When you’re dealing with a series with gameplay as refined as in Mario Kart 8, there are, thankfully, few major changes to the game’s driving mechanics. Yes, you can grind rails now on occasion, though these only appeared fairly sporadically in the various courses I played. A wider selection of items/weapons are included, including Mario Kart Tour’s Ice Flower, Super Mario Kart’s Feather, and the Mega Mushroom originally from Mario Kart Wii. Items such as green shells and bananas are now automatically held behind you, meanwhile. Otherwise, the game controls similarly to the Mario Karts you probably spent hundreds of hours playing over the last two console generations - a welcome feeling of familiarity within the wider changes.

Mario Kart World’s reinvention of the series may be a gamble, but it’s absolutely one I think will pay off. With a web of possible routes and hours of time likely to be spent exploring every corner of its highways, deserts and mountains - or racing to stay ahead of the competition in Knockout Tour - it’s just as well the game’s a Switch 2 launch title. I absolutely can’t wait to play more of what is undoubtedly Switch 2’s killer app.