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How to build the best keyboard in the world

by admin June 16, 2025

The term “endgame,” among keyboard enthusiasts, is sort of a running gag. Endgame is when you finally dial in your perfect layout, case, features, switches, and keycaps, so you can stop noodling around with parts and get on with whatever it is you actually use the keyboard for — work, presumably. Then a few months later you see something shiny and start over.

In the search for endgame, most of us have to compromise somewhere — usually time or money. Sometimes the thing you’re looking for just doesn’t exist.

But what if you didn’t have to compromise? What if you had the time, the patience, the creative vision, and the cash to create your endgame keyboard from scratch? And I mean really from scratch, from the cable to the switches and stabilizers.

This is how you get the Seneca, the first keyboard from Norbauer & Co. It has a plasma-oxide-finished milled aluminum chassis, a solid brass switchplate, custom capacitive switches, the best stabilizers in the world (also custom), spherical-profile keycaps with appropriately retro-looking centered legends, zero backlighting, and a completely flat typing angle.

The Seneca. Photo by Nathan Edwards / The Verge

It weighs seven pounds and costs $3,600.

You might have some questions, like: Why is it $3,600? Who would make a keyboard that’s that expensive? And is it even any good?

I’ve spent the last couple of months typing on an early Seneca, and the answer to the last question is the easiest. Yes. It’s incredible. It’s certainly the nicest keyboard you can buy. The build quality is astonishing, the Topre-style switches are better than Topre’s, the stabilizers are better than anyone’s, and the keyboard is beautiful and a joy to type on. The Seneca is a genuine technical accomplishment.

The answer to the first two questions is Ryan Norbauer.

Ryan Norbauer is well known in the keyboard community for his aftermarket housings, but the Seneca is his first ready-to-type board. To hear him tell it, it’s the latest logical step in a decadelong process to build his own endgame keyboard, of which the business — Norbauer & Co. — is an almost accidental byproduct.

Ryan Norbauer Photo by Taeha Kim

Norbauer grew up in West Virginia in the 1990s, watching Star Trek: The Next Generation and absorbing both its retro-modern aesthetic and its vision of an egalitarian, post-scarcity world. It was also the beginning of the personal computing era and the dawn of the internet. The computer represented an escape from the world as it is, a window into the future of Star Trek, of Epcot, of the idea that a more connected world would be a better one.

The Seneca represents Norbauer’s attempt to make the best possible computer keyboard, to his own standards and tastes, without worrying about cost — the kind of keyboard that looks and feels like we remember keyboards feeling, back when we thought computers were a good idea.

“A big part for me of the allure of keyboards is the connection to my childhood nostalgia about being really excited about computing,” Norbauer tells me via video chat. So the Seneca is big, chunky, and has a standard tenkeyless layout, rather than something more compact or exotic, because that’s what he’s always used, and what brings back that feeling. “I feel like I can more authentically make an optimal keyboard if the first one I make is exactly the one that I want.”

Norbauer has a habit of wanting things that don’t exist, then figuring out how to build them from scratch. About 20 years ago, he got an idea for a dating website. “I didn’t have any money at all. I dropped out of a PhD program and I just had this idea for a company I wanted to start and I couldn’t hire anyone to code it for me. So I’m like, ‘Okay, I guess I just have to learn how to code.’”

He spent six months coding for 14 hours a day; this got him a website, a startup, and tendonitis. Fixing the tendonitis involved adopting proper typing form (wrists straight, hands hovering over the keyboard like a pianist’s). Searching for a more comfortable keyboard eventually sent him down the path of an obsession.

The dating website led to two more startups. Selling all three startups in 2010 gave him the time and money to explore new interests: at first, learning some industrial design skills so he could make Star Trek prop replicas. It also led him to Topre keyboards.

Topre switches — most famously found in the Happy Hacking Keyboard — have a rubber dome under each key, instead of a physical switch. Pushing the key collapses the dome, which compresses a conical spring; a capacitive circuit under each key senses the change in capacitance and, at a certain threshold, registers a keypress. Releasing the switch snaps the dome back into place.

Topre keyboards are rare compared to mechanical keyboards using Cherry MX-style switches. Only a few companies ever made them, so there aren’t many layout options, and they tend to be more expensive, with fewer features for the money. They’re also harder to customize, with only a few different dome options; they also aren’t compatible with most aftermarket keycaps out of the box. And while metal cases are common in enthusiast mechanical keyboards, Topre keyboards only come in plastic. But Topre boards have a dedicated fan base because the domes give Topre switches a snappy tactility you can’t otherwise replicate.

By 2014, he was using a modified Topre Realforce 87u keyboard in an aftermarket aluminum housing. He was also designing a Star Trek-inspired keycap set. Like most aftermarket keycaps, it worked with Cherry MX-style mechanical switches; Topre boards have a different keycap mount. So he couldn’t use his Star Trek keycaps on his favorite keyboard.

But then Cooler Master came out with the NovaTouch, which had Topre switches but worked with regular keycaps. Norbauer got one, but its cheap plastic housing didn’t feel right. He couldn’t find anyone to make him an aluminum housing for it. “So I just said, ‘Fuck it, I’ll figure it out myself.’”

Norbatouch prototypes, with Norbauer’s Galaxy Class keycaps on the board on the right. Photo by Ryan Norbauer

A beige Norbatouch with Galaxy Class keycaps. Photo by Norman Chan / Tested.com

He designed a housing and learned enough machining to make a prototype on a WWII-era milling machine. Once he was satisfied with the design, he found a manufacturer and launched a small group buy on a keyboard forum and asked if any other Topre diehards wanted one, to cover the costs of making one for himself.

He figured it was a one-time thing. “It was never intended to be a business, but people just kept asking me to make more and more, and the thing kind of snowballed on its own.” He did a few more rounds of the case eventually dubbed the Norbatouch, in a few new colors, including a beige to go with his now officially licensed Star Trek keycaps. Then, because people kept asking, he started making housings for other Topre keyboards.

There was the Norbaforce, for Realforce tenkeyless keyboards, and the Heavy-6 and Heavy-9, for the Leopold FC660C and FC980C, respectively. And in 2020, there was the Heavy Grail, his most popular housing, for the Happy Hacking Keyboard.

Each was a chance to refine his aesthetic and his manufacturing capability, and to experiment with different materials (steel, titanium, milled polycarbonate, copper) and finishes (polishing, bead-blasting, anodizing, powdercoating, cerakote, electroplating, even verdigris).

1/7The Norbaforce in VHS finish. Photo by Norbauer & Co

But they’re still only housings, not the keyboards themselves; to complete them, you still have to shuck a $200-plus keyboard from its plastic shell and stick it into the Norbauer housing. Making housings for other companies’ keyboards put him at the mercy of their supply chains and design decisions. The Novatouch was discontinued several months before his first batch of casings was ready; supply of Leopold’s keyboards was unpredictable even before the company stopped making them.

He also wanted more control over the other aspects of the board, and he wanted something to offer people who like the Norbauer aesthetic but aren’t up for buying a keyboard, cracking it open, voiding the warranty, and transplanting the guts into a new case.

When I first emailed Norbauer in late 2018, he was already talking about building a ready-to-type keyboard — something people could pick up and enjoy right away. “I didn’t know exactly what that would look like, and I certainly didn’t know how hard it would be to get to that point. If I did, I probably never would have undertaken it.”

