Mario Kart World Reveals New Nintendo Direct Details, Including Length and How to Watch

During this month’s Nintendo Switch 2 event, it was revealed that Mario Kart World will be getting its own dedicated Nintendo Direct on April 17th. We’re one day away from the showcase, and Nintendo has announced some new details. As usual, the Direct will stream on Nintendo’s official Twitch channel (which readers can find right here) and on YouTube (right here). This time around, fans will have a new way of watching, and that’s through the Nintendo Today app. The app launched a few weeks ago, and has already been used for a handful of announcements. We also know how long the stream will be; the Nintendo Direct will last for 15 minutes.

The announcement of a Mario Kart World presentation caught a lot of people by surprise. The game has already received a lot of focus over the last 2 weeks, between the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct itself, and from Treehouse Live streams following the event. However, this is the system’s big launch title, and the first new Mario Kart in quite some time. It makes sense to give the game as much focus as possible in the weeks leading up to the June 5th launch.

From everything shown thus far, Mario Kart World seems to be a pretty big departure from past games in the series. While the game will still offer traditional modes, the big hook is that it will have an interconnected world that players can freely roam outside of races. At this time, we don’t know the actual extent of the open world, but it seems pretty vast, with plenty of secrets to find. Following the success of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Nintendo had to find a way to change up the formula, and it seems like that’s what we’ll be seeing with this new entry.

ComicBook had a chance to go hands-on with Mario Kart World earlier this month, and came away pretty impressed. The graphics are a major improvement over Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and the world is a lot of fun to explore. In many ways, the game seems to combine the best elements of Mario Kart with Microsoft’s Forza Horizon series. That’s not the only new feature, of course. The game has added a new Knockout Tour, where 24 players start, but the number that progress shrinks between each Rally. While past Mario Kart games have given players a lot of opportunities to move up from last place to first, it’s going to be a lot harder in the new mode.

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It’s possible tomorrow’s Nintendo Direct could give us a greater glimpse at what’s already been revealed, or we could learn about even more new elements. Mario Kart World‘s $79.99 price tag has generated a lot of discussion around the video game industry, but this could be an opportunity for Nintendo to justify the cost, and show players just how much the game has to offer.

Are you planning to watch tomorrow’s Nintendo Direct? What are you hoping to see in the presentation? Share your thoughts with me directly on Bluesky at @Marcdachamp, or on Instagram at @Dachampgaming!