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Mario Kart Tour is a fine racing game. The graphics are lovely. The simple touch controls are fine once you get used to them. It's overflowing with colorful Nintendo brand polish. Mario Kart Tour is also a free-to-play game with a microtransaction-fueled gacha mechanic collection and game options and rewards locked behind a paid monthly subscription. If that is not so good, you might have a good time with Nintendo's latest mobile game.
"Nintendo games still do not feel right on mobile," wrote Gita Jackson in late 2017, commenting on the strange dissonance felt while playing games like Fire Emblem Heroes, Super Mario Run, and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp after years playing the console games in those series. Two years later, after Dr. Mario World and now Mario Kart Tour, and that dissonance remains. Games we've spent playing on Nintendo consoles feel weird on phones and tablets. Especially when a game like Mario Kart gets turned on its side.
In part, I mean that literally. What an odd choice, taking a game we're playing in landscape fashion and making it portrait. The narrow screen makes it more difficult to see competitors coming up with your racer. It's not a great view on my iPad. It's even worse on my skinnier iPhone. Having played the game for a couple of hours now, I'm still in my hands.
I'm used to the race Mario Kart tracks. That's not what happens in Mario Kart Tour. Karts move forward automatically. All I have to do is tap left or right to steer (there's a gyro steering option but it's rubbish). It does not matter where they are, and they have their own handling, but it is not good.
As alien as Mario Kart Tour can feel at first, it's not really the gameplay or screen orientation that makes it feel like the awkward cousin of a proper Mario Kart game. It's the structure. It's collecting stars awarded for achieving high scores in races to unlock new circuits. It's tracks where some racers have distinct advantages over others. Musician Mario, one of the special racers at the game's New York City-themed opening event, has a special power that grants him two Bob-ombs instead of one when he collects that power-up. Looking at his racer page, we can see which races by him.
Certain racers having a distinct advantage over others in certain situations is not great. The game's gacha feature, in which players can spend in-game currency for a chance to unlock rare racers, race they play. That's not the same, but there is no real-time multiplayer in the game-currently, players race against computer-controlled ghosts with real players' names attached to them.
Mario Kart Tour is not quite as bad as it was during beta. The test version of the game Ethan Gach played a stamina / energy meter, one of the most obnoxious free-to-play mechanics, which is more expensive. The launch version of the game lets you play all you want. The green gems are now rubies, and does not seem to reward you for buying more of them. Instead, there's a $ 4.99 monthly Gold Pass subscription that grants players better rewards for complete races (including extra rubies), exclusive vehicles and equipment, and access to more challenging 200cc races.
Is an optional monthly subscription better than earning rewards for buying currency? Not really. Especially when Mario Kart Tour launched just days after Apple Arcade, a subscription service with more than 70 high-quality, microtransaction-free games for the same $ 4.99 price. Apple Arcade is mobile gaming without all the bullshit. Mario Kart Tour is a Nintendo game with a big extra helping of bullshit.
According to Apptopia app app, Mario Kart Tour shattered launch-day records yesterday, with more than 10.1 million installs across iOS and Android devices. The idea of a free Nintendo mobile game is an attractive prospect for many, many people. I wonder how long that will last.
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