He made a prototype using off-the-shelf parts — standard MX-compatible switches and stabilizers — then scrapped it. There are already dozens of companies making custom keyboards.

Instead, he decided to create the thing he’s wanted all along: a keyboard with a heavy metal chassis and his own retrofuturistic aesthetic, with the snappy tactile feedback of a Topre-like capacitive dome switch and compatibility with the wide world of aftermarket keycaps.

“It was one of those things where my ambitions just kind of spiraled out of control.”

He hired an electrical engineering firm to design the PCB, which he figured would be the hardest part, since Topre switch clones are pretty easy to come by. That took about a year, on and off. “And then I realized, ‘Shit, I guess I have to make all the other stuff that goes with it.’ And that took about five years.”

Somewhere along the line, the project turned into a deliberate exercise in making the best keyboard he possibly can, regardless of cost. “It was one of those things where my ambitions just kind of spiraled out of control.”

For example: Topre switches feel great to type on, but they tend to be wobbly at the top — understandable for something sitting on top of a rubber dome — and keycaps often end up slightly crooked. He wanted a slightly deeper typing sound, and he wanted proper compatibility with MX-style keycaps. It’s not enough to swap the slider for one with the plus-sign -shaped MX stem, like other companies do; you also have to redesign the housings, or the keycaps just end up slamming into them.

He figured he could do better. His first prototypes sounded great, but they were just as wobbly as Topre. His second design had tighter tolerances, so it wobbled less, but it sounded worse. He added more material to get a deeper sound. Each revision required another (expensive) round of injection-molded tooling as he searched for the best combination of feel and sound.

The Norbauer switch (right) has an MX-compatible stem, designed to exert the minimum force needed to keep the keycap in place. Lower left is a stock Topre stem, and top is a Deskeys aftermarket stem. Photo: Nathan Edwards / The Verge

By the fourth revision — the ones in the Seneca — the switches don’t look much like Topre. He redesigned the housings to avoid interference with MX-style keycaps, and added a third alignment leg to the sliders; they don’t rotate as easily in the housings, so the keycaps aren’t crooked. They have the high tactile bump and smooth downstroke of Topre switches, with a deeper sound. There’s a silicone ring for upstroke damping, and a gasket where they press against the underside of the brass switchplate.

While he was working on the switches, he tackled the stabilizer problem. Stabilizers are the mechanisms that connect to long keys, like the space bar, shift, enter, and backspace, and make sure the whole key moves downward at the same rate regardless of where it’s pressed. They work, but they sound terrible, unless you find some way to stop the wire from rattling in the housing, the slider from slamming into the PCB, and the various plastic parts from rubbing together. Usually this involves some combination of lubes, greases, and physical damping. Tuning the stabilizers is the most time-consuming and tricky part of most keyboard builds.

“The original plan was to use hand-lubed MX stabilizers because it’s such a standard thing, right? But I thought it just would be interesting to see if there was some way to solve this problem without requiring it all to be based on lubrication to dissipate the sound.”

Norbauer wanted the Seneca to be the best keyboard in the world, so he had no choice. He had to make the best stabilizers in the world.

Custom switches, custom stabilizers, and a 5mm chromed brass switchplate. Photo by Nathan Edwards / The Verge

Developing the Seneca’s stabilizers took several years, a bunch of false starts, and, in his words, a “personal cash bazooka.” His first attempt, mostly on his own, resulted in what he considered a “90 percent solution” — better than anything on the market, without lube. But 90 percent there is 10 percent not there. He started over.

He worked with a firm that specializes in kinematics to develop a totally new stabilizer mechanism. Actually, they came up with two new stabilizer mechanisms. The first is a compliant-beam design that’s significantly better than existing stabilizers as well as his first prototype. It’s much less prone to rattle or tick. It’s as close to perfect as you can get without totally rethinking how stabilizers work. The second design is a complicated series of pin-joint hinges with five times as many parts as a standard stabilizer. It’s hideously expensive to produce and both time consuming and fiddly to assemble, but it’s better.

The Seneca uses the second design.

This is illustrative of Norbauer’s general approach, which is that solving technical problems is much more interesting than trying to minimize production costs. On the Seneca, that’s taken to a deliberate extreme. “Our goal is just to make this good, and that’s all that matters. And so whenever there was a branch, I was like, ‘Let’s go with the rightest way to do it and damn the costs.’ And that has been the philosophy of this board.”

The Seneca’s case is milled from solid aluminum, with an MAO plasma-oxide finish; he had to set up a company in China in order to source it. There’s a warm gray option called travertine, which has a matte, slightly speckled stonelike look, and a lighter gray called oxide, which looks a bit like concrete. They’re both smooth to the touch. (There’s also a matte black version, which I haven’t seen in person, and a nearly $8,000 titanium option, which ditto.)

A Seneca mid-assembly, viewed from the underside. You can see the flexible dome and conical spring for each key resting in the switchplate, before the PCB is attached. The modifiers use heavier domes than the alpha keys by default. Photo: Taeha Kim / Norbauer & Co

The switchplate is milled from solid brass, for the acoustic properties, and then chrome-plated for aesthetics. Aluminum would have been cheaper, lighter, and easier to mill, but brass absorbs sound better, so brass it is. The PCB contains a galvanic isolation chip to mitigate the incredibly unlikely event that a rogue power supply sends a blast of electricity from the computer’s USB port into the keyboard. The cable has an obscenely expensive Lemo connector on the keyboard side. Lemo connectors are more secure than USB and Norbauer thinks they’re cool, and cool is better, and it’s his keyboard.

The keycaps are the least custom part of the board. Not that he wouldn’t have designed a new keycap profile for the Seneca, you understand. He looked into it, but in the meantime MTNU came out. MTNU’s spherical top surfaces and centered legends have exactly the aesthetic Norbauer was looking for, and it’s more comfortable to type on than other retro-looking keycap profiles like SA or MT3. All he had to do was pick the colors.

The Norbauer atelier (garage). Photo: Taeha Kim / Norbauer & Co

Each Seneca is assembled by hand in Norbauer’s garage in Los Angeles, at a rate of one or two per day, by either Norbauer or Taeha Kim — aka Taeha Types, keyboard influencer and bespoke keyboard builder turned Norbauer & Co. employee/investor.

The stabilizers alone take Taeha an hour or two per keyboard, including a step where he takes a tiny reamer to each set to make the pin holes large enough for the (precision-ground) pins to fit in, these tolerances being tighter than can be managed with injection molding alone.

(I’m referring to Norbauer by his last name and Taeha by his first because that’s how they’re each known in the keyboard community.)

“Sometimes, if it’s not reamed quite enough, you’ll get a little bit of sluggishness in the fit between those parts. And the friction across the whole system is cumulative. So if you have a little bit of sluggishness in a few places, you don’t know until you’ve put the whole thing together that the stabilizer itself is a little bit sluggish,” says Norbauer. When that happens, they have to disassemble the keyboard, fix the stabilizer, and start over.

The stabilizer assembly station in Norbauer’s workshop. Photo: Taeha Kim / Norbauer & Co

Bins of differently weighted switch domes Photo: Taeha Kim / Norbauer & Co

The cumulative effect of all those choices is a keyboard that has both incredibly high upfront costs and high per-unit costs. Actually, it sounds so expensive I ask Norbauer if he’s making money on the Seneca, even at $3,600 a pop.

The response is an immediate “Not yet! Oh God.”

