NintendoAfter the launch of the Nintendo Switch 2, the new Mario Kart World quickly became an obsession for owners of the new console. And sure, that’s largely because it was the only major first-party game to launch with it (unless we’re counting Nintendo Switch 2 Welcome Tour), but it’s also a great addition to the racing series. One thing players weren’t so keen on was the need to explore the game’s underwhelming open world between races, and unfortunately for them, Nintendo soon released an update that made the exploration even more likely with the random course mode. Just a few weeks later, though, a new update sounds like a positive change for fans who were unhappy with the initial changes.Among other things, the Mario Kart World update makes it more likely that you’ll get three-lap races when using the online VS Race mode. The patch notes aren’t clear on just how much the odds of landing on one of these courses is being increased, and some players say on social media that even after the patch, they’re getting intermission tracks far more often than they’d like. Still, it could mean that Nintendo is willing to make some adjustments for fans’ preferred mode of play, rather than trying to push them toward a less popular track type.Nintendo says lap races will be more common in VS mode, but players aren’t entirely convinced. | NintendoThe relevant part of the new update is aimed at alleviating a previous change Nintendo implemented back in June. When Mario Kart World first launched, lots of players took to the random track selection option to avoid having to compete in an “intermission track,” which mostly consist of open-world driving. Initially, random mode placed racers in three-lap versions of whatever course was selected, which is much closer to the traditional structure of Mario Kart games than the intermission tracks’ open-world jaunt.Players were immediately up in arms about the change. At the time, it seemed that Nintendo was trying to force players to interact with the open-world aspect of Mario Kart World, which many were completely uninterested in. At the time, players resorted to arranging private matches with other players through Discord and social media, which allowed them to choose the tracks they actually wanted.While Nintendo at least partially walking back its unpopular change to random mode is the most unexpected part of the new patch, it’s far from the only big change it includes. The difficulty of COM racers (those controlled by AI rather than actual players) has been dialed back, after being notoriously brutal in the launch version of the game. Especially in large 24-player races, a herd of COM racers could be frustrating to deal with.An unannounced change seems to be speeding up races in the latest Mario Kart World update. | NintendoIn another big change that should impact completionists or anyone just trying to earn more unlockable reward, there’s now a better way to track your collectible progress. “On the ‘Free Roam’ map, when you gather all of the P Switches, ? Panels, and Peach Medallions, the colors of the various numbers will now change,” the announcement post explains.A host of bug fixes and balance changes also accompany these bigger additions, plus one change that players say is in the update but isn’t actually called out in the patch notes. According to some players on the Mart Kart subreddit, the new update actually speeds up the game. They say that the speed boosts granted by completing tricks has been increased, making races faster overall. While Nintendo hasn’t said anything about that officially, videos have popped up online showing that racers now come out of tricks at top speed, rather than briefly accelerating to reach it as was the case before.Whether or not players will end up happy with the change in the long run, the latest patch should help take the sting out of Nintendo’s changes to track selection, at least to some extent. As disappointed as players were with the earlier patch, Mario Kart World is still a new game with plenty of room for improvements (or attempts at them that are later walked back) from Nintendo. Mario Kart 8 only became as good as it is now through years of updates, and it seems that its Switch 2 successor is trying to follow in those footsteps.