I got randomly selected to participate in the Mario Kart Tour Beta. I'm not a mobile gamer. I'm not a game reviewer. I'm just a guy who like Nintendo vidjya games and likes to play whatever he can. The internet has been very upset about how the game is working. As someone who's put roughly two hours into it, I can say that I don't understand why.
Let's start with big one. Microtransactions and gatcha elements. Yes, these are not thrilling to have but the thing is, they can be completely ignored. The game gives you either coins or "emeralds" for completing cups, leveling up (which is done by performing well) and completing weekly challenges. Coins can be used in the in game shop to buy characters and kart pieces with no blind drawing at all. You can also use emeralds to fire off a pipe that will give you a random character or kart piece. It takes a significantly fewer amount of emeralds to get something than it does coins.
Yes, you will probably be able to purchase this currency with real money but there are two reasons why this isn't an issue.
1) The game gives you enough currency to frequently fire off the gatcha pipe.
2) At the end of the day, it barely matters how rare your things are when playing the game.
You see, there is a rarity system and yes, some items are better than others... sort of. Each individual track has a predetermined list of characters, karts, and gliders that perform better. A character can have either no change, two item slots, or three item slots. Karts have either no change, a small speed boost, or a big speed boost, gliders have either normal item luck, increased item luck, or extraordinary item luck. Since this list is different for each track, you are almost guaranteed to have an advantage in at least some of the tracks and if you play for long enough, you'll get enough good items for the majority of them.
Even if you're stuck with a poor performing set, as long as you are competent, you will still probably place well. At the end of the day, I haven't noticed a huge discrepancy between stellar and average performing karts.
What about the stamina? Well, I've never played the game longer than 20 minutes at a time. I don't think anyone will. If you like Mario Kart enough to play extendedly, buy a Switch. I'm sure it's obnoxious but I don't know, it never has been an issue to me.
My actual issues with the game are its performance and controls. It's super stuttery. I'm using an LG stylo 4 which is on the lower end of minimum spec requirements but it is constantly dropping frames. The controls take a lot of getting used to too. Fortunately, there's a steer assist that is almost necessary but you get used to it eventually and the looser feeling controls sometimes add a franticness to the game that is lost when things like drift is automated.
Anyway, that's mario kart tour. It's decently fun. I'll probably stick to Mario Kart 8 though. This is a phone game after all. I just thought I'd clear up some unnecessary confusion.
Let's start with big one. Microtransactions and gatcha elements. Yes, these are not thrilling to have but the thing is, they can be completely ignored. The game gives you either coins or "emeralds" for completing cups, leveling up (which is done by performing well) and completing weekly challenges. Coins can be used in the in game shop to buy characters and kart pieces with no blind drawing at all. You can also use emeralds to fire off a pipe that will give you a random character or kart piece. It takes a significantly fewer amount of emeralds to get something than it does coins.
Yes, you will probably be able to purchase this currency with real money but there are two reasons why this isn't an issue.
1) The game gives you enough currency to frequently fire off the gatcha pipe.
2) At the end of the day, it barely matters how rare your things are when playing the game.
You see, there is a rarity system and yes, some items are better than others... sort of. Each individual track has a predetermined list of characters, karts, and gliders that perform better. A character can have either no change, two item slots, or three item slots. Karts have either no change, a small speed boost, or a big speed boost, gliders have either normal item luck, increased item luck, or extraordinary item luck. Since this list is different for each track, you are almost guaranteed to have an advantage in at least some of the tracks and if you play for long enough, you'll get enough good items for the majority of them.
Even if you're stuck with a poor performing set, as long as you are competent, you will still probably place well. At the end of the day, I haven't noticed a huge discrepancy between stellar and average performing karts.
What about the stamina? Well, I've never played the game longer than 20 minutes at a time. I don't think anyone will. If you like Mario Kart enough to play extendedly, buy a Switch. I'm sure it's obnoxious but I don't know, it never has been an issue to me.
My actual issues with the game are its performance and controls. It's super stuttery. I'm using an LG stylo 4 which is on the lower end of minimum spec requirements but it is constantly dropping frames. The controls take a lot of getting used to too. Fortunately, there's a steer assist that is almost necessary but you get used to it eventually and the looser feeling controls sometimes add a franticness to the game that is lost when things like drift is automated.
Anyway, that's mario kart tour. It's decently fun. I'll probably stick to Mario Kart 8 though. This is a phone game after all. I just thought I'd clear up some unnecessary confusion.
hmmm I'm a terrible pirate lol
