Mario Kart World Runs Natively on Mac in Shock Fan Port

A developer has gotten the Switch 2 exclusive Mario Kart World running natively on macOS via the NXNative project — no emulator required — and an iOS version may be just hours away.

Well, that didn't take long. Mario Kart World is barely out the gate as a Switch 2 exclusive, and someone's already got it running on a Mac — natively, no emulator required.

The developer behind the feat, Will Faust, showed off a demo on social media using a branch of the NXNative project. According to Faust, the whole porting job came together in a surprisingly short amount of time. Unlike the usual emulation route, this approach skips the emulation layer entirely and rebuilds the game to run natively on the target hardware. That makes it the first known native port of a Switch 2 game.

From the footage shared, things look promising: the title screen loads up fine, and race tracks render and play as you'd expect. It's an early look, sure, but seeing a current-gen Nintendo exclusive booting up on a Mac is the kind of thing that turns heads.

Naturally, the comments section lit up with the obvious question — can it run on iPhone? Faust didn't shut the idea down. Instead, he teased responders by telling them to wait a few hours, strongly hinting that an iOS version is on the way sooner rather than later.

It's worth keeping expectations in check. This is a fan-driven technical showcase, not an official release, and Nintendo is famously protective of its properties. Still, as a proof of concept, a native port of a Switch 2 game this soon after launch is a wild thing to witness.

Would you try Mario Kart World on your Mac or iPhone if it landed? Let us know in the comments.