“I mean, definitely when I sell this first batch, and probably the second batch, and well into the third or fourth, I would not have recouped my R&D costs on it. And it’s an interesting question. So, I’m bad at business.”

For most of the time he was making aftermarket housings, he says, the business wasn’t particularly profitable. “My goal has always been basically to break even while also doing really cool R&D stuff. I’m not personally losing a ton of money. But the Heavy Grail, for example, was a very popular offering. People really loved it and it sold way more than I ever thought it would. And that helped bootstrap and fund the Seneca, but 100 percent of what would have been profit went into that.”

Even as he was transitioning Norbauer & Co. from a company that sells housings to one that sells keyboards, he kept running into the fact that he does not like most aspects of running a business. This is not a huge problem when you’re selling a few dozen DIY housings at a time to Topre enthusiasts as a self-funding hobby. If you’re trying to build a business that sells fully custom luxury keyboards, it might become a problem.

Last year, when the Seneca was mostly developed and he was staring down a mountain of logistical tasks, he sold just under half the company to the investment firm Tiny, run by an old acquaintance. The arrangement leaves Norbauer with a majority stake and total creative control — he’s still the CEO — and lets him focus on developing keyboards while other people take care of the “making money” part of it.

Other people, in this case, is Caleb Bernabe, Norbauer & Co.’s executive in residence. In a 12,000-word blog post announcing the sale, Norbauer writes, “He acts essentially as our COO, but his job description is basically doing all the things that I hate — a skillset at which he inexplicably but admirably excels.”

Photo by Nathan Edwards / The Verge

The Seneca won’t make you a better writer — or a faster one, to my chagrin (ask me how many deadlines I blew writing this piece). I, personally, cannot justify spending $3,600 on a keyboard; I don’t know too many people who could. But after spending a couple months with the Seneca, I can see why someone would.

This is a keyboard nerd’s luxury keyboard. That Norbauer spent half a decade and hundreds of thousands of dollars developing it is wild; that he actually pulled it off is even wilder. The switches and stabilizers alone are a tremendous achievement, and right now the Seneca is the only place they live.

Norbauer has spent a decade building credibility in the keyboard community and amassing a loyal (and well-heeled) fan base. He can make a $3,600 keyboard and be pretty sure that enough people will buy it that he can make it make sense.

Not that he wants to sell a lot of keyboards. In fact, not selling a lot of keyboards is part of the plan. He sold 50 of them last summer, sight unseen, in a private preorder for a group of previous clients — paying beta testers, essentially. Right now he’s selling another 150 or so “First Edition” keyboards, to be delivered in late summer. Then he’ll probably do another batch. And another one after that. But he’s not going to sell a million.

“I think about my long-term vision for what we’re doing as being kind of like Leica, the camera company. They do crazy things that just wouldn’t exist otherwise, like their monochrome camera. I think it’s a very technically interesting thing. There’s obviously a tiny audience for it. And so in order to make it in any reasonable way, you have to charge a ton for it, because how many people on Earth are going to buy it? But I’m happier that that exists in the world.”

“In order to make it in any reasonable way, you have to charge a ton for it.”

As wild as it would be to reinvent the stabilizer and the switch just to make a few hundred seven-pound keyboards for rich coders, Norbauer plans to make other keyboards, now that he has the “full stack” of switches, stabilizers, and firmware and isn’t constrained by the handful of layouts available in Topre keyboards.

“The Seneca is meant to be this very dense sound-absorbing keyboard, a more deep thocky kind of thing that’s a permanent installation on your desk. And so the next thing is to go as far to the other end of the spectrum on those things as possible.”

It will probably be a 60-key HHKB-layout keyboard. It might have Bluetooth. And he’s thinking of doing it in either milled polycarbonate or forged carbon fiber, if he can pull that off. “The sound signature will be radically different. The weight will be radically different. And we’ll optimize for the opposite of everything we optimize for on the Seneca.”

There are so many more interesting problems for Norbauer to tackle. He’s having the firmware rewritten to make it open-source and add hardware remapping. There’s the next keyboard to design. New materials to experiment with. And there’s that other stabilizer design, the less complicated one — a few companies have approached him about getting it into production, but it needs a bit more R&D first.

Just don’t ask for a timeline. It’ll be done when it’s done.

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June 16, 2025 0 comments

Game Reviews

This Week’s Tips For The Switch 2’s Mario Kart World And More

by admin June 15, 2025

Image: The Pokémon Company, Arrowhead Game Studios, Blizzard, The Pokémon Company, Screenshot: Capcom / Samuel Moreno / Kotaku, Bethesda / Brandon Morgan / Kotaku, Nintendo, Bethesda / Brandon Morgan / Kotaku, Capcom / Samuel Moreno / Kotaku

You know what we all need sometimes? A little advice. How do I plan for a future that’s so uncertain? Will AI take my job? If I go back to school and use AI to cheat, will I graduate and work for an AI boss?

We can’t help you with any of that. But what we can do is provide some tips for Helldivers 2, Monster Hunter Wilds, Oblivion Remastered, and other great games. So, read on for that stuff, and maybe ask ChatGPT about those other things.

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June 15, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Hardcore World War 2 shooter Hell Let Loose is free to play all weekend, and on a 50% discount for the next two weeks

by admin June 15, 2025

Call of Duty and Battlefield may only occasionally dip into the Second World War these days, with CoD’s most recent Nazi battering entry being 2023’s Call of Duty: Vanguard, while Battlefield hasn’t so much as sniffed an M1 Garand since 2018’s Battlefield 5. But there are plenty of other shooters dedicated to replicating history’s most destructive conflict in virtual form. One such example is Team17’s well-regarded 2021 shooter Hell Let Loose, which is letting players enlist for free over this weekend.

Hell Let Loose is a large-scale multiplayer affair, where two teams of 50 players battle across large World War 2-era maps. Structurally it resembles Battlefield, with large-scale, combined arms combat and game modes similar to Conquest and Rush. But it’s a more hardcore, tactical affair than DICE’s shooter. Careless movement will get you killed quickly, so there’s a much greater emphasis on teamwork and communication.

HELL LET LOOSE | The Eastern Front Official Trailer – YouTube

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Multiplayer shooter specialist Morgan Park reviewed Hell Let Loose back in 2021, and enjoyed how it balanced challenging combat with more accessible logistics than some other military simulators, awarding it a score of 70. “Black Matter has simplified most of the logistical mechanics that can bog down 90-minute Squad matches. Constructing a Garrison building that the entire team can respawn at is way faster and takes half the effort as in Squad.”

Morgan’s main criticism of Hell Let Loose was its audio design: “No matter how much I mess with audio sliders, the game never gets loud enough for my liking.” The game has received numerous audio updates since Morgan’s review, though whether or not they address his specific concerns, I cannot say.

In any case, if you’re looking for a shooter that takes itself more seriously than CoD, but still lets you get into the action without drawing up an entire battle-plan beforehand, Hell Let Loose is free to play until Monday. And if you find yourself wanting to play more after the free weekend expires, then it’s on a 50% discount until June 26.

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June 15, 2025 0 comments

Gaming Gear

FIFA Club World Cup Soccer: Stream Al Ahly vs. Inter Miami Live From Anywhere

by admin June 15, 2025

See at DAZN

Watch the FIFA Club World Cup for free

DAZN

61% off with 2yr plan (+4 free months)

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The inaugural 32-team FIFA Club World Cup gets underway on Saturday with soccer legend Lionel Messi and his Inter Miami teammates taking on Africa’s most successful club, Al Ahly.

