There are obviously plenty of similarities between the Nintendo Switch and the upcoming Switch 2. One of their key similarities is that both put a Mario Kart title within their launch windows. The OG Switch had MK8 Deluxe, and the Switch 2 has Mario Kart World. Throughout the original Switch’s lifecycle, fans, including us at the Nintendo Entertainment Podcast, wondered why we didn’t get a new entry during its lifespan, especially given how the Wii U port became the system’s best-selling title. Now, we have an answer to that question via a new “Ask The Developer” Interview.
The team behind the upcoming title revealed that they actually were making Mario Kart World for the Nintendo Switch system, but as they thought about what to put in the game, they realized the system couldn’t handle it:
“When we were developing for the Nintendo Switch system, it was difficult for us to incorporate everything we wanted, so we were always conscious of what we were giving up in return,” Programming Director Kenta Sato revealed. “We discussed things like toning down the visuals, lowering the resolution, and we even considered dropping the frame rate to 30 fps in some cases. It was a tough situation.”
Ironically, the “saving grace” for the team wasn’t just the Switch 2 arrival, but the DLC that came with the deluxe version:
“We worked on it while kicking the can down the road in terms of deciding what to give up on, so at some point, we knew it was going to get messy,” Producer Kosuke Yabuki noted. “But as we’d decided to release Mario Kart 8 Deluxe — Booster Course Pass, we thought that would give us a bit more time to continue development. That’s when the conversation of moving it to the Nintendo Switch 2 system came up, and this suddenly opened up a bunch of possibilities on what we could do. It was truly a ray of hope.”
The added power of the Nintendo Switch 2 allowed the team to put more detail into the overworld while also adding key open world elements that would help define the game’s overall “feel”
“For example, team members who were creating the terrain in the scenery were really happy because they could now place more trees, which were key to giving the world a more natural look.”
So, while it may have been a long wait for gamers, it might be one that turns out to be a saving grace for the game and franchise.
