Mario Kart has been one of Nintendo’s most iconic series since its debut on Super Nintendo and still today is every bit as fun, the latest release coming on the Nintendo Switch as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. With up to 12 racers per race, keeping up with where your opponents are in relation to you is something that you would typically want available, but having a mini-map with that information can also be a bit distracting, making some people want to turn it off.
For those that want to turn off the map for whatever the reason, you can do so rather easily. This isn’t something you can do from within the pre-race menu or anything, but rather you have to do it from during the race itself from the pause menu. As you may have noticed in the past though, you cannot pause the game prior to the start of a race, so you will have to wait until after you get going before you can access the menu.
At the point where you can actually pause after the start of the race, do so and then look at the screen. You will notice in the bottom right corner of the box with information in it that it has an icon that says “Map On” with an X also there. This means you simply have to press X while in the pause menu and it will turn the map off. If you want to turn it back on, all you have to do is simply hit the X button again.
The good news for those that do not like having the map turned on, you will not have to turn it back off again if you leave it off. If you exit out and start a new race, the default will have it off at that point. It is a little annoying that there’s no pre-race option, but at least it will save your previous setting choice.
While turning off the mini-map works just fine in modes like Grand Prix, this is not the case in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s revamped Battle Mode. The mini-map is so important in that mode that you cannot disable it, which does make sense.
