>>716531941 (OP)
It's kind of a, "What did you think was gonna happen with 24 racers and a pointless open world", sort of deal. Solid core mechanics, fun new ideas with the way you can surf water or jump walls/rails, and the soundtrack and some of the aesthetics and stuff are pretty damn excellent. But the intermission course stuff with no real means to opt out but in offline single races or in private online matches means the tracks themselves get massively de-emphasized for the road trip race appeal that not everyone wants or likes, the massive uptick in player count resulted in wider tracks that lose some flavor to have to accommodate, said player count means item spam hell that punishes whoever is up front more than ever before, and the open world is, well, pointless besides a chill hangout thing made for Gamechat.
It's the epitome of a game that feels like it had to be a tech demo for demonstrating what the Switch 2 can technically handle between all the racers and the wide open game world, but doesn't actually have any point to doing it and ends up dragging the rest of the game down with the showcase. At its core it's still perfectly playable, it's not like it failed that part of being Mario Kart, but after 11 years and a whole extra console generation for a truly new Mario Kart, it's mid at best.
