The console question, settled in one minute
If you take one thing from this page, take this: ask which console they have, and get the answer right. Nintendo sells two machines that both get called “a Switch” in conversation, and Mario Kart World only runs on the newer one.
The quickest tell is the screen and the way the controllers attach. A Nintendo Switch 2 has a 7.9-inch screen and its Joy-Con 2 controllers hold on magnetically; an original Switch has a smaller screen and controllers that slide down a rail with an audible click. If you cannot ask and cannot look, buy the Sonic game — it works either way — or buy an eShop card and let them choose.
What each one is actually like to play
Mario Kart World is the biggest version of the thing everybody already knows. The headline change is that the courses are joined into a world you can simply drive around in Free Roam, which matters more than it sounds in a mixed-age household: a six-year-old who loses every race still has somewhere to go. Nintendo’s own page lists Knockout Tour, where you are eliminated if you are not far enough up the field at each of five checkpoints, Grand Prix against 24 racers, and Balloon Battle and Coin Runners.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is a more conventional kart racer with a twist of its own: Nintendo lists 24 tracks and 15 CrossWorlds, the alternate courses a race drops into partway through. The same page lists 23 characters, four-player split-screen on one console, up to eight on local wireless, up to twelve online, and cross-platform play — so a child on a Switch can race a friend who is not on a Nintendo console at all.
Price, and one honest warning on each side
The prices on the buy rows above are live, and they are usually a long way apart. Mario Kart World is a current full-price Nintendo Switch 2 release; CrossWorlds is a boxed Switch game that has been on the shelf since September 2025.
The warning on the Mario Kart side is ownership. A great many Switch 2 consoles were sold in a bundle that included Mario Kart World, so if they bought the console near launch there is a real chance they already have it. Ask, or buy the Sonic game.
The warning on the Sonic side is the extras. The ESRB lists In-Game Purchases, and SEGA sells a season pass and character packs on top of the boxed game. None of it is needed to play, but a child who finds out it exists will ask. If you are buying for someone else’s kid, our guide to game age ratings explains what the descriptors on the box mean.
If they own a Switch 2 but you want to spend less
Buy Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Nintendo lists it as Supported on Switch 2, the base game has 48 courses, and since the free Switch 2 update Nintendo says one Switch 2 system with enough controllers can race split-screen with up to eight people. It is years old and costs a fraction of the new one, and for a household that has never owned a Mario Kart the difference is hard to spot on the first night.
