Mario Kart World patch defies the way players want to race online

Nintendo has patched Mario Kart World with an apparently small change to the way courses are selected in online lobbies. But the change has infuriated players who were already frustrated with the style of racing in the first open-world Mario Kart game.

In short: By changing the way the “random” option works when voting on the next course to play, Nintendo has made it impossible to guarantee that the next course will be a three-lap circuit race, in traditional Mario Kart style. In doing so, it has pushed players even more firmly toward the unpopular “intermission” races, which feature a cross-country drive to the chosen circuit followed by, usually, a single lap at the destination.

Mario Kart World’s main online mode is ranked online lobbies. They way they work is that, after completing a race, everyone can muck around in free roam for a minute while voting on where to race next. Three options are presented, and they’re all adjacent tracks to the one that’s just been raced — so they’re all options for “intermission races” that include the drive to the next location.

Alternatively, you can pick “random.” If it won the vote, this option would teleport everyone to another circuit somewhere else on the map, where they would participate in a “normal” three-lap race. Prior to the patch, the random option had become overwhelmingly popular due to players’ distaste for intermission races, which tend to involve more straight-line driving along freeways, dealing with hazards, and less technical cornering.

Post-patch, the random option can pick from the three offered “intermission” races as well as teleporting players somewhere else — and seems weighted to pick the intermission races quite often. There’s no longer a way for players to vote for a guaranteed three-lap circuit.

Polygon has asked Nintendo for comment on the reasoning behind this change. But it certainly seems as though Nintendo, in defiance of players’ wishes, is doubling down on the way the developers want Mario Kart World be played, with players progressing organically from point to point around the world map.

Nintendo is so committed to this playstyle that you can easily play Mario Kart World for dozens of hours without ever encountering three-lap versions of many of the tracks. (You can choose them as an option when setting up Vs. mode races, and when racing in friends-only lobbies.) And now the developer has made it even rarer to encounter this kind of race online.