Almost a decade later, Mario Kart has returned with an all-new instalment for the Switch 2, inviting keen racers to our first open-world entry in the series: Mario Kart World. As you’d expect, Nintendo’s top racing game brings back plenty of familiar faces, including the titular Mario, of course, but the roster of available characters is longer than ever this time around.
You can drift around tracks as Super Mario 64’s Penguins, Super Mario World’s Chargin’ Chucks, or even Moo Moo Meadows’ Cows. These three only scratch the surface of who you can choose to play as, so without further ado, here’s exactly how to unlock all Mario Kart World characters.
How to unlock all Mario Kart World characters
Mario Kart World boasts a range of human and anthropomorphic characters to race around a track as, but you’ll have your work cut out for you trying to unlock them all.
First things first, a new character is unlocked for each Grand Prix you play and finish; it doesn’t matter where you place during these races, either. Simply complete a Grand Prix, and provided it’s one you haven’t played before, you’ll unlock one of the following characters:
- Birdo
- Bowser Jr.
- Daisy
- Donkey Kong
- King Boo
- Lakitu
- Rosalina
After completing all seven Grand Prix at least once, you’ll unlock the eighth and final Grand Prix – the Special Cup – and will have unlocked all seven of the above characters. Now, what about the rest?
To unlock the rest of the characters available in Mario Kart World, you’ll need to become affected by a Kamek Transformation. Kamek is a brand-new, very rare item that you or other players have a chance of receiving from the rainbow-coloured item blocks around a track (or in free-roam).
Upon use by yourself or another player, Kamek will fly around the course – in front of the player who used the item – transforming players into a different character, just for fun. If you are lucky and happen to be transformed into a character you don’t yet have, such as Coin Coffer, Dolphin, or Cataquack, you’ll permanently unlock that character.
So simply put, unlocking the majority of Mario Kart World’s roster of characters is a matter of taking part in races and hoping yourself or a fellow racer receives Kamek.
All Mario Kart World characters
To help you keep a track of who you have left to unlock in Mario Kart World, here are all characters and how they’re unlocked:
For more on Mario Kart World, take a look at our guide to how to unlock all vehicles in the game.