Despite a roster of titles seemingly perfect for mobile gaming, Nintendo has struggled to crack the market. That could be set to change with Mario Kart Tour, its seventh attempt, and the first that might actually deliver an industry-dominating blockbuster.
More than any of Nintendo’s mobile titles, Mario Kart is a powerhouse franchise. And more than any other Nintendo franchise, it seems fundamentally suited to the demands of a successful mobile game: the pick up and play factor that allows players to drop in and out of gaming on short, commutable bursts. (Because who would want an idle moment to sit and really think).
Unfortunately, Mario Kart Tour turns out to be a lightly entertaining title let down by an opaque and miserly transaction system.
The game takes the Mario Kart formula and simplifies it. Instead of the familiar mashing down of your controller’s A button to accelerate, the process is now automatic – you merely guide your perpetually advancing kart left or right with your thumb. (Gyro steering settings, which have you steer with motion controls, are also available). As a Mario Kart mobile game, it feels right and appropriate to steer with a single digit. Your free hand is free to do whatever freed hands do in late capitalist society: toke on your Juul, down your McDonald’s coffee, or whip out another device and play a concurrent game of Mario Kart.
Nintendo has promised a shifting selection of city-courses inspired by real-world locations. (First up is New York City). Currently, no multiplayer option is available, though Nintendo has also promised to roll one out in the coming weeks. At the moment you seem to be pitted against AI players named with existing Nintendo gamertags; perhaps why I was soundly beaten by a Princess Peach named “Thotsweeper.” How Nintendo deals with player’s connections cutting out in tunnels, on trains or in the bath remains to be seen.
Items, of course, play an often frustratingly large role in this franchise, and Tour is no exception. The paranoid style of Mario Kart racing returns: you are perpetually at risk of a blue shell catapulting you skyward, arbitrarily ruining a perfect drive. In fact, if anything, Mario Kart Tour is even more item-dominated: certain characters allow you to pick up three items at once and, like a slot machine, if you match all of these items you activate a ‘frenzy’ that allows you to fire off said items like a machine gun.
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And speaking of slot machines! Mario Kart Tour’s transaction system is described as ‘free-to-start’. In the run up to its release, there has been much discussion about Nintendo’s incorporation of ‘gacha’ game mechanics, gacha being a Japanese word for capsule-toy vending machines popular in Japan. These let you pay some yen and receive a random toy from your favourite franchise – you might taste success with that Charizard you always wanted, or be left crestfallen with a deplorable Magikarp.
In video game terms, think loot-boxes. In Mario Kart Tour, you can use ‘rubies’ to ‘fire off the pipe’ – basically a randomised gift-system – to get more racers, karts and gliders. Each Pipe lets you launch it 100 times in a week long period, and certain ‘spotlighted’ characters are guaranteed to appear in this 100.
The pipe is accompanied by a confounding array of micro-transaction currencies, which I shall now try to elucidate. The aforementioned rubies are earned through completing races, and can also be purchased for sums (three rubies for £1.99) of real life cash. Gold coins are the game’s internal currency – they allow you to buy karts and gliders. (Coins are lying about race tracks to be collected, or you can play rounds of “coin rush” against Gold Mario, a game you enter for more rubies).
Players also gain or lose ‘points’ based on where they finish in the race – you get more race experience from racing on a wider variety of courses, or on different speeds. These points allow players to unlock grand stars, which let you enter more cups (completing different cups gets you tour gifts.) Players can also subscribe to a £4.99 a month gold pass, which allows them to unlock more gifts and badges while they race and also unlocks the top level 200cc mode.
The point of this tiresome explanation is to highlight that Mario Kart Tour's transaction system is chaos – it reminded me of a monetised version of the ‘collect em up’ rareware titles released around the turn of the millennium. So far, the rewards feel both meagre and essential. Tour is very much pay to win – karts are tiered, for instance, and higher tiered ones drive faster. Consider that the gold pass costs more than Switch Online, and the same as the entirety of Apple’s Arcade, and Mario Kart Tour seems exorbitant.
Still, if widely reported server overloads on launch day are any indicator, Mario Kart Tour seems primed for success. When compared to a changing mobile market, however, the game’s transaction system feels stuck in another era.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
