I played two demos of Mario Kart World at the Nintendo Switch 2 Experience event in London, and so far it's shaping up to be the exact innovation that the series needed to stay fresh. Taking things to an open world format, it seems to be borrowing elements from beloved franchises that gamers love like Forza Horizon and putting Nintendo's classic twist on it. The first demo I played threw me into a traditional Grand Prix race against bots. Some key differences immediately become apparent - the start is rolling instead of the traditional grid, and there's now 24 players in each race. Increasing the player count to 24 is not just a flex of how much more processing the Switch 2 is capable of. It helps to make a relatively chaotic game even more so, without tipping too far over the edge into becoming unruly and unreadable. Several times during my first race I felt like I was engaging in wheel-to-wheel battles with individual characters much more often than in the likes of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. There's always something to think about, whether it's when to use your items or what's going on ahead or behind you. Controls feel very similar to the Mario Kart's you know and love with drifting and boosts still here. A neat trick added this time is the ability to grind on rails or drive along walls for additional speed boosts. The main thing that I took away from my first demo of Mario Kart World is that it looks properly stunning. Running in 4K at 60fps in docked mode, the whole image appeared superbly sharp, even when standing right next to the TV screen. (Image: Nintendo) Moving onto my second demo of Mario Kart World, this is when I got dropped in the open world for a spell. It initially feels very wrong to be able to drive anywhere you like without Lakitu scooping you back onto the course, but I very quickly found myself exploring the world hunting down collectables. My demoist mentioned that there were different character-themed coins to find in the world, indicating that finding items will be a key part of the gameplay loop in Free Roam. It left me very excited to see what's around every nook and cranny when I get my hands on the full game. After Free Roam, we took part in a Knockout Tour race. This is a slight twist on a Battle Royale racing mode which sees the last four players of the race knocked out if they don't reach a checkpoint in time. Races can span huge swathes of the map. Although I got knocked out at the second checkpoint, we'd been racing for a good few minutes and barely covered a quarter of the map's eastern border. While I can't give an exact number the open world of Mario Kart World felt huge and interconnected. Knockout Tour was certainly a highlight too. It's something different enough from Grand Prix to be interesting, and I ended up getting as animated as you'd expect when my closing moments came down to a three-way battle for 16th place at the very end. In each of my demos, I noticed a bunch of new items that felt intuitive to use and always rebalanced the playing field in a way that felt fair. One way in which World does this is by reducing the punishment each item gives as you always seem to retain some sort of momentum, even when hit. There's never a moment where you're sat still in this game, making it all the more enjoyable to play. (Image: Nintendo) The elephant in the room is the price. Nintendo has slapped a whopping £74.99 on Mario Kart World, massively inflating its cost compared to what gamers are used to. From what I've played Mario Kart World certainly seems like the biggest game in the series yet - by a long way at that. As to whether it's worth that price tag, we'll need to wait until we have the full game in our hands before we can judge it. With that said, it's certainly made a fantastic first impression. You can pre-order Mario Kart World at these retailers: