It appears that Mario Kart World will allow players to play various courses in reverse, something that wasn’t possible in past entries.

A reverse version of Mario Bros. Circuit, the first course in Grand Prix, was spotted in one of the latest Japan-only commercials (timestamped video) for Mario Kart World:

Compare its mini map to the mini map from the actual Mario Bros. Circuit from Nintendo Treehouse Live footage in April 2025:

At the moment, it is unclear whether these reverse courses are part of a new “Reverse mode” (similar to Mirror mode) or are something that could be accessed in Knockout Tour or Versus mode, though we do know that routes (highways and roads that connect two courses to each other) can be played in the opposite direction depending on the tour in Knockout and how the user selects courses in Versus mode.

What’s interesting is that the Japanese commercial didn’t have any UI elements from Knockout Tour, suggesting that a new “Reverse mode” could very well be real. Some have speculated that “Reverse mode” could be a replacement for Mirror mode.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.