List of Mario Kart World glitches

This is a list of glitches in Mario Kart World. All names are conjectural unless otherwise stated.

Glitches

Disabled Lakitu

Mario exploring an out-of-bounds area in Rainbow Road. Note Lakitu attempting to pick up Mario; this animation would play continuously while the glitch was active.

In VS Race or Time Trials, if the player selected any course, plugged in a single Joy-Con or Joy-Con 2 controller at the "OK" screen, and started the race or time trial with precise timing before the controller screen appeared, they would load into the course with the UI and race start timer sound effects missing. In this state, if the player entered an out-of-bounds area or fell off the course, they would not be picked up by Lakitu despite having the out-of-bounds animation play. This allowed the player to freely explore a glitched version of the game's world map, which lacked most objects and had non-functional Warp Pipes. The player could exit this state by pausing the game, entering Photo Mode, or swapping controllers. If the glitch was done on Rainbow Road, the course's visibility would be unloaded once the player respawned if they fell off it. This is because the Rainbow Road version of the world map is a different, very low-poly version of the normal world map. The visibility of Rainbow Road is tied to this version of the world map, and once the player falls off and reaches a certain height, it can be seen that the game replaces the low-poly world map with the glitched one. Even if the player respawns, the low-poly map (along with Rainbow Road's visibilty) will not be reloaded and the glitched world map will continue to stay loaded.

After ten minutes, the race or time trial is forced to end; if the Lakitu glitch was still active at this point, all menu options would cause the game to be unresponsive, forcing the player to close it via the HOME Menu. This could be avoided by disconnecting a controller before selecting a menu option.

This glitch was fixed in the version 1.4.1 patch, released on December 15, 2025, but the glitch can still be done if the player does not update their game.

Out-of-bounds shortcut

In online races on Whistlestop Summit and Dandelion Depths, players can abuse the fact that Lakitu will not pick up their COM-controlled character immediately after leaving a room. On Whistlestop Summit, if a player jumps off to the right on the yellow rail after the long bridge and leaves the race before getting picked up by Lakitu, he will not pick up the COM-controlled character that races in place of the player, causing it to skip to the path below. On Dandelion Depths, if a player jumps off to the left of the road in the spiral turn and leaves the race before getting picked up by Lakitu, he will also not pick up the COM-controlled character that races in place of the player, causing it to skip to the end of the course's water section. If the glitch is done on the final lap, it will cause them a near guaranteed win unless first place is too close to the place where they end up after the shortcut. This is only useful in online lobbies during the last race due to the player's score resetting when they rejoin.

Stuck Bomber Bill

The shrunken Bomber Bill on the left side of the road, shortly before disappearing

If a Banzai Bill Cannon carried by a pickup truck shoots a Bomber Bill inside of a Knockout Tour checkpoint, the Bomber Bill will briefly become stuck inside the checkpoint before disappearing. In this state, the Bomber Bill remains shrunken down as if it were still inside the cannon.