Japanese Reactions To The Mario Kart World Direct Are Largely Positive

Around the world, there’s been a lot of disappointment over the Mario Kart World Direct which many had high expectations for, but such disappointment doesn’t seem to exist in Japan, Nintendo’s home market.

Japanese-speaking users have largely reacted positively to the Mario Kart World Direct on Nintendo’s post and other posts on social media. Here’s a roundup of what some people are saying (translated by NintendoSoup):

• Please let me buy it!
• Free Roam looks fun and exciting, can’t wait to try it out
• I hope you can exchange coins for costumes
• Looking forward to playing as Cow and Spike!
• Dash Food looks interesting
• Please let me win the Nintendo Switch 2 pre-order lottery
• Looking forward to playing the game
• I finally have a reason to buy a Switch 2!
• Can’t wait to see how DLC will expand this game
• Nintendo is really good at presenting games! I think if you show this (Mario Kart World Direct) to other people, they won’t be as anxious (about the game)
• Most of what was shared had already been mentioned or seen in Nintendo Treehouse and overseas Nintendo Switch 2 Experience events, while I’m looking forward to the launch, it seems many people outside Japan are disappointed (by the Direct)

Why have reactions been largely positive? We speculate that most of the things shown off in the Direct were new to Japanese viewers, as there wasn’t a Nintendo Treehouse Live broadcast in Japan, and the first Nintendo Switch 2 Experience event in Japan will only be held on April 26.

Notably, no Japanese-speaking user has complained about Mario Kart World’s pricing, possibly because most are buying the Nintendo Switch 2 Mario Kart World set (53,980 yen / USD379)  to play the game.

Mario Kart World is set to cost 8,890 yen (USD62) digitally and 9,980 yen (USD70) physically after sales tax.

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