Mario Kart World’s open world of interconnected courses opens a variety of different possibilities for the series. The developers took advantage of this, implementing many different gimmicks and tricks to allow gameplay with a high degree of freedom. In an interview with Famitsu, Mario Kart World producer Kosuke Yabuki shared some behind-the-scenes insight about how the developers tackled this challenge – including the detail that the motions and controls in Mario Kart World were inspired by real life experiences of certain staff members.
In a previous Nintendo interview, game designer Shintaro Jikumaru revealed that Mario Kart World’ss controls and mechanics heavily referenced extreme sports like skateboarding, snowboarding and BMX – especially when it comes to moves Rail Ride and Wall Ride. Expanding on this comment in the Famitsu interview, Yabuki says that a lot of these mechanics were inspired by Mario Kart World’s development staff, many of whom love skateboarding and similar sports.
“We even have some staff members who go skateboarding or ride their bikes outside of the development team’s office building during lunch breaks.” According to Yabuki, the programmer who was in charge of vehicle controls is actually an avid fan of not only cars, but also sports like skateboarding, snowboarding and surfing. Having experienced many of them firsthand, the programmer implemented a lot of the elements of these sports into the game in order to make the character controls feel smooth and satisfying.
The new Charge Jump mechanic as well as the Feather item combined with a terrain full of walls, rails and different kinds of obstacles, allow for many different skateboarding-like tricks to be performed. The map encourages players to use these tricks as much as they like, explore the different options and find a playstyle that suits them best. Yabuki was pleasantly surprised to hear that many have already managed to figure out how most of the courses are structured. however, he says that there are still some map gimmicks that are yet to be fully explored. “Most of the gimmicks in the game’s stages have already been discovered,” he says. “But we’ve also prepared many different gimmicks that are in between the courses, and I get the impression that there are still not many people who have practiced or fully played through them, especially considering there are many different courses and variations.”
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