It has been revealed that the tight controls of Mario Kart World and its immensely fun grinding and wall riding were all brought about by the development team’s enjoyment of extreme sports on their lunch breaks. Some members of the team brought their skateboards and BMX’s to work with them to play around on when they were on a break as a way to let off some steam.
“We even have some staff members who go skateboarding or ride their bikes outside of the development team’s office building during lunch breaks.” According to Yabuki, the programmer who was in charge of vehicle controls is actually an avid fan of not only cars, but also sports like skateboarding, snowboarding and surfing. Having experienced many of them firsthand, the programmer implemented a lot of the elements of these sports into the game in order to make the character controls feel smooth and satisfying.
