Unknown Soldier
Member
World actually started dev back in 2017 and was targeted for Switch, but their vision was move to an open world from the beginning of development. They ran into issues with the Switch's 4 GB of memory and trying to realize their targeted open world design. As the Switch 2's specs began to firm up in 2020, the dev team decided not to make it for Switch and moved to the Switch 2. Because this would result in the longest interregnum in Mario Kart's history, Nintendo came up with the idea of the Booster Pass for MK8 to fill the gap between MK8 and MKW. 11 years ultimately elapsed between MK8 for Wii U in 2014 and MKW in 2025I was in the "I like how MK8 looks much more" camp, then I opened my eyes... This shit is just well above MK8, like not even comparable at all, the lighting specially, the shaders quality, textures, everything is just better, the only thing I'd say is a matter of tastes is the karts and characters design but that's it.
There's just too much going on on screen, too many characters, the physics are incredible in this game as well, the scale of everything, etc. There's a clear generational leap here. I just finished rainbow road and my mind is still blown away, they cooked for real this time.
So it's true that MKW started out development for Switch, but 8 years later after the game was made to realize the intended scope, it's clearly not technically possible on Switch. The large open world, the fast loading of many assets, the 24 characters racing at once, the improved model detail and texture resolution, even the addition of realistic racing on water with players being affected by waves, are all things that were only possible once development moved to target the Switch 2