After a delay and some handwringing over its very mobile game microtransactions in the beta, Nintendo’s next game for phones is almost here. Mario Kart Tour releases for free on iOS and Android on September 25. Watch the new trailers. Some of these worldwide courses look so cool (New Donk City!) we wish they were in a Mario Kart game that didn’t exploit us.
After a slight delay, beta users are finally getting their hands on Mario Kart Tour, Nintendo’s next high-profile mobile game. Considering the mascot racer is one of Nintendo’s most popular franchises, putting it on a platform as huge as mobile makes a ton of sense. Unfortunately, early reports suggest that this is yet another promising game corrupted by unethical exploitative free-to-play mobile practices. See for yourself.
Looks like Mario Kart Tour beta is pretty hardcore with regards to monetization.
Multi-level gacha for drivers, karts and gliders.
Rare drivers have advantages during races.
Stamina system limits races available on an hourly basis.
(Subject to change, this is a beta.)
— Dr. Serkan Toto ? E3 2019 (@serkantoto) May 22, 2019
Considering this is a beta, Nintendo still has time to potentially adjust Mario Kart Tour’s in-game economy before it launches. Delay it again if that’s what it takes to make it more fair. But as long as the game remains free-to-play, it’ll always be inherently untrustworthy. It really seems like government regulation will be the ultimate solution to this problem. Earlier this week Nintendo announced it’s pulling certain mobile games from certain European territories to comply with new anti-loot box laws. The rest of the world should get on that, too.
At least the Switch is doing well for Nintendo, experiencing record-breaking sales on the strength of games like Pokemon Let’s Go and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, but it isn’t the only platform Nintendo puts its games on. And no we aren’t talking about the 3DS, which really needs to be put out to pasture already.
For the past couple of years Nintendo has been dabbling with mobile games, bringing franchises like Mario and Fire Emblem and Animal Crossing to your iPhones and Android phones. You’ll have to wait a little bit longer for the next Nintendo mobile game though because Mario Kart Tour, as is tradition now for Nintendo mobile games, has just been delayed.
Mario Kart Tour was announced over a year ago as Nintendo’s next mobile game and was slated to come out before the end of this fiscal year ending in March 2019. But the only Nintendo game we got in 2018 was the original RPG Dragalia Lost co-developed by Cygames. And at a recent financial briefing Nintendo confirmed the kart racer won’t be hitting smartphones until summer 2019. We don’t even know what the game looks like yet.
Nintendo said it’s focusing on improving the quality of the game and making sure there’s a steady stream of post-release content. Mario Kart is one of Nintendo’s most important franchises. This briefing also included the stat that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is the best-selling Nintendo Switch game at 15 million copies sold.
So it makes sense Nintendo wants the game to be the best it can on a platform with an even bigger mainstream audience, especially considering how past Nintendo mobile games like Super Mario Run have slightly and surprisingly underperformed. Besides, as far as Nintendo delays go, anything looks better after learning Metroid Prime 4 was basically rebooted last week.
For more on mobile games please consider our plea on why you should pay for them and check out what we think the next Nintendo mobile games should be.
