Mario Kart World was the Nintendo Switch 2’s big launch game, and as the first all new entry in the series for over a decade, it was a pretty big deal.
The follow-up to the ludicrously successful Mario Kart 8 and its Deluxe version for the original Switch, Mario Kart World is Nintendo’s first crack at an open-world Mario Kart, and the new Knockout Tour mode is an inspired addition that makes for some of the most tense racing action the series has ever had.
However, five months on from launch, you might be feeling that you’ve exhausted everything that the latest Mario Kart has to offer, so if you’re still in the mood for some racing action, look no further than these three great alternatives.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds
Reigniting that old ‘90s feud once again, Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds arrived a few months after Mario Kart World with a point to make. If you weren’t a fan of the latter’s pared back customisation and slightly jarring pivot to races hosted on straightaways rather than old-fashioned looping circuits, the hedgehog was offering a more traditional kart racer with some pretty impressive twists of its own.
The multiversal tracks, in which a portal takes you to an entirely different location (hence the “CrossWorlds”) before returning you to the original track for the final lap, arguably make for more exciting and unpredictable races than in Mario Kart Word.
I wish the tracks were a bit more obviously Sega-themed, and it can all look a bit garish at times, but Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds absolutely nails the racing bit. Drifting, boosting and tricking is all fairly similar to Mario Kart, but CrossWorlds is faster and more hectic.
It’s a much more personal racing game too, allowing you to tinker with kart parts, gadgets and perks to find your perfect build. You don’t have to stick to Sonic characters either.
Bonus racers from other Sega franchises, such as Like A Dragon and Persona, as well as guest appearances from the likes of Mega Man and, er, SpongeBob SquarePants, add to all the colourful excess.
Parking Garage Rally Circuit
Parking Garage Rally Circuit doesn’t look like Mario Kart World, and it has the kind of name you forget the moment it leaves your lips. But its core mechanic is even more satisfying than the equivalent in Nintendo’s racer, and the game itself is anything but forgettable.
Tight and focused, Parking Garage Rally Circuit’s eight tracks see you racing around twisty, turny multi-storey car parks (obviously), with a very large emphasis on drifting.
By default, the cars don’t move very quickly, so in order to gain speed you need to earn boosts by mastering the hilariously responsive drifting system. It’s like Mario Kart, but with somehow even less respect for the laws of physics, and because of the compact layout of the tracks there's rarely a moment where you can’t hop into a drift.
The core gameplay is something Parking Garage Rally Circuit absolutely nails, but its presentation is also top notch. The clearly PS1/Sega Saturn-inspired low-poly graphics will be catnip to gamers of a certain vintage, while the entirely ska-based soundtrack (don’t ask me to explain it) ensures you’re having a good time regardless of how the race is going.
Sure, it lacks the longevity of Mario Kart World and is currently available on PC only, but Parking Garage Rally Circuit (just call it PGRC) is as pure as arcade racing gets.
Fast Fusion
When a console launches with a new Mario Kart it’s always going to be hard for another racing game arriving at the same time to make a big impression. But you’d be crazy to ignore Fast Fusion.
Shin’en Multimedia’s Switch 2-exclusive racer is a follow-up to Fast RMX on the original Switch, and once again shows what Nintendo’s console is capable of when a developer really knows its way around the hardware.
An antigrav racer so heavily influenced by Wipeout that it’s barely worth mentioning, Fast Fusion has you soaring at breakneck speed around unnervingly narrow tracks located everywhere from forest and desert planets, to outer space.
A boost meter coupled with some very generously placed boost pads mean you’re rarely not going so fast that it’s hard to see the next corner coming, but the game is so well designed that you never feel totally out of control of your vehicle. Factor in the hyper jump mechanic, which adds a thrilling risk-reward element to races, and you’ve got one hell of a racing game.
Fast Fusion is also one of the most graphically impressive Switch 2 games, running at a rock solid 4K/60fps when docked, and Shin’en has released several patches since launch that improve performance even more.
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