Xenoblade studio reveals it co-developed Switch 2’s big launch game
Monolith created characters and stages for Mario Kart World
Xenoblade studio Monolith has confirmed it assisted development of today’s big Switch 2 launch game Mario Kart World.
Posting on X, Monolith said it had assisted with the design of characters and courses for the Switch 2 game.
Monolith, which is fully owned by Nintendo, has previously contributed to many first-party games, including the Splatoon, Animal Crossing, and Zelda series.
For the past 15 years, Monolith Soft has mainly been focused on development of the Xenoblade Chronicles series, though it was also responsible for the two Project X Zone crossover RPGs on the 3DS.
Mario Kart World is out today, alongside the Nintendo Switch 2 console. It’s available as a standalone release, and as part of a bundle with the console.
The game’s Nintendo development team recently revealed that Mario Kart World was originally planned for release on Nintendo Switch before development transitioned to Nintendo Switch 2 in 2020.
“When we were developing for the Nintendo Switch system, it was difficult for us to incorporate everything we wanted, so we were always conscious of what we were giving up in return,” explained programming director Kenta Sato.
“We discussed things like toning down the visuals, lowering the resolution, and we even considered dropping the frame rate to 30 fps in some cases. It was a tough situation.”
Development of Mario Kart World began around the time Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was released on Nintendo Switch, Sato said. The decision to move development to the Nintendo Switch 2 was made in 2020, 5 years before the game’s release.