Below, we’ll outline the best live TV streaming services to use to watch every match of the tournament as it happens, wherever you are in the world, and how to use a VPN if the match isn’t available where you are, along with a full fixture list.

Eight-time Ballon d’Or winner Messi is fit to start today’s game, alongside fellow big guns Luis Suarez and Sergio Busquets however Spanish star Jordi Alba is set to miss out because of a hamstring injury. The Floridians form hasn’t been great coming into today’s game, with Javier Mascherano’s team currently sitting third in the MLS Eastern Conference after a run of just four wins from their last 12 games across all competitions.

Al Ahly, meanwhile, secured a record-extending 45th Egyptian Premier League title last month and come into this tournament opener having won their last six competitive matches. The prolific Wessam Abou Ali is the Red Devils’ key man, with the Palestinian striker having scored eight goals in Al Ahly’s last six matches.

Al Ahly take on Inter Miami on Saturday, June 14, at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida, with kickoff set for 8 p.m. ET or 5 p.m. PT. That makes it a 1 a.m. BST start in the UK and a 10 a.m. AEST kickoff in Australia on Sunday.

With Cristiano Ronaldo not appearing in this summer’s tournament, Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi has the chance to surpass the Portuguese star’s record for most FIFA Club World Cup goals. Messi has scored five goals in five Club World Cup appearances — just two behind Ronaldo’s tally.

CHANDAN KHANNA/AFP via Getty Images

Livestream the FIFA Club World Cup 2025 for free

The great news for footy fans is that sports streaming platform DAZN is set to broadcast all 63 matches of the FIFA Club World Cup free in almost every country, with coverage available in multiple languages.

DAZN

Existing DAZN subscribers or Freemium members can watch every game of the tournament as part of their current membership.

If you’re not a member, it’s easy to sign up for a free DAZN Freemium account using your email address to watch all the action at no cost through the DAZN app.

As well as dedicated apps for iOS and Android, DAZN offers a wide range of support for set-top boxes and smart TVs.

How to watch Al Ahly vs. Inter Miami online from anywhere using a VPN

If you’re traveling abroad and want to keep up with all the FIFA Club World Cup soccer action while away from home, a VPN can help enhance your privacy and security when streaming.

It encrypts your traffic and prevents your internet service provider from throttling your speeds and can also be helpful when connecting to public Wi-Fi networks while traveling, adding an extra layer of protection for your devices and logins. VPNs are legal in many countries, including the US and Canada, and can be used for legitimate purposes such as improving online privacy and security.

However, some streaming services may have policies restricting VPN use to access region-specific content. If you’re considering a VPN for streaming, check the platform’s terms of service to ensure compliance.

If you choose to use a VPN, follow the provider’s installation instructions, ensuring you’re connected securely and in compliance with applicable laws and service agreements. Some streaming platforms may block access when a VPN is detected, so verifying if your streaming subscription allows VPN use is crucial.

James Martin/CNET

Price $13 per month, $100 for the first 15 months (then $117 per year) or $140 for the first 28 months (then $150 per year)Latest Tests No DNS leaks detected, 18% speed loss in 2025 testsNetwork 3,000 plus servers in 105 countriesJurisdiction British Virgin Islands

ExpressVPN is our current best VPN pick for people who want a reliable and safe VPN and it works on a variety of devices. It’s normally $13 a month but if you sign up for an annual subscription for $100 you’ll get three months free and save 49%. That’s the equivalent of $6.67 a month.

Note that ExpressVPN offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.

61% off with 2yr plan (+4 free months)

Livestream Al Ahly vs. Inter Miami free in the UK

As well as DAZN, footy fans in the UK have a second option for watching FIFA Club World Cup matches that is also free.

Free-to-air broadcaster Channel 5 is set to show 23 select features live during the tournament, including today’s tournament opener.

That also means this match can be live streamed via the network’s My5 online service. Coverage begins at 12 midnight BST.

Channel 5 is available through Freeview, Freesat, Freely, Sky or Virgin Media.

If you want to stream the network’s coverage from the tournament, you can head to channel5.com or download the dedicated My5 app for iOS, Android and smart TVs

Livestream Al Ahly vs. Inter Miami in Australia

Like the UK, Australia also has a second option for watching the tournament live. Alongside DAZN’s free coverage, pay TV broadcaster Foxtel and its sister streaming service Kayo will also be showing all 63 games.

Kayo Sports

A Kayo Sports subscription starts at AU$25 a month and lets you stream on one screen, while its Premium tier costs AU$40 a month for simultaneous viewing on up to three devices.

The service gives you access to a wide range of sports, including F1, NRL, NFL, NHL and MLB, and there are no lock-in contracts.

Better still, if you’re a new customer, you can take advantage of a one-week Kayo Sports free trial.

Quick tips for streaming FIFA Club World Cup 2025 soccer using a VPN

With four variables at play — your ISP, browser, video streaming provider and VPN — your experience and success when streaming soccer may vary.
If you don’t see your desired location as a default option for ExpressVPN, try using the “search for city or country” option.
If you’re having trouble getting the game after you’ve turned on your VPN and set it to the correct viewing area, there are two things you can try for a quick fix. First, log into your streaming service subscription account and make sure the address registered for the account is an address in the correct viewing area. If not, you may need to change the physical address on file with your account. Second, some smart TVs — like Roku — don’t have VPN apps you can install directly on the device itself. Instead, you’ll have to install the VPN on your router or the mobile hotspot you’re using (like your phone) so that any device on its Wi-Fi network now appears in the correct viewing location.
All of the VPN providers we recommend have helpful instructions on their main site for quickly installing the VPN on your router. In some cases with smart TV services, after you install a cable network’s sports app, you’ll be asked to verify a numeric code or click a link sent to your email address on file for your smart TV. This is where having a VPN on your router will also help, because both devices will appear to be in the correct location.
And remember, browsers can often give away a location despite using a VPN, so be sure you’re using a privacy-first browser to log into your services. We normally recommend Brave.

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June 15, 2025 0 comments

Game Updates

Mario Kart World players have a compelling theory about future DLC

by admin June 15, 2025

Mario Kart World boasted many new exciting features when it was released alongside the Switch 2 on June 5, including a massive main roster totaling 50 playable characters. Of these, 24 are main characters and 26 are detailed as NPC racers, with main characters having access to a slew of quirky, cute, and badass outfits, while NPCs do not. However, not all of the main characters have an equal number of outfits available to them, which has caused a stir in the Mario Kart World community.

Two Nintendo mainstays have the lowest number of outfits in the game, with Donkey Kong and Pauline only having one (1) unlockable outfit each. Naturally, this led to the Mario Kart World community wondering why DK wouldn’t get the royal treatment like other main characters, with some players even throwing the Mushroom Kingdom babies under the kart for having more outfits than him.

“Am I wrong, or does Donkey Kong have only 1 costume to Baby Rosalina at least 4?” someone questioned on X.

“DK only has two costumes???????? This shit is unplayable I want my money back,” another person joked.

“I don’t intend to play as Donkey Kong in the new Mario Kart, but it’s kinda weird that they only gave him one unlockable costume,” another post reads. “Other characters like Pauline or Shy Guy only get one or two outfits as well, but they deserve more. I hope there will be free DLC to amend this.”

