Mario Kart World update nerfs three-lap race trick and players are not happy

Its open world structure was already contentious, but a new Mario Kart World patch is actively angering some players.

While the new, linear segue sections in Mario Kart World, dubbed intermission tracks by fans, are a lot of fun many are already frustrated that there’s no easy way to play traditional three-lap races as an alternative.

Many prefer three-lap races, which are still an option in Mario Kart World when playing in the offline versus mode or with friends online. It’s a different story, though, when playing random online matches with strangers, which prioritises intermission tracks.

Players quickly figured out a way to enjoy traditional three-lap races in random matches but, perhaps in direct response to this, Nintendo has updated the game to make traditional races less frequent online.

For context, when playing Mario Kart World online with random opponents, everybody is given a selection of tracks to choose for the next race; all of which are the linear intermission tracks.

However, there is an option to choose a random track in the game and players soon learned this option was guaranteed to pick a traditional three-lap variant. So, it became common for most, if not all, players in a lobby to pick the random option.

A new update for Mario Kart World dropped yesterday though, and aside from fixing a few bugs it has also ‘Adjusted courses selected in ‘Random’ when selecting next course in a wireless ‘VS Race’ – according to Nintendo’s patch notes.

The patch notes don’t specify what this adjustment does but, according to dataminer OatmealDome, it essentially means the random selection for tracks now includes all of them – three-lap variants and the intermission tracks.

It’s entirely possible this was always meant to be the case, and Nintendo is simply correcting an error, but it’s easy to read the situation as Nintendo trying to force players into experiencing Mario Kart World the ‘proper’ way.

Unsurprisingly, this hasn’t gone down well with some people on social media. JxmesTHFC says Nintendo has removed the ‘one saving grace’ of Mario Kart World’s online, while GrimReaper8610 goes as far as to say this has ‘killed’ the game’s online versus mode.

PsySmasher accurately points out that this isn’t going to dissuade people from picking random during online matches, since it’s still the only way of getting a three-lap race.

YouTuber PapaGenos offers a more measured response, simply saying: ‘Give players options, don’t force this stuff, let people play however they want to play.’

Despite the gripes, this is unlikely to have any sort of significant impact on Mario Kart World’s online activity, since most casual players aren’t going to be too bothered by any of it.

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