Seems as if Mario Kart World is stalling at the starting line ever so slightly…

Normally when a console launches, I’m lucky enough to be there day one, as at the very least, an individual launch title usually propels me to plop hundreds of bucks down for some shiny new hardware in the name of it being a “killer app”. This past console cycle has been a bit different, as nothing truly excited me enough to justify picking up either the Series X or the PS5 on launch day, with no software coming out alongside them to warrant justifying picking up Microsoft or Sony’s new hardware, realizing it may pay off to play the long game on this. Something similar happened with the Switch 2, and while Mario Kart World seemed like an easy sell as to why you should be inclined to pick up Nintendo’s new console, I’ve got to say, I’m a little disappointed in the post launch hype of the Switch 2.

Strangely enough, gamers seemed more excited to make memes about the Cow in Mario Kart World then actually racing as them once the game launched?

On some level, as queer as it might seem, I genuinely enjoy getting super jelly when people talk about the new games and systems they get: seeing others enjoy the latest and greatest in the gaming realm ultimately gets me jazzed to finally go out and purchase it myself, but this console cycle has followed a rather unspectacular standard in terms of excitement levels. I ended up waiting more than four years to finally acquire both the Series X and the PS5, and while I ended up enjoying both consoles, when I finally got around to trying out some of *the* games you just couldn’t get on their previous iterations, I was left with a feeling of “that’s it?”, inspite of some basic levels of enjoyment, it definitely felt less than from previous cycles.

Switch 2 about to join the ranks of the unspectacular

I’m getting the same feeling from the Switch 2, and the lack of enthusiasm for Mario Kart World is helping to solidify this notion. I concede that maybe my expectations are perhaps overzealous about just how much raucous excitement I should be hearing about a system and a game that have only been out in the wild for less than two days mind you, but I’m still struck with sadly similar vibes from the already only “good enough” game console standards for the third time this Gen, a shockingly abysmal 0 for 3 overall.

I felt like the Switch 2 reveal trailer made the console look like it was playing it safe, but safe to the point of being boring? Uncharacteristic from the Big N

While my circumstances in general life are a farcry from what they use to be in terms of being immersed in gaming culture when I was younger, normally surrounded by nerdy peers in a school setting or some such where everyone couldn’t stop talking about the new games to play, even when I moved on to deal with more adult affairs and maintained a 9-5 on the regs, I still feel like their was palpable excitement for new consoles, and yet I don’t think I knew a single person who went out of their way to get a Switch 2, feeling as if at least to the larger cultural zeitgeist outside of severely hardcore Nintendo circles, the Switch 2 just isn’t setting the gaming world ablaze like some it’s former predecessors.

Nintendo is definitely failing to recreate having a Wii Sports moment, that’s for sure

I’ve even gone out of my way to try and comb the larger gaming publications online, browse YouTube for let’s play style videos of people getting down on Mario Kart World, and tried where conversations still exist online in forums and the like, to follow chatter about just what the game has to offer, and most of the talk comes off as “good enough”, predictably fun, but perhaps a little bog standard, without being anything mind blowing or must have in terms of water cooler talk, a sneaking suspicion I had before June 5th, but one that seems to have maintained and seems to be the case post launch.

Definitely sporting that Yoshi on a motorcycle kinds of road raging energy at the moment in response to this whole thing, ngl

Perhaps I’m just not looking in the right places(?)…or my expectations are absurdly askew, or the Switch 2 post launch excitement is just taking a second to take hold here, but I’m genuinely surprised and kind of bummed out that this has come out of the gate with not a bang, but a whimper. The sales numbers seem to be there, but the energy levels certainly aren’t matching.

Maybe in the coming weeks, I’ll be pleasantly surprised by people’s reactions to it, and help in disproving my original thesis wrong about Nintendo putting something out that might make people feel like they ended up getting greased by the value proposition on offer. Time will tell.

-Pashford