Some Mario Kart World players have even gone as far as hypothesizing that Donkey Kong and Pauline were given one outfit each because a huge expansion is planned to coincide with Nintendo’s Donkey Kong Bananza in July.

A version of this theory was located on Reddit, where users gathered clues that pointed to an inevitable DLC expansion. The information mentioned Diddy Kong’s absence from the roster (which Mario Kart World producer Kosuke Yabuki had previously addressed, stating that he “can’t say anything at this time”), the lack of focus on Donkey Kong’s main franchise games outside of the arcade game including music, and DK only having one outfit. (Other Kongs, like Funky and Dixie, who have appeared in previous Mario Kart games, are also nowhere to be seen in World.)

And while it may be easy to write off the theory as nothing more than fans already begging for more Mario Kart World content, previously leaked Donkey Kong Bananza information could support the existence of DLC.

In April, Nintendo Korea accidentally leaked an image for Donkey Kong Bananza’s box art on its website, showing the new character Odd Rock replaced by a presumably younger Pauline holding on to Kong’s necktie. A visibly younger Pauline is seen wearing a purple bracelet that matches Odd Rock’s material, which could imply that she can either summon the creature or transform into it. Speculation aside, it’s clear that Pauline will be a main character in Bananza in some capacity. We just don’t know how.

Image: Nintendo

And so far, Nintendo hasn’t shared much information on the upcoming DK adventure. The company hasn’t explicitly detailed why Donkey Kong and Pauline have only one outfit in Mario Kart World either. So, maybe fans are on to something and we’ll get Mario Kart World DLC that shows more love to these two Nintendo icons while simultaneously connecting it directly to Bananza.

If you think about it, doesn’t it make sense to have every MKW fan using and showing off DK and Pauline’s numerous new outfits in a raucous 24-player Knockout Tour race online the week Nintendo releases Bananza? I’m no business major, but it sounds like marketing 101 to me! Regardless, only time will tell.

Besides, Nintendo’s already doing something like this. Nintendo often uses Tetris 99’s Maximus Cup events to promote new releases, the most recent of which was an in-game promotional event for the launch of Xenoblades Chronicles X: Definitive Edition. Could Mario Kart World be utilized in a similar way?

Nintendo will release Donkey Kong Bananza on July 17 for the Nintendo Switch 2. Mario Kart World is available now on Switch 2.

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June 15, 2025 0 comments

NFT Gaming

Trump’s Empire Pulled In $57M From World Liberty Financial Last Year, Filing Shows

by admin June 15, 2025

Donald Trump’s crypto wallet and branding empire earned tens of millions of dollars last year, with World Liberty Financial netting the U.S. President $57.4 million, according to a newly released federal financial disclosure.

The document, published by the Office of Government Ethics, shows Trump’s personal crypto holdings are estimated to be between $1 million and $5 million. He also declared gold bars as investments between $250,000 and $500,000, various money market funds, equity and Treasury bond holdings, and real estate.

In addition to his crypto holdings and income, Trump seemingly collected over $11 million in royalties tied to branded merchandise.

That includes $3 million for a coffee table book titled “Save America,” $2.5 million from Trump sneakers and fragrances, $2.8 million from watches, $1.3 million for “The Greenwood Bible,” a religious book bearing his name, and $100,000 from non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The latter also brought in $1 million from licensing fees.

Trump’s assets are reportedly held in a trust managed by his children.

While the U.S. President’s financial disclosure document spans 234 pages, Vice President JD Vance filed a 15-page disclosure showing more modest holdings and not mentioning crypto.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for comments on Trump’s holdings.

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June 15, 2025 0 comments

Orianna, from The Witcher 3 launch trailer

Gaming Gear

Why was The Witcher 3 so dark? ‘It’s dishonest to always show and paint the world in a positive light’

by admin June 15, 2025

As part of The Witcher 3’s 10th anniversary celebration, CD Projekt Red spoke to GamesRadar about the “secret sauce” that made its quests so special. Maturity was cited as the main ingredient by Paweł Sasko, a quest designer on The Witcher 3, because the majority of its developers were entering their 30s and 40s. Also, importantly, they were Polish.

“I would say we, as Polish people, are much more negative than western societies,” Sasko said. “We have a tendency to see glass half empty rather than half full. Part of creating mature entertainment is just realizing that not everything in life is going to go great. In all of our lives, horrible shit is going to happen.”

And there sure is a lot of horrible shit in The Witcher 3. Fetus zombie? Fingernail torture? Baby in an oven? The Witcher 3’s got it all. Sasko compared these elements of awfulness in CDPR’s RPG to the moment you come to terms with the fact your parents are one day going to die. “I’m a development psychologist,” he explained, “so I think about those things a lot. For me this moment of transition, of understanding that your parents are aging and they’re going to get sick and die, is a part of our human experience. It’s dishonest to always show and paint the world in a positive light.”

“You cannot prevent your parents dying,” he went on. “You cannot prevent the fact that maybe the pet you spent 15 years of your life with has cancer. You cannot completely prevent this. [But it’s about] being thankful for everything you experienced. Even in this fucking dystopian horrible world of Cyberpunk, or this dark noir Witcher world, there are good people. There are good moments. There are friendships. There’s love! I think that’s the ambition: to encourage people toward this, and it might be a bit dark when I’m speaking about it, but I want to make sure that ray of sunlight is visible in our work.”

Like the scene in Seven where Morgan Freeman, Brad Pitt, and Gwyneth Paltrow just have a lovely dinner together, these shining moments of contrast are cast in stark relief because they’re surrounded by, in Sasko’s own words, “horrible shit”.

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June 15, 2025 0 comments

NFT Gaming

Bitcoin As World Reserve? Coinbase CEO Says It’s Inevitable

by admin June 14, 2025

Trusted Editorial content, reviewed by leading industry experts and seasoned editors. Ad Disclosure

Coinbase co-founder and chief executive Brian Armstrong used the company’s annual State of Crypto Summit on 12 June to advance his most ambitious thesis yet: that Bitcoin could ultimately displace the US dollar as the planet’s reference asset. “Bitcoin could be the reserve currency of the world,” Armstrong wrote on X as he retweeted a clip of his on-stage remarks, amplifying words he had delivered only minutes earlier to several hundred policymakers, investors and developers gathered in Lower Manhattan.

Bitcoin Could Become The World’s Reserve Currency

On stage, Armstrong reminded the audience that money serves as both medium of exchange and store of value, praising dollar-pegged stablecoins for accomplishing the first task “beautifully” while arguing that fiat currencies are failing at the second. “Democracies around the world are really struggling to get their deficit spending under control,” he said, before offering what he called “my crazy little bit-out-there idea.”

If public finances deteriorate further, he continued, “I think Bitcoin is going to provide an important check and balance on deficit spending. And if it gets out of control too much, people will flee to it in times of uncertainty. And it could actually end up that Bitcoin is the new reserve currency of the world.”

Armstrong’s reasoning rests on Bitcoin’s algorithmically fixed 21 million-coin limit, which in his view provides an external brake on governments accustomed to monetising deficits. The subtext was the United States’ debt load, now hovering near $37 trillion, a figure that has swollen by almost $4 trillion in the last eighteen months alone.

