Mario Kart Tour Heads To Tokyo This Week With New Courses And Characters On The Way

The game just keeps on giving.

Monetization at its absolute greediest. I thought Nintendo was above this sort of freemium garbage.

Yeah, no; I’m more interested in multiplayer going live than any of this.

@johnvboy
"giving"?

You should be able to put a game on your ignore list so articles don't keep popping up and you can pretend the piece of gambling trash doesn't exist.

Or I could hope Nintendo Life realises that by promoting this game so much they are part of the problem and stop doing it.

Both outcomes seem unlikely.

"The app notes that when the current tour ends, its tour gifts and spotlight drivers, karts, and gliders will no longer be available".
I wonder if the are going to disappear from the shop only, and will stay with the player if have been already received, or the will disappear from everywhere

@Gau Shop only I'm guessing, I don't see why they would take them away

@SBandy Nintendolife is about Nintendo news and this is Nintendo news.

And censorship would be the website's beginning of the end.

@smashboy2000 NintendoLife is already censorship based, albeit in Nintendo's favour - rather notably they DIDN'T report on this story a few months back: https://nintendosoup.com/nintendo-is-handing-over-email-addresses-and-information-of-their-users-to-facebook-for-advertising/

@Jawessome hadn't seen the 5+ other Nintendo gachas then?

Does it mean that we won't be able to race in New York? I haven't had the time to finish the NY event.

Loving this game, not spent a penny and absolutely no need to. Lot of moaning kids on here, move on with your life children.

@Noid crapbook follows everything doesn't it...

@smashboy2000 optional account based news article filter is not censorship

Just imagine if these were in Mario Kart 8

@smashboy2000

Nintendo Life has always cherry picked what stories to report on, like any gaming site does, and they are not obligated to report on every update on every Nintendo game.

The fact they continue to post articles on this gambling trash reflects badly on them in my opinion.

pretty happy with the game so far. at least i have way more drivers here than doctors in dr. mario world (without paying in either)...

Mario's coming home.... (yeah i know he's supposed to be Italian but he's more Japanese to me)

Loving this game. Always have low battery because of this game. I love the new tracks and the changes in tracks. This has more levels than Mario kart 8 deluxe and it’s completely free. Give us mk9 ultimate soon nintendo.

i like the game, completed all cups without spending a penny, and can see myself playing for longer than any other mobile game with the 2weekly change in tours

@Skalgrim,

Mobile game with additional paid for content, that's the model of mobile games, why should Nintendo do it any differently?, when they did try the one payment method with Mario Run nobody bought into it, just because we personally do not like the mobile games business model does not mean everybody else feels this way, hence the size of the growing market and revinue.

What's with the fake multiplayer? It seems like you play against other people but in reality you're just driving against the computer. Also, getting those rare characters is almost impossible or maybe I'm just unlucky.

@SBandy
Well said, day in and out we get to read these articles about this trash gambling game, i also have a feeling they promoting this stuff, theres nothing good about these games

Its amazing how either people like this game, or they don't. There's seemly no middle ground

Let's hope we get lucky and get the new characters out the pipe.
I still haven't got any of the other new york characters yet and used all my rubies on the pipe i have collected.

@johnvboy
Yes, but this game took the micro transaction AND subscription to another level. And leaves a very bad taste. This isn't Nintendo IMO.

Haven't downloaded this and don't intend to.

Is there some way to block certain tags on NL? I never want to see posts about cash grab mobile games when I visit the site.

This game shouldn't be mentioned at all on here.

@SBandy Maybe it's because, if you look at the comments, there are plenty of other people who are having fun with it and doing so without spending a penny on it. You may not like the practice – I don't either – but it's not entirely accurate to imply that by covering it Nintendo Life is somehow enabling gambling, since plenty of readers are playing it perfectly well without bothering with the microtransactions.

@scully1888

I know plenty of people will be able to play and enjoy the game without paying a penny but there will be some who start pumping money into the game and could get addicted. Whilst Nintendo Life of course isn't directly responsible the constant promotion of the game may lead to an increase in the people who go to try it and therefore a possible increase in the people who get caught up in the gambling mechanics of the game.

