Mario Kart World(MKW) is a game filled with bright, colorful cartoony environments and equally cartoonish chaos as you race to be crowned first place. WhileMario Kart 8went for a more realistic look, World pushes whimsy and charm with a stunning art style inspired by the Mario series artwork.
Being the first mainlineMario Kartentry to release in a decade, many classic characters had changes to their designs to make them fit into the modern, fresh art style. From making characters cuter to making them more expressive, MKW has so many tiny changes to the characters we all know and love.
13Koopa Troopa
A New Shell And Tie
With shells being a common item in the Mario Kart series, it would feel wrong not to have Koopa Troopa playable. With bigger eyes and a bigger, more rounded head, these turtles have become adorable in Mario Kart World, most likely to Bowser’s dismay.
Seemingly, all Bowser’s minions got hit by a cute-ify beam in MKW as so many of them look more adorable than ever in this silly style. With Koopa Troopa, especially, the changes make them look even less like hardened soldiers, and more like a kid’s show character, which is fitting for the fun of racing against friends.
12Lakitu
Ready To Race
This Mario Kart legend is always helping you out on the track, and if anyone deserved some design changes, it would be them. Lakitu is iconic and hasn’t changed much from their original appearance, but to better fit with the cartoon art style MKW has some notable changes that make them look adorable.
With a bigger head and a smaller body, Lakitu has gone from looking slightly strange to being one of the coolest of Bowser’s crew. What’s most interesting, however, is how Lakitu’s goggles are no longer transparent, and their eyes now appear on top of them. This makes Lakitu’s small eyes look giant, and it makes a massive difference.
11Birdo
Slaying It In Style
Birdo has always been one of those characters in the series that you either love the design of or hate because of her massive snout. However, MKW sees her most fabulous design yet, with smaller eyes, thicker lashes and a more rounded body.
The few changes made to Birdo help her look even more different from Yoshi, which helps her identity. Before, Birdo was almost identical in body shape to Yoshi outside of her unique characteristics, but now with a more curved and defined body, Birdo looks drop-dead gorgeous next to him.
10Luigi
Standing Out From His Bro
The overshadowed younger brother will always be a fan favorite for many reasons, but as time has gone on, Luigi has broken away from being just a Mario recolor, and that continues in MKW. Luigi is more distinctly his own self than any other title here, and he has never lookedas stylish before.
While Mario became rounder and pudgier, Luigi slimmed up, making him even more of Mario’s opposite. This has always been the case with Luigi, but now it’s even more visually distinctive, thanks to the changes both bros got to make them have even more iconic silhouettes.
9Daisy
Breaking Free Of Peach’s Influence
Unlike the other princesses who stayed relatively the same, Daisy now has a more rounded face that allows her to be extra expressive as well as her classic skin tone returning again. This is great as it allows her to show off her loud and lively personality even better with a wide range of expressions.
One of Daisy’s biggest personality traits is her boisterous side, which could never quite be captured in her animations due to her being nearly identical to Peach’s design. Each time she appears, Daisy becomes more and more of her own character, embracing what makes her so fun. In MKW she has so many details to make her personality shine through her design.
8Goomba
More Shroom-like Than Ever
Everyone knows what a Goomba looks like, but MKW continues the trend started inSuper Mario Bros. Wonderof making them look more stylized. The key difference is that they now have a more distinctive head shape with more popping colors to boot.
Instead of being a simple shape, they now have more detail, and this gives them more definition and makes them look straight out of the 2D illustrations. Thanks to their more defined cheeks and larger mouths, Goomba’s now have more room for expressions and, with those big eyebrows, you best not get one mad at you.
From Cute To Cuter
Both these Mushroom Kingdom residents have been as iconic to the Mario series as their ruler Peach is and, despitePaper Mariofans being sick of Toads, they are important to the Mario series. Like most main characters, the Toads have changed relatively little in design over the years, but MKW rounds them out like the rest of the cast.
Both Toad and Toadette now have more rounded cheeks and faces that make them look animated and adorable at the same time. While the old model is nowhere close to ugly, these small changes just make them 100 times cuter, and we can’t ever go back.
6Wario
They Gave It Back To Him!
Driving in as one ofthe best racerson the track, Wario makes sure he’s competing with everyone for everything in MKW. This iconic rival to Mario is known to take Mario’s short, pudgy stature and make it comically extreme, and in MKW this is no different, with Wario being rounder than Mario and sporting his classic large scheming grin.
One of the noticeable changes to Wario’s design that we are sure everyone has noticed is how they gave him his butt back. In Mario Kart 8, there was a meme around Wario and his rear as Nintendo had taken it away for no reason, and, to compensate in World, it has made sure Wario looked his biggest and roundest yet all over his body, as he should.
5Bowser
One thing with Bowser is that each game tends to fight between whether he should look cute or intimidating, and realistic or stylized. It all depends on the atmosphere of the game, and so, with the chaotic cartoon fun of MKW, Bowser’s design has been shaped to give him a wider mouth and bigger eyes that make him look super-cool rather than evil.
While he is the antagonist of the series, Bowser is a soft-hearted dad deep down, surrounded by bright, colorful landmarks and characters. The more Saturday morning cartoon villain energy this design has is perfect for MKW’s vibe. We are sure he would hate to hear this, but he has never looked less intimidating, and we just want to race against himin real life too.
4Mario
The King Of The Race Track!
The famous plumber himself actually did change quite a bit from his regular design in this title, and he stands front and center as one of the best examples of how wonderfully well done MKW’s art direction is. Mario is super iconic, and so even the slightest changes are easy for anyone to notice.
Just like in Super Mario Bros. Wonder, Mario has not only been given more flat artistic textures but also a cuter, softer body that has plumped his belly up a bit to give him a round torso that the classic Mario had. Like most mascots, Mario was slimmed down for bad marketing reasons, but now he’s allowed to be the silly, heroic guy we all love again with an expressive happy face.
