Nintendo has patched Mario Kart World so that players won’t be able to avoid participating in the game’s “intermission” races.
If you don’t know what these “intermission” races are, they have been titled that by the Mario Kart fanbase. Essentially, the intermission races are those in-between tracks that take place as players travel from one part of the map to the other.
So instead of the traditional 3-lap course, these linear “trek-like” races are what happen in-between the main tracks.
Usually, players would have to participate in the intermission race after a standard 3-lap course. However, fans discovered that by selecting “Random” at the end of a race, that randomly picked course was usually a 3-lap course and not an intermission race.
Why don’t players want to be thrown into an intermission race? Well, because fans just don’t enjoy them. Many of the hardcore Mario Kart fanbase just haven’t adapted to the new linear courses. Some of them feel like they lack variety and are too straightforward. I have to agree, but they are still somewhat enjoyable.
These intermission courses make up a massive chunk of Mario Kart World’s content. There are technically only 30 3-lap courses in the game, with the other 202 courses being the “in-between”, linear courses.
Cutting those 200+ courses out of the game takes quite a lot of content out of the experience, but it really should be up to the player to decide if they want to race the traditional course or not.
Well, Nintendo thinks players should be forced to race through them. The latest update, 1.1.2, has patched in the intermission courses into the “random” selection at the end of a 3-lap race. So players now have a greater chance of getting given a linear course over a standard 3-lap course.
As it stands, there’s just no way to play a traditional Gran Prix in Mario Kart World with only 3-lap courses. Somehow or another, the cups will throw in these other courses, and of course, fans aren’t happy about it.
If only Nintendo would do something to add a bit more life to the free-roam mode in the game, rather than ruining the fun of matchmaking for fans. In my review, I praised Mario Kart World’s excellent kart racing and incredibly track design, but its “world” aspect falls completely flat.
