Xenoblade studio Monolith has confirmed it assisted development of today’s big Switch 2 launch game Mario Kart World.
Posting onX, Monolith said it had assisted with the design of characters and courses for the Switch 2 game.
Monolith, which is fully owned byNintendo, has previously contributed to many first-party games, including the Splatoon, Animal Crossing, and Zelda series.
For the past 15 years,Monolith Softhas 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 Worldis out today, alongside theNintendo Switch 2console. It’s available as a standalone release, and as part of a bundle with the console.
The game’s Nintendo development team recently revealed thatMario Kart World was originally planned for release on Nintendo Switchbefore development transitioned to Nintendo Switch 2 in 2020.
“When we were developing for theNintendo Switchsystem, 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 timeMario Kart 8 Deluxewas 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.