Armstrong has been warning for months that such fiscal trajectories, if left unaddressed, could trigger a global flight from sovereign currencies. In January he published a blog post urging Washington to build a “strategic bitcoin reserve,” and in March he joined other industry leaders at a White House for the first crypto round-table.

Armstrong’s forecast landed on fertile ground. Only minutes earlier the summit’s surprise keynote—a prerecorded message from President Donald Trump—had underscored how far Bitcoin has travelled from outsider code to headline macro policy. “My administration is working with Congress to pass the GENIUS Act supporting the creation of dollar-backed stablecoins, and we also will be working to create clear and simple market frameworks that will allow America to dominate the future of crypto and Bitcoin,” Trump declared, calling it “an honor” to be regarded as the first “crypto president.”

The White House has already put hard muscle behind those words. On 6 March Trump signed an executive order establishing a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a US Digital Asset Stockpile, directing the Treasury to consolidate forfeited BTC and buy more coins, subject to budget-neutral conditions. Recently, Executive Director of the President’s Council of Advisers on Digital Assets of the White House Bo Hines disclosed that the Trump administration will unveil the architecture of its Strategic Bitcoin Reserve “in short order.”

At press time, BTC traded at $104,876.

BTC stabilizes above the EMA200, 4-hour chart chart | Source: BTCUSDT on TradingView.com

Featured image from YouTube, chart from TradingView.com

Editorial Process for bitcoinist is centered on delivering thoroughly researched, accurate, and unbiased content. We uphold strict sourcing standards, and each page undergoes diligent review by our team of top technology experts and seasoned editors. This process ensures the integrity, relevance, and value of our content for our readers.

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June 14, 2025 0 comments

Product Reviews

Mario Kart World review: sublime driving, questionable design

by admin June 13, 2025

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Review information

Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch 2
Available on: Nintendo Switch 2
Release date: June 5, 2025

Mario Kart World has launched alongside the arrival of the Nintendo Switch 2. And with it, the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe curse has finally been broken. Of course, it’s reasonable to expect Nintendo to have supported its 68 million+ selling Switch game for as long as it did, but the time certainly felt right for something new.

And Mario Kart World absolutely feels new. Not in the literal sense, of course – that’s a given. Rather, it genuinely takes Mario Kart to fresh new heights with utterly stunning visuals and transformative racing techniques that feel so much more tactile than the underwater or anti-gravity gimmicks of the series’ past.

The big draw to Mario Kart World? Well, the clue’s in the name. The game offers a gigantic open world for players to explore in Free Roam mode – either solo or in local or online multiplayer. The game’s circuits are also integrated into this map, as are hundreds of mini-challenges and collectibles.

There’s a whole world out there, but is it worth seeing?

(Image credit: Nintendo)

The big draw to Mario Kart World is, as mentioned, its Free Roam mode. For the first time ever, Nintendo has created a fully explorable Mushroom Kingdom without any load times. Even pressing the ‘+’ button from the main menu will seamlessly transition you into Free Roam, which is super impressive and is a strong indicator of how much more powerful the Switch 2 is compared to its predecessor.

The only load times you’ll experience in Free Roam come from switching characters or fast traveling to a named location on the map, and even these are extremely brisk. Pair this with impressive draw distance, rock-solid 60fps performance, and simply stunning visual fidelity, and you have a mode that acts as a real showcase of the console’s hardware chops.

It’s a massive open space, dotted with the game’s many circuits and plenty of scenic routes to travel between them. It’s also exceptionally varied, featuring everything from lush forests and arid dunes to a haunted swamp and an industrial space port. There’s a great amount of fun to be had in simply driving around, taking in some breathtaking sights, and vibing to World’s eclectic soundtrack.

That said, Free Roam leaves a lot on the table. Don’t get me wrong, going on a drive with your friends (Free Roam is also playable in multiplayer) is joyous, and I can see it being a wonderful experience for groups of friends and families. But once the novelty wears off, there actually isn’t all that much to do here.

Best bit

(Image credit: Nintendo)

Mario Kart World’s driving is sublime. Drifting feels more fine-tuned than ever, while new techniques like wall riding and rail grinding offer an incredibly high skill ceiling and avenues for creativity during any given moment out on track.

Aside from character costumes, which you can unlock by picking up Dash Food items at various drive-thrus dotted throughout the map, your main collectible in Free Roam is stickers. This irks me on so many levels.

The stickers themselves are inoffensive, and many have very cool and eye-catching designs. It’s their implementation that’ll leave you wanting more. You can choose a single sticker, which will be placed on your kart of choice, and they also act as a miniature icon during online play. However, the stickers simply don’t show up on half the karts in the roster, and on most, they’re far too tiny to be noticeable.

Furthermore, stickers are pretty much the main form of collectible in this game. Completing one of many P-Switch challenges dotted around the Free Roam map? While these are fun little distractions, all you’re getting for your troubles is a sticker. Running over a hidden Question Block panel found tucked away in the map’s circuits? Sticker. Collecting Peach Medallions? For that, you’ll at least get a cool alternate kart livery! Nope, I’m joking, it’s stickers.

As a result, the joy of driving around in Free Roam can quickly diminish if you’re not racing about with friends. It does feel like what we have now, at least, is a foundation on which Nintendo can build upon with more activities and potentially new areas. We’ll have to see how things pan out in the future, but for now, don’t be surprised if Free Roam starts to feel a little vacuous for you over time.

Catch my drift

(Image credit: Nintendo)

So the open world in Mario Kart World leaves a lot to be desired, but I’d be a fool to completely write the game off because of it. What saves World for me, and why I still consider it to be my new favorite game in the series, is that its driving and racing feel so, so good.

Previous Mario Kart games had gimmicks like gliding, underwater, and anti-gravity racing. All of which were cute and fun, but little more than fluff that was broadly used for set-piece purposes. There’s nothing wrong with that at face value, but World’s additions do genuinely feel transformative.

World introduces charge jumping, rail grinding, and wall riding to the karting mix, and all work in tandem with one another to actively raise this game’s skill ceiling compared to previous entries. By themselves, these individual mechanics don’t necessarily make you faster, but when chained together to take advantage of a circuit’s level design and shortcuts, they’ll make you feel like Nintendo injected some of that Neversoft Tony Hawk game goodness into Mario Kart World.

(Image credit: Nintendo)

It helps that Mario Kart World rewards skillful driving a good deal more. Drifting has also been fine-tuned, feeling more precise and satisfying than ever. Drafting a kart in front of you for a quick slipstream boost has also been greatly enhanced, feeling much faster and a more viable tactic for getting ahead.

The whole thing feels very carefully balanced, which is where items come in. The iconic Spiny Shell – which makes a beeline for the player in first and explodes on contact with them – is still devastating, but you maintain some forward momentum after getting hit, making the punishment slightly less severe. Common ‘last to first’ items like the Bullet Bill and Lightning have been considerably nerfed, with their benefits and debuffs having less of an effect on the overall race.

There’s a smattering of new items to help keep things fresh, too. The Coin Shell follows a set path down the track, dropping coins for other players to pick up, thus increasing their top speeds. Kamek can be summoned to transform players into other characters and place random obstacles at the front of the pack. There’s also the Ice Flower, which is a bit of a dud, being practically identical to the Fire Flower in effect.

