According to Nintendo, Mario Kart World was initially envisioned to be a game for the original Nintendo Switch. This information comes from the latest Ask the Developer series held by the company. In March 2017, the same month that the Switch 1 released and weeks before Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the team started prototyping a Mario Kart game that existed in an open world. Full development began later in the year. The team felt that MK8D had “perfected” the formula for the series up to that point, so they wanted to try something new.
What Would Mario Kart World Look Like on the Nintendo Switch 1?
Even though Mario Kart World will be releasing exclusively for the Nintendo Switch 2, it was originally envisioned as a Switch 1 game. According to programming director Kenta Sato, development for the game on the previous console was quite tough. They wanted 24 racers to be playable from the beginning, so if the game stayed on the Switch 1, various concessions would have needed to be made like lower framerate, resolution, and toned-down visual style.
That said, Nintendo didn’t want to make a lesser experience for players just to have an open world with more ravers. Development on the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course was actually a way to give the team more time to figure out their problems developing Mario Kart World.
In the second part of the interview, it’s revealed that it wasn’t until 2020 that Mario Kart World made the shift to Nintendo Switch 2. It would still be a bit before they got their hands on development kits for the new console, but at that point, they had the free reign to not only include all the features they previously wanted but also enhance the art direction to a new level. It’s pretty easy to see that Mario Kart World would have looked like a completely different game if it remained destined for the original Nintendo Switch.