I wouldn't want to be involved in that cycle in any way personally.

@SBandy And people could get addicted playing Fortnite too, or FIFA, or Super Kirby Clash, or Warframe, or Paladins, or Pokemon Quest, or Fallout Shelter, or any of the other free-to-play games on Switch. The site will do its bit by calling out microtransactions in the game's review (as I did in my Mario Kart Tour review for this site), but not reporting on any of them after that and pretending they don't exist is doing a disservice to the people who enjoy these games and can do so without issue.

This game doesn't feel like it should be nearly as enjoyable as it actually is, given its control issues and microtransactions, and yet at its best it channels the most frantic moments of the mainline games. I won't spend anything on it, but it's the only mobile game that's kept me playing consistently.

@scully1888

Yes but I haven't seen any articles on those games which appear to be rejoicing about how many downloads those games have had or how much money the games have made to date through those scummy gambling mechanics. The last part in particular I find distasteful.

Plus there has probably been more articles on Mario Kart Tour in the last 3 weeks than those games combined.

On one hand the gatcha of this game is so awful.

On the other hand the modified courses in this game are great.

@SBandy Mario Kart Tour is the big free-to-play game at the moment, and it's a Nintendo game: that's why it's getting more articles this week. Any time Fortnite does something new, it gets covered too: there are loads of Fortnite articles on the site.

As for reporting on how much money they've made, if anything to me they show how little impact they've made: it may have made $12.7 million in its first week, but it's been downloaded 90.1 million times, meaning the average spent per player is $0.14.

On top of that, the article reports that Super Mario Run made $16m in its first week and Fire Emblem Heroes made $28.2m, each of which were downloaded far fewer times. That to me suggests that Mario Kart Tour relies far less on microtransactions than the others.

@SBandy Not exactly what you asked for but it's worked well for me in the past when I was in a mood -

What you can do, rather than bookmark nintnedolife.com - which I'm assuming you're doing, if you're typing in nintendolife.com every time you come here well I can't help ya - is bookmark the Switch pages instead. It cuts down on all the mobile articles and non-Nintendo stuff that they've had a lot of of late.

https://www.nintendolife.com/nintendo-switch

You do risk losing out on 3DS articles, but those have been very few and far between of late anyway. Almost everything is on the Switch page, compare that link to the front page here. Almost the only thing missing on the Switch page is this article and the typhoon article.

https://www.nintendolife.com/

@rjejr

Cheers. I am going to do that!

I realise I can go off the deep end when it comes to these mobile games with gambling mechanics and if I see an article about it I can't help but comment sometimes.

It is an issue that is not going away so the best approach will be out of sight out of mind I think.

@Skalgrim,

People often moan about compaines like SEGA having to pull out of the console business, but also moan when a company want's to make money, If Nintendo had have brought this payment model to it's Switch console I would agree with you, but they have not, all they have done is made a mobile game that is pretty similar to other mobile games in it's payment model, have you ever considered the game is just not designed for you?.

New character on the way! Kimono Mario! Metal Kimono Mario! And finally, last but not least, Matcha Metal Kimono Mario!!! WOWOWOW, such a strong line up joining the amazing array of cast that already exist like Mario, Baby Mario, Metal Mario and the ever so innovative Musician Mario!

@johnvboy
Yes I have. And it’s not for me. That doesn’t mean I can’t complain about that specific payment model. That I find obnoxious. I don’t often play mobile games, but I love MK. Therefore I was looking forward to this game.
And I disagree with similar to other models. At least from the Nintendo mobile games. This game crossed the line imo.

@johnvboy you are right. This is just on mobile and is a different market. It’s not like EA, Activison, Ubisoft and take2 started out doing that garbage on mobile and brought it over to their triple AAA releases. No thank god, they left them on mobile......😒

Nintendo is facing a lot of pressure and criticism from investors and analysts because they don't make much revenue from mobile gaming compared to other game publishers. They tried to let mobile gamers pay a one-time fee to buy the game with Super Mario Run. Mobile gamers rejected that approach. So now Nintendo is doing what all of the other mobile free to play publishers do. If consumers did not buy all of these microtransactions, then these games would not exist, just as they did not exist in the early years of mobile gaming. This game could be sold for $20 plus DLC, but consumers don't buy mobile games for $20 or more.

