp other tracks in Mario Kart World, it’s an interesting way to tackle the problem some people have with the relatively straight, and uninteresting, intermission courses around the open world.

The update includes some other notable additions too. There’s now the ability to add custom item rules across Vs Race, battle modes, and private online matches, which will please any masochist who fancies blue shell-only races.

A side effect of custom items is it’s now easier to unlock certain characters tied to the Kamek item. To unlock characters like Spike or Chargin’ Chuck, you’d previously have to be transformed into the character through the Kamek item in races by your opponents, or, following an update, suck up these characters into the UFO in free roam.

Now, you can simply do a Vs Race with only the Kamek item activated. Some players have already shown how chaotic it can be in social media clips, but it’s certainly the quickest way to unlock all the minor side characters, like Peepa and and Pianta, in one messy swoop.

Other additions include a new music volume feature, the ability to see music track names in the pause menu, and when in a group online, you can now choose whether to play against anyone in the world or just players in your party with custom rules.

The full patch notes are here but while some of these features should have been in the game to begin with, it’s a welcome update and shows Nintendo is listening to some of the fan feedback.

The big question is when Nintendo will announce inevitable DLC for Mario Kart World, with the next Nintendo Direct likely not happening until early next year. The credits for Donkey Kong Bananza suggested two new characters are planned, but nothing has been officially announced.

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