
Mario Kart World jumped out of the gate to big sales and solid reviews, but the latest game in developer Nintendo’s long-running kart racer isn’t without its warts. One of the biggest issues many players had was with the Free Roam mode. It wasn’t so much that Free Roam lacked things to do, but Mario Kart World‘s design struggled to source important information, making it annoying to slog through all of the open-world challenges. Fortunately, Update 1.3.0 features several quality-of-life changes that should alleviate most of those problems.
The 1.3.0 update went live in Mario Kart World on September 23 and is rolling out to Nintendo Switch 2s around the world at the time of this writing. It features several important updates, many of which are aimed squarely at improving Free Roam mode. One of the biggest improvements is that you’ll now be able to see P Switches you’ve run over and Peach Medallions you’ve previously collected.
Mario Kart World Free Roam Updates

That might sound like relatively small potatoes, but it’s actually a pretty big update. Previously, tracking down the hundreds of P Switches and Peach Medallions could be tough because you couldn’t easily track which ones you’ve found in-game. This update fixes that issue, letting players easily see what’s left to collect from the menu.
The 1.3 version update also features a few changes for UFOs in Free Roam. Not only is Nintendo making it possible to transform into the character pulled from the UFO, but they’ve also made it easier to encounter UFOs while darting around the world. That should make collecting all the character skins a bit easier. On top of that, you’ll find a few Peach Medallions a bit easier to collect, as Nintendo has eased some requirements for getting them to appear.
There are also quite a few online updates for the 1.3 update. You can now quickly join your friends when they’re playing Knockout Tour, quickly getting you into online games. Plus, you can now drive around in Free Roam with one friend while waiting for races to start in Online Play. Again, these might not seem like game-changing updates, but these quality-of-life updates should go a long way to improving Mario Kart World‘s moment-to-moment gameplay.
If nothing else, the addition of multiplayer Free Roam is going to be a huge boon for anyone who wants to hang out with their buds while driving around the world. Of course, the update features several changes for the on-track action. You’ll note that new item boxes will appear quickly, and an increased invincible timer after crashing or spinning out. And there are dozens of bug fixes, which should help iron out some of the issues players have been dealing with over the last few months.
It’s great to see Nintendo introducing major updates for its core modes. Hopefully, the developers will continue dropping these over the next few months. For example, it would be great if we could jump into multiplayer Free Roam at the drop of a hat and not have to queue up for an online race. Fortunately, updates like this one seem to be slowly trending in that direction, so fans should be tentatively excited to see what’s coming next.
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