I love weird little guys. It's a truism about me that crosses games, genres, and mediums. It's the reason why, even if I didn't realize it at the time, Toad has been my main Mario Kart racer since I was sitting cross-legged on the carpet of my living room mere inches from the glow of Mario Kart 64. And it's one reason why Mario Kart World has me so excited: It's a veritable treasure trove of weird lil guys.
By now we all know about Cow, the breakout star from the Switch 2 reveal presentation. Everyone loved the outside-the-box approach of plucking a background creature from one stage of Mario Kart and including her as a racer. And to hear Nintendo tell it, Cow was the eureka moment of their whole approach to racers in Mario Kart World. Once you've thrown Cow into the mix, nothing is off-limits.
I enjoy the novelty of Cow, but I've never gravitated toward heavy racers. Mario Kart has always felt best to me when I'm behind the wheel of someone light and zippy with a tight turn radius. So I can respect Cow even if I don't expect to actually race as Cow very often. But the philosophy behind Cow has enabled a smorgasbord of other, equally unconventional racers, and I spent a recent extended hands-on session trying all that I could find. I may have even found a new main. (Sorry Toad.)
Let's start with Penguin, another unassuming background character. Penguins are just adorable in general, and this one has a checkered history with Mario in particular. I played as Penguin hoping to get the opportunity to knock Mario off a ledge this time, so I could cackle with righteous fury as I did. Now who's getting thrown off a cliff, plumber? But alas, the stars did not align, and I was never close to Mario to perform such a stunt. Something to anticipate in the final game, I suppose.
But Penguin was far from the only oddball racer. I tried Chargin Chuck--putting aside my reservations about heavy racers, I enjoyed his grunting meathead persona behind the wheel. I played as Swoop, the little purple bat enemy you forgot about from Super Mario World. I played as Monty Mole, an adorably portly little fellow who looks like he should be having afternoon tea with a badger in a storybook. The list goes on and on.
But my favorite of all was Para-Biddybud. The little ladybug-like creature looks like a Poke Ball grew eyes and wings. He's lightweight, making him a great match for my preferred racing style. And he's just so gosh darned cute.
Each of the racers has a little personality animation they display when you hit the weapon button without a weapon equipped. Para-Biddybud turns toward the camera and smiles with his eyes--he smizes--and makes a little trilling squeak. All of the racers I could find also had some themed kart they could equip, and Para-Biddybud rides in style in a little rounded kart that has the same ladybug pattern as his body. After only 15 minutes, I got viscerally angry when other racers would hurt my dear sweet Biddybud. He's just a wee fella! What is wrong with you?!
The one drawback of this expanded roster is that not everyone gets a series of costume changes. The core Mario cast does, which means mostly humanoid-type characters or established racers like King Boo. There are no costumes, as far as I can tell, for Cow or Swoop or Para-Biddybud. That also means that lunch bags don't change you to a random costume; they just give you a speed boost.
But hey, they have to save something for the DLC, right?
Source
By now we all know about Cow, the breakout star from the Switch 2 reveal presentation. Everyone loved the outside-the-box approach of plucking a background creature from one stage of Mario Kart and including her as a racer. And to hear Nintendo tell it, Cow was the eureka moment of their whole approach to racers in Mario Kart World. Once you've thrown Cow into the mix, nothing is off-limits.
I enjoy the novelty of Cow, but I've never gravitated toward heavy racers. Mario Kart has always felt best to me when I'm behind the wheel of someone light and zippy with a tight turn radius. So I can respect Cow even if I don't expect to actually race as Cow very often. But the philosophy behind Cow has enabled a smorgasbord of other, equally unconventional racers, and I spent a recent extended hands-on session trying all that I could find. I may have even found a new main. (Sorry Toad.)
Let's start with Penguin, another unassuming background character. Penguins are just adorable in general, and this one has a checkered history with Mario in particular. I played as Penguin hoping to get the opportunity to knock Mario off a ledge this time, so I could cackle with righteous fury as I did. Now who's getting thrown off a cliff, plumber? But alas, the stars did not align, and I was never close to Mario to perform such a stunt. Something to anticipate in the final game, I suppose.
But Penguin was far from the only oddball racer. I tried Chargin Chuck--putting aside my reservations about heavy racers, I enjoyed his grunting meathead persona behind the wheel. I played as Swoop, the little purple bat enemy you forgot about from Super Mario World. I played as Monty Mole, an adorably portly little fellow who looks like he should be having afternoon tea with a badger in a storybook. The list goes on and on.
But my favorite of all was Para-Biddybud. The little ladybug-like creature looks like a Poke Ball grew eyes and wings. He's lightweight, making him a great match for my preferred racing style. And he's just so gosh darned cute.
Each of the racers has a little personality animation they display when you hit the weapon button without a weapon equipped. Para-Biddybud turns toward the camera and smiles with his eyes--he smizes--and makes a little trilling squeak. All of the racers I could find also had some themed kart they could equip, and Para-Biddybud rides in style in a little rounded kart that has the same ladybug pattern as his body. After only 15 minutes, I got viscerally angry when other racers would hurt my dear sweet Biddybud. He's just a wee fella! What is wrong with you?!
The one drawback of this expanded roster is that not everyone gets a series of costume changes. The core Mario cast does, which means mostly humanoid-type characters or established racers like King Boo. There are no costumes, as far as I can tell, for Cow or Swoop or Para-Biddybud. That also means that lunch bags don't change you to a random costume; they just give you a speed boost.
But hey, they have to save something for the DLC, right?
Source