Nintendo announced a free Mario Kart World update during its September 9 Direct and released it the same day. The 1.8.0 update adds 10 courses drawn from Super Mario Kart, the 1992 SNES original, and makes them selectable in VS Race.
The tracks include Choco Island, Vanilla Lake and Ghost Valley. Polygon reports the maps had apparently already been tucked throughout the game's open world, while Video Games Chronicle describes the new courses as faithful recreations of the SNES layouts and quotes Nintendo saying they had been "hiding in plain sight" since the game shipped.
Items work differently on them. Where Mario Kart World normally has players drive through floating Item Boxes, the SNES courses use question block panels on the road surface, as the 16-bit original did.
Two more Knockout Tour routes
The update also adds two routes to Knockout Tour, the game's elimination mode, called Propeller Rally and Turnip Rally. They join Drill Rally and Boomerang Rally, which arrived in July. Video Games Chronicle notes that four empty slots remain in the mode.
IGN reports the update adds no new playable characters. The previous free update extended Photo Mode with stickers players had collected in the game.
Video Games Chronicle notes that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe received a free Switch 2 update of its own in the week before the Direct, adding an eight-player split-screen mode, camera support, improved visuals and a 96 Races option in VS Race that runs every course in the game in a single grand prix.
Where the game stands
Mario Kart World launched on June 5, 2025 alongside the Nintendo Switch 2. Polygon reports it has sold 15.3 million copies, and that its open-world structure has drawn criticism for routing online players along stretches of open road before they reach traditional courses. Nintendo has since redesigned several of those stretches.
Super Mario Kart, the source of the new courses, released in Japan on August 27, 1992 and sold 8.76 million copies worldwide, according to Polygon.