Mario Kart World not only boasts an expansive open world but also introduces new driving mechanics. Speedrunners are now fully exploiting these features.
Serving as Nintendo’s launch title for the Switch 2, Mario Kart World comes packed with several innovative elements. Not only is the open world accessible for the first time, but the introduction of novel driving mechanics aims to enhance the excitement of this racing game. These include, for instance, grinding along railings or driving on walls.
What initially resembles Tony Hawk Pro Skater not only accumulates style points at high speeds but also generates momentum, which is particularly advantageous for the speedrun community. They quickly seized the opportunity to utilize these new attributes.
“Best time is best time”
The new Mario Kart launched concurrently with the Switch 2 on June 5, so it’s still quite recent. Nevertheless, speedrunners are well-known for their ability to devise strategies and techniques rapidly to accomplish new record times.
Just days post-launch, players began posting their achievements on social media. On Twitter, for example, Aplex mentioned, “PB is PB, I guess” (note: PB stands for personal best) and shared a clip of himself skimming the ground on one of the race tracks:
PB’s a PB I guess pic.twitter.com/yu38LFwMjz
— Aplex (@APXMK) June 7, 2025
If the video evokes memories of Trackmania, you’re not alone. In the comments beneath the post, viewers are astonished by the significant impact the new mechanics entail.
Funny how people assumed this would be less competitive than part 8.
Viviola The Rosa VII
Yeah, well, facing opponents like that, I end up breaking my Switch 2, and I don’t even own one.
VertBurnerAc
The clip was shared again two days later by speedrun YouTuber Summoning Salt with an insightful remark: “Three days out and the game is already completely broken, lol.”
Official record times on Speedrun.com are currently unavailable. There’s still an embargo on the leaderboard to allow the community and moderators time to establish categories and rules. Perhaps in the future, a category will emerge where grinding and wall driving are restricted.
It’s only a matter of time before top players discover additional methods to optimize every last millisecond in Mario Kart World. Until then,