@scully1888

Mario Run did come with a £10 price tag so I imagine that is the reasoning why it made more money. I know that it was seen as a failure which has led Nintendo to go down this scummy path, but that doesn't make it any less scummy.

I also imagine millions of the people who downloaded Mario Kart Tour swiftly deleted it when they saw what a b******isation it was of the real thing so the spend per user stat is a bit pointless. It will be a minority spending a lot because thats what Nintendo really wants: People to develop gambling problems and spend far too much on a "free to play" game.

Yes that description is over the top but that is how I see the people who make these games.

Anyway I will be following @rjejr 's advice and just stick to Switch news so I don't have to see any news on this game again (hopefully) so be thankfull that my rants will soon cease! Well on this topic at least haha.

@Skalgrim,

Crossed a line because you do not agree with the payment model on a personal level, and of course you can complan as much as you want, but I will tell you now there are loads of people more than happy with mobile games and how they are paid for, and as somebody pointed out on here before they have not spent a penny on the game thus far.

@Mr_Pepperami,

Exactly, the way some people are moaning you would think this game was Mario Kart 9 on the Switch.

@SBandy I think it's extremely irresponsible to suggest that Nintendo "wants people to develop gambling problems". There's a difference between wanting to make money and actively hoping people develop a condition.

@scully1888

I said my description was over the top.

But in reply I think it is even more irresponsible actually making the games with mechanics that can lead to people developing gambling addictions. That can and does happen.

@SBandy Good luck. I think I did it for a few months a few years ago during the dieing days of the Wii U when everything was about the 3DS, then when we got a Switch I went back to the main page. Now I just gloss over all the articles that don't interest me. Hence my "NintnedoLife and That!" avatar.

@SBandy The nice thing about bookmarking /Switch.com is it's easy to just click on the big Nintendo Life banner at the top if you want to see all the stuff you're missing, just takes a second. Now if I could just find a way to weed out all the Fortnite articles.

@rjejr

I fully stand up for what I beleive in (that Mario Kart Tour and its ilk are gambling mechanic fused trash masquerading as games) but I am beginning to sound like a broken record in these articles so I will take a break from any further articles regarding them for a while.

Cheers!

@SBandy,

Quick there is an article on here saying "Fortnite ruined my childs life", there is some millage in that thread I tell you.

@johnvboy

Live service trash on top of this?! I will leave it for today!

Meh... I'll be playing CodeMaster F1 2019 SAZUKA Event going on all week till the Japanese GP.

Even just watching the F1 race on my phone is a better use of my weekend than playing this garbage.

Hello there lovely people! In my opinion, NL has to report on this. It's Nintendo after all. They did report and keep on reporting on the subject in a very objective way. @Scully1888 did never neglect the fact that the pay to win prices and loot boxes are a big jump on a Goomba. And we all love Goombas, right? In my opinion, the score is too high. A 4/10 would fit. But that is MY opinion. And I don't have any mentionable expertise on mobile games. Maybe @scully1888 does. Or doesn't. It doesn't matter: To the retro consoleros this might be an offence. But NL has to go with the time. And I can't understand that some folks are getting that irritated about reporters doing their jobs. It got a 7/10 if I rember correctly. And for a mobile game it might be just the right score. Even if I and some other people, who I would really want to have beer and a round of real Mario Kart with, do disagree.

Nintendo is doing a lot of stuff in this game that I usually play their games precicely because they don't do.

I love this game. It's so much fun to beat a friends Highscore. The Switch version is maybe better, but the competition level is much higher in the mobile game. Completed everything and bought the gold pass today. Now waiting for tomorrow, new courses and characters.
But the best about this game: after playing some rounds with friends, we met yesterday for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on Switch. This mobile game started a new MarioKartBuddyNight. Amazing!

All the microtransactions would be worth it if that was kilt Mario was wearing and we could get a birds eye view.

I deleted this crap barely 24 hours after I downloaded it.