Then there’s the Feather, which hasn’t been seen in the series (outside of Battle modes) since the SNES original – so long as you’re not counting Mario Kart Tour. The Feather simply makes your kart jump into the air, which seems underwhelming, but write it off at your peril. In truth, the Feather can be extremely useful for accessing loftier parts of a track or initiating a grind or wall ride without needing to take a few seconds to rev up a charge jump. They’re also great for accessing various shortcuts on any given circuit.

At the races

(Image credit: Nintendo)

Let’s talk about modes, then. Outside of Free Roam, you’ve got the expected appearance of Grand Prix mode, which comprises eight cups – all featuring four races each. It’s joined by other mainstays, including Time Trial and Battle modes.

Grand Prix is something I have pretty mixed feelings on in Mario Kart World. That’s because the bulk of each event is made up of intermission segments where you race along a portion of the open world map, with your destination being a single lap of the featured circuit.

Needing to drive from one circuit to the next is something Nintendo made a big deal of in World’s marketing. I do like their inclusion, and they lead to some interesting and unique racing. However, they’re far better suited to the excellent Knockout Tour mode, where the whole point is driving a route from A to B across the entire map, OutRun style.

In Grand Prix, while you’ll get to do a three-lap race of the first track on the docket, you actually end up doing very little racing on the tracks themselves. This makes it harder to learn each circuit at first, and also means they don’t live very long in the memory.

(Image credit: Nintendo)

And that’s a huge shame, because again, track design is some of the best the series has ever seen. The winding alleyways and shortcuts of Shy Guy Bazaar. The spectacle of being transported into a movie world in Boo Cinema. And the sheer moment-to-moment set piece that is Bowser’s Castle. They all have the wind taken out of their sails somewhat, as we simply don’t get much racing time on them.

There does exist a workaround here, though. By selecting VS Race from the menu, you can set up custom race rules. By setting the track selection rule to ‘open’, only then can you do a full-length race on each circuit. The absence of a traditional Grand Prix setup, then, is baffling. Especially as those intermission routes really shine in the Knockout Tour mode.

Speaking of Knockout Tour, it’s another highlight in Mario Kart World, and easily the best way to play the game, especially in an online 24-player race. Each of the eight Knockout Tour events smartly blends open roads with segments of circuits, going from ascending steep mountains to weaving through busy traffic in a matter of minutes.

The goal of Knockout Tour is in its name. Each checkpoint will eliminate the racers in the back four places, eventually whittling the grid down to just four for the final stretch. It’s constantly thrilling and rewards skillful driving, clever usage of shortcuts, and an understanding of rail grinds and wall rides for quick bursts of speed.

Needs a few upgrades

(Image credit: Nintendo)

While I have greatly enjoyed my time with Mario Kart World so far – in both solo and multiplayer environments – it still can feel rushed or incomplete in certain areas. I’ve already spoken about my frustrations with the Grand Prix format and lack of meaningful activities in Free Roam, but those, unfortunately, aren’t my only issues.

It’s not the end of the world, but the character selection screen is objectively a total mess. Things aren’t too bad at first, but you’ll soon realize that each unlocked costume acts as its own slot on the roster. There’s no dropdown list here, letting you choose an outfit after selecting a character. It’s all just one large jumble with only rudimentary organization.

This is actually something Nintendo has gone backwards on since its last game in the series. In Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, certain characters like Yoshi, Inkling, and Shy Guy let you choose an alternate look or color after picking them. There’s nothing like that in Mario Kart World, so I seriously hope this gets patched in soon.

Furthermore, the unlocking process for some characters is frustratingly random. A handful are tied to beating cups in Grand Prix mode, which is completely fine. The rest, though, are tied to the Kamek item transforming you into a random character, meaning you genuinely might not complete the roster for weeks if not months, based on how much you play.

These gripes aside, I still really do love Mario Kart World. Its driving is sublime, Knockout Tour is a fantastically chaotic new mode, and I’m so serious when I say the game’s massive soundtrack is worth the price of admission alone. Outside of Final Fantasy 14 Online, I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a soundtrack this varied and of this quality. It covers everything from jazz and techno to rock and ska, classical, big band, and everything in between. Even after 30 or so hours, I don’t believe I’ve come close to hearing the entire track list. There’s just so much here, especially if you’re nostalgic for the wider Super Mario franchise.

Should I buy Mario Kart World?

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Accessibility

While there are no accessibility options in the traditional sense, such as colorblind filters, Mario Kart World does offer some driving options to make things easier in some regards. These include smart steering, which veers you away from track edges, as well as auto-accelerate and auto-item use options.

It’s also quite strange and frustrating that there are no dedicated volume control options – nothing for either music, voices or sound effects. This isn’t uncommon for Nintendo games, but the omission of such audio options continues to be utterly baffling.

How I reviewed Mario Kart World

I played Mario Kart World on Nintendo Switch 2 for around 30 hours for this review. I tested more or less everything the game has to offer, including Grand Prix, Knockout Tour, Free Roam, VS Battles, and online play. During that time, I also unlocked the majority of characters and outfits and completed close to 100 P-Switch challenges in Free Roam.

During my playtime, I primarily used the Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller in docked mode on an LG CX OLED TV which allowed me to enjoy Mario Kart World at its native 1440p resolution, transitioning to the Joy-Con 2 during handheld play on the Switch 2’s 1080p vivid LCD display.

First reviewed June 2025

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June 13, 2025 0 comments

Esports

Mario Kart World | Critical Consensus

by admin June 13, 2025

As Nintendo’s sole major launch title, Mario Kart World is carrying a lot of weight on its shoulders.

There’s arguably no more proven quantity to do so. Mario Kart 8, across its two iterations on Wii U and Switch, has sold more than 76 million copies.

With more than 11 years having passed since its original release, the longest wait ever for a new Mario Kart game, Nintendo is capitalising on pent-up demand from hardcore players.

But despite its proven success, is a multiplayer-oriented racing game the right launch title when there are no other first-party releases, besides the slight Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour?

Critics generally agree that Mario Kart World ticks this box, with the game currently sitting at an 87 average on Metacritic after the first wave of reviews, which have been drip-fed onto the internet after Nintendo made the decision not to offer media early access to the Switch 2 or its launch line-up.

Whether Mario Kart World lives up to Nintendo’s marketing, which focused on its vast world and talked up the potential of its Free Roam mode during the Switch 2’s Direct reveal, is another question.

“The first brand-new Mario Kart in over a decade is a breath of fresh air, but oddly enough, the biggest reasons it works so well aren’t actually its shiny new features,” says IGN’s Logan Plant in an 8/10 review. “When I’m racing through one of World’s excellent traditional courses, dodging shells while trying to hang onto the lead, it feels like a worthy successor to the immaculate Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.

“Driving with 24 players on those wide routes from one course to another, it doesn’t feel so much like a race as a chaotic road trip. ”

Keza MacDonald, The Guardian

“But when I’m somewhat mindlessly roaming around its pleasant but fairly one-note map or puttering down the lengthy straightaways that often separate its Grand Prix tracks, World doesn’t make a convincing case that going open-world was the boost Mario Kart needed.”

Reviewers draw attention to the evergreen quality of Mario Kart as a series, which was exemplified by the continuous strong sales of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe across the Switch’s lifespan. Generally it’s agreed that this new entry has the stuff to stay in rotation for the entire generation.

Image credit: Nintendo

“Mario Kart World, the banner game for the launch of the Switch 2, carries with it the expectation that of course this will be one of the games most associated with the system for its entire lifespan,” says GameSpot’s Steve Watts in a 9/10 review.

