While Mario Kart 8 Deluxe had some customisation options, such as being able to choose which colour Yoshi or Shy Guy you are, Mario Kart World has done away with that in favour of costumes for its most famous characters. Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, and even Pauline from Super Mario Odyssey all have their own alternate costumes for you to unlock and kit them out in.
From Cowboy Mario and Explorer Toad to Biker Bowser and Wampire Waluigi (yes, Wampire), there’s dozens of different outfits to unlock and little time to waste! Here’s how to unlock all costumes in Mario Kart World, as well as a list of exactly which characters have costumes available.
To see this content please enable targeting cookies.
How to unlock all Mario Kart World costumes
Costumes in Mario Kart World are unlocked by collecting and consuming Dash Foods, which are shiny yellow lunch bags found outside of food stalls run by Yoshis (shown below).
Collecting and eating Dash Food gives you a chance of unlocking new costumes for the character you’re currently playing as. | Image credit: Nintendo/VG247
That said, costumes are only available for a select amount of characters in Mario Kart World, and are primarily limited to the series’ most famous faces such as Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toad. Playable characters such as the Cow, Chargin’ Chuck, and so forth, do not have costumes to unlock.
The characters that have costumes available to unlock, and just how many they have (including their default costumes), are as follows (with thanks to our friends over at IGN):
Mario – 10 costumes
Luigi – 9 costumes
Peach – 9 costumes
Daisy – 7 costumes
Yoshi – 9 costumes
Bowser – 5 costumes
Donkey Kong – 2 costumes
King Boo – 4 costumes
Wario – 8 costumes
Waluigi – 6 costumes
Toad – 5 costumes
Toadette – 5 costumes
Rosalina – 5 costumes
Pauline – 1 costume
Koopa Troopa – 6 costumes
Baby Mario – 4 costumes
Baby Luigi – 3 costumes
Baby Peach – 5 costumes
Baby Daisy – 5 costumes
Baby Rosalina – 5 costumes
Bowser Jr – 4 costumes
Shy Guy – 3 costumes
Lakitu – 3 costumes
Birdo – 3 costumes
The most efficient way of unlocking costumes is done in free roam in Mario Kart World. This way, you can fast-travel to whichever track is home to the Dash Food you need for the costume you wish to unlock, while playing as the character you wish to unlock a costume for. You can then repeat this process – either by switching characters or fast-travelling between tracks and their Dash Food stalls – to quickly try and unlock all costumes.
Image credit: Nintendo/VG247
To learn exactly which track (and stall) to get each Dash Food from, here’s our list of all Dash Food locations.
That said, while efficient, this isn’t the most fun way of doing things! If you’d rather unlock costumes while racing, then do that while keeping a careful eye on Dash Foods around the track. Make sure to switch courses so you can collect a range of different Dash Food, and therefore costumes!
Fish and Chips, Pizza, Sushi, Festival Food, Cinema Popcorn, Pokey’s Pita Plates, Yoshi’s Snacks, Shish Kebab
Mario Kart World Pauline costumes
For more on Mario Kart World, take a look at all vehicles and how to unlock them, as well as where to find all Peach Medallions and where to find all P Switch missions.