Nintendo updated Mario Kart World, making it harder to get into three-lap races in online races against the world and forcing more ‘intermission’ races along the game’s many, many routes.
For those unfamiliar, Mario Kart World handles its online races a little differently from predecessors. After the first race, players could choose from one of three adjacent race tracks (based on the world map), or a randomly selected track (from anywhere in the world). The game then randomly selects one player’s choice.
If it was an adjacent track, players will drive to it along a route (dubbed ‘route race’ or ‘intermission race’ by the community), only racing one lap on the next course as part of the final lap. For random tracks, players get their traditional three laps on that course. There are 30 regular tracks, and 202 route tracks between them.
Meanwhile offline ‘Vs Races’ allow players to choose any track, and whether said track is either a three-lap race or a route race from another location.
Look, I love Mario Kart World, but bagging needs to be nerfed BIG TIME
What is the point playing online when you do better by playing badly??? Here I am throwing 2/3 laps to get an easy win, with others going for the same strat
Only gonna become more common until a patch pic.twitter.com/56vANBBHRG
— JupiterClimb (@JupiterClimb) June 16, 2025
The route races have been a divisive feature, with criticisms levied at the almost straight roads with comparatively less gimmicks being inferior to a proper three-lap track race. Another key issue is how the best tactic to win is ‘bagging.’
The idea is to sit at the back to get better items, then using them in the routes’ generous shortcuts to surge forward and win in the final moments (as shown above). Though possible on three-lap races, players on route races have to choose between bagging to win, or racing their own way and knowing they won’t be getting first.
It seems Nintendo wants to make sure everyone is trying their new features out, and made it much harder to avoid them.
Nintendo briefly explained in the Mario Kart World version 1.1.2 patch notes — released June 25th — that they “Adjusted courses selected in ‘Random’ when selecting next course in a wireless ‘VS Race.’ ” Dataminers and players quickly worked out this means selecting Random could also pick from the three adjacent tracks, all being route races.
Online discussion seems to indicate most players had chose Random to ensure a three-lap race, and even that is no longer a guarantee. Some players are also under the belief that random selections are weighted to ensure route races appear more frequently.
Others retreated to the Knockout Tour mode — where players lagging behind the pack are knocked out at various stages. While these take place on routes, bagging is less viable, and seems to be a happy medium for those who don’t want to bag or be thrashed by baggers. All while Nintendo previously had competitive and casual lobbies for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate — which some hoped Nintendo would implement here.
Nonetheless, social media and YouTube has seen plenty of discussion around Mario Kart World‘s version 1.1.2, to the point a subReddit for the game banned negative discussion of it due to a “flood” of such topics, and members turning on one another for disagreeing.
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In his video on the update, YouTuber Shortcat mused how it was amazing Nintendo simply didn’t let players choose if they preferred three-lap or route races. At the end of his video (as shared in a viral post by others) was tempted to stop playing the game online.
He also took issue with bagging being the only way to win on nigh-all route tracks. “And you might be thinking ‘well if you don’t like playing that way, then don’t play that way.’ And that’s what I’m trying to do! I pick the three-lap tracks so that we can get a track where the strategy that people tend to think is more fun — which is, you know, going forward — is actually the best strategy almost all of the time!”
“And when you put me on these intermissions, you’re asking me to choose between having fun, and winning. And for me, the obvious answer is to just pick one of the three-lap tracks where I can have fun and try to win. I feel like a well-designed game lives in the place where you can try to win and have fun at the same time,” Shortcat bemoaned. “Is that controversial?”
Conversely, YouTuber Liam Triforce felt the concept of routes were fine, especially as some routes had unique paths and gimmicks (such as temporarily taking control of other vehicles like trucks and UFOs). He even defended bagging as a strategy, but couldn’t defend Nintendo forcing people to play “their way.”
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“Why are we not being given a choice in this?” Liam begged. “Sure I think intermissions can be really cool, especially as a new method of making players feel equal, but forcing players to play a certain way is fundamentally against the nature of this series. As of now there needs to be some sort of compromise.”
“Otherwise, this game’s worldwide lobbies are just of no interest to me, which inevitably means I will put the game down altogether.” While Liam praised the Knockout Tour mode’s various routes (and even discouraged bagging to boot), he also admitted that this update would both overwrite the entire online meta and overcast the ‘party’ element that made the series special.
While this has come to a head, the Mario Kart series has been infamous for how skilled drivers can be punished. So much so, players use the term of being “Mario Karted” to refer to being robbed of first place due to a barrage of items sending them to the back of the pack while they were only mere inches from the line.
In an interview with Games Radar — before the now-infamous Mario Kart World update — Sonic the Hedgehog series producer Takashi Iizuka alluded to how the developers of Sonic Racing Crossworlds wanted to be different. They ensured racing with and without items was “fair and fun,” adding, “anything that was very stressful for players, anything that always allowed people to come back from behind and win all the time needed to be removed from the concept.”
Taking his first steps onto Route 1 and never stopping, Ryan has had a love of RPGs since a … More about Ryan Pearson
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