“The challenge was crafting a new game that felt sufficiently suited to carry those expectations. Due to its blend of skillful mechanical tweaks, lovely aesthetics, and a general design philosophy built around delightful surprises, this one will go the distance.”

Despite being highly accessible to different audiences, Mario Kart World retains a skill ceiling that gives it potentially limitless longevity, especially if you’re playing it with other people.

“God only knows how many hours I have spent racing Mario and his pals around their cartoon wonderland circuits since 1992,” says The Guardian’s Keza MacDonald in her five-star review. “This series has accompanied me through my entire life, the reliable mainstay that everyone wants to play with me, no matter how familiar they are with video games in general.”

The basics of the series remain the same with this game: item pick-ups, a colourful roster of Nintendo characters, and power sliding are all part of the mix, but there are notable additions to the movement set, like rail grinding and how jumping works. Mario Kart World also doubles the number of competitors in each race from 12 to 24, with an accompanying widening in track size.

“World takes big swings to reinvent the established Mario Kart formula, including doubling the amount of simultaneous racers from 12 to a chaotic 24 and expanding the trick system with flashy stuff like wall riding and rail grinding,” says Plant.

“I legitimately think it might take months for people to squeeze the full potential out of these new techniques, and it could be a bigger game changer for high-rank online matches than anyone realises yet.”

“The larger roster and wider courses mean that I have a whole new slate of tracks to explore, some familiar, some very new,” says Nintendo Life’s Alana Hagues in her 9/10 review.

“The big addition here is the increase to 24 racers, which ups the stakes tenfold. I was worried about how big and empty the roads might feel, but the larger number of competitors completely justifies it when I’m being juggled between a Bob-omb, a bus, and a Coin Shell in quick succession while coins and items are being scattered about everywhere. Races can be utter chaos in the best possible way, particularly online.”

MacDonald also points out that races have a chaotic energy to them as a result of the number of vehicles on the track.

“Don’t go into Mario Kart World’s Free Roam mode expecting something like Forza Horizon, or really any modern open-world game”

Tom Orry, Eurogamer

“Driving with 24 players on those wide routes from one course to another, it doesn’t feel so much like a race as a chaotic road trip. This is very much the vibe in Knockout Tour, a Fortnite-style elimination race where you can go from first place to 14th in two seconds and trailing players are thrown out of the race every few minutes.”

Knockout Tour – where players are gradually eliminated in a long race spanning the open world map – is a hit with reviewers, and considered a successful addition to the Mario Kart formula.

PCMag’s Jordan Minor compares the mode to The Cannonball Run in that outlet’s 4.5/5 review. “In this mode, you race across the map, like a point-to-point cross-country rally race, with the bottom players being eliminated at various checkpoints until only the winner remains. It’s addictive and exhilarating, similar to a gripping battle royale match. The checkpoints provide a satisfying series of small triumphs, making being in the middle of the pack meaningful, even if you don’t win.”

Plant concurs that Knockout Tour is a highlight of the package. “The results are thrilling, and Knockout Tour feels like the main piece of evidence to justify the case for the open-world format, as it just wouldn’t have the same level of intensity on a standard Mario Kart track. It’s a thrill to drive through a variety of locations, from arid deserts to snowy switchbacks, as you desperately try to survive the current lap.”

“One place the magic never wears off, however, is in Knockout Tour,” Hagues writes. “While ‘World’ is in the game title, Knockout Tour is the knock-out feature of Mario Kart World. It’s a seamless race from one edge of the map to another, and this is where those more linear course designs actually work.”

IGN’s review points out that there’s a luck-based element to the mode, due to its reliance on players getting items that make a dramatic difference to their prospects. Keeping that in mind, however, will ensure players have a good time.

Image credit: Nintendo

“Sometimes Knockout Tour feels more like a game of chance and timing than one of skill, but it’s still a great time if you go in with that expectation, and it can be fun to strategise around the right time to make your move.”

All of Mario Kart World’s tracks exist within the game’s one gigantic map, which players can explore in the separate Free Roam mode. In otherwise very positive reviews, this is where the game draws the most criticism.

“Nintendo seems to have envisioned this mostly as a way to meet up with friends and cruise around, but the open-world aspect feels sparse,” writes Watts, who calls the activities in the open world “nice little diversions” while pointing out the rewards for completing them are “ultimately feel pretty insubstantial.”

IGN’s Plant says that “there’s a disappointing lack of surprise that permeates the entirety of Free Roam”.

“Don’t go into Mario Kart World’s Free Roam mode expecting something like Forza Horizon, or really any modern open-world game,” says Eurogamer’s Tom Orry in a 4/5 review.

“You have a map that shows the different areas and how many P-Switch missions you’ve completed, the number of Peach Coins collected, and the total number of Question Mark Panels you’ve found, the latter being sorted by track if you delve in slightly further. That’s it.”

Still, not everyone agrees that playing Mario Kart World as an open world experience shows the game at its weakest. “Until now, no follow-ups have fully recaptured Burnout’s magic,” Minor writes.

“Forza Horizon is too boring, sedate, and realistic. Lego 2K Drive doesn’t fully deliver on the promise of its Lego landscape. Does anyone even remember The Crew? But Mario Kart World, with its Nintendo levels of AAA polish on the company’s most powerful platform yet, is the wild and whimsical open-world racing game I’ve dreamed of.”

“If you need a pick-me-up, this game is sure to bring a smile, and it feels like a perfect start to Switch 2’s life.”

Alana Hagues, Nintendo Life

MacDonald points out that Free Roam is best seen as a social experience first and foremost. “This world isn’t as populous or as beautiful as something like Forza Horizon’s, but it’s still a trip to explore it with friends and find scenic little spots to gather together. The visual language is that of a group holiday: Polaroid snaps, stickers from local shops, regional foods.”

Amid that huge increase in scope for a Mario Kart game, performance on the Switch 2 is seen as a huge plus by reviewers, suggesting Nintendo has made the most out of the visual upgrades afforded by the vastly improved hardware.

“The draw distance and lighting, in particular, are a huge step up, and I love flying around the courses and seeing a different track that’s three or four roads away from a huge distance,” says Hagues.

“It also runs like a dream docked and handheld at 60fps – as it should on a new console, with only a little pop in here and there as I progressed through courses. Split-screen with two players is also seamless, but when you add a third or fourth, that frame rate drops to 30. I’m not surprised at the latter, and (again, as you’d expect) I didn’t see any hitches with that drop in frame rate, either.”

“It helps that, thanks to the added power of Nintendo Switch 2, Mario Kart World is a visual feast,” Minor writes. “Running at up to 1440p/60fps, fast races and scenic vistas look stunning in motion.”

Reviewers agree that it’s got the potential stickiness of its predecessor, making it a worthy launch game for the Switch 2.

“It will be shocking if this game doesn’t enjoy the same long-term success of its predecessor, because it’s among the best in the series and a worthy marquee title for the launch of a new Nintendo console,” Watts concludes.

“If you need a pick-me-up, this game is sure to bring a smile, and it feels like a perfect start to Switch 2’s life,” Hagues says.

There’s a significant enough change in formula from its predecessor to set it apart, according to reviewers.

“The Switch 2 itself does feel like a swish upgrade rather than an all-new console,” MacDonald says. “So it’s a relief that its headline game shows that Nintendo still has a talent for reinvention.”

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June 13, 2025 0 comments