Mario Kart Tour

Mario Kart Tour
Developer	Nintendo EPD, DeNA, Bandai Namco
Publisher	Nintendo
System	ioS, Android
Release Date	September 25, 2019
Rating	ESRB: E

Mario Kart Tour is a kart racing mobile app game that acts as a mobile version of the Mario Kart series. It went live in September 2019 and follows a free-to-play model, in which the game is free to play, but there are extras that can be purchased with player's real-world currency. This game would receive new content regularly for four years until October 2023.

Gameplay

This game uses a simplified version of the Mario Kart gameplay, in which the player accelerates automatically. By tapping the phone's screen, the player can steer the player's kart, use items and activate extra boosts. To complement the mobile gaming style, races are shortened and consist of only two laps. There are still gliding and underwater segments from past games. Players can choose a racer, kart and glider for each race. Instead of weight classes, racers/karts/gliders are split into three tiers, and the tiers are different for each race. A character's tier decides how many items they get in a time during a race, with the highest tier getting three items at a time. If a racer gets three of the same item from an item box, that will activate a Frenzy in which the player is temporarily invincible and can use the item constantly until the Frenzy period elapses. The player can still choose between the same four speed classes (50cc, 100cc, 150cc and 200cc), but 200cc is only available to Gold Pass players.

The app has several different campaigns that are known as tours. Tours last several weeks. They follow certain themes, usually reflecting real world places, and different stages appear in tours. Each tour involves going through various Cups that are named after different characters. Each cup consists of three races and a bonus stage in which a player has to accomplish a specific objective (such as defeating goombas or collecting item boxes). Placing first in races is no longer the primary objective in Mario Kart Tour, as everything is decided by how many points a player accumulates in a race. The players' points earn Grand Stars, which are needed to progress to other Cups and to unlock gifts for the player. Players also accumulate coins from races, which can be put towards purchases at the in-game shop. Winning races will still go towards raising the player's tier level. There is also a Coin Rush Mode in which the player controls Gold Mario and focuses on racking up coins, but it requires ruby payments to play.

Rubies are a type of currency in the game that can be bought with real-world currency or can be earned through some accomplishments within the game. They can be put towards firing a pipe or towards playing Coin Rush. Firing the pipe is the game's gacha feature; by paying five rubies, the pipe can be fired to unlock a racer, kart or glider at random. Duplicates will be merged to increase the original's skill level. The game also has a shop where the player can spend coins to unlock racers, karts or gliders. The shop's inventory changes daily, and more daily offerings become available as the player's rank increases. There are also some special bundle deals that are available by paying directly with real-world currency. Tour also has a Gold Pass available. By paying a subscription fee for the Gold Pass, players will be able to take part in 200cc races and receive extra rewards. Starting in October 2022, the pipe utilized rubies was removed in order to step away from the gacha mechanic.

Several other features were added over time: a multiplayer mode supporting up to eight players in March 2020, playable Miis in March 2022 and a Battle Mode in October 2022. The game regularly received new content in each tour including racers (and later Mii Racing Suits), karts and tracks for the first four years of its run. It was later announced that after 2023's Anniversary Tour (which ran from September to the beginning of October 2023), the app would no longer receive new content, and all future tours would contain only content recycled from past tours.

Playable Characters

When starting the game, the player can fire the pipe for free to unlock their starting racer, which is guaranteed to be either Toad or Toadette. A full list of the possible playable characters can be found here.

Legacy

Mario Kart Tour has been known as one of the more successful of Nintendo's mobile game ventures. It outlived Dr. Mario World and was only outsold by Fire Emblem Heroes when it came to Nintendo's mobile games. Tracks from the game would later be added to the preceding Mario Kart title, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as part of the paid Booster Course Pass.