Mario Kart Tour

Mr E · 01-02-2018 07:51AM #1

Deserves its own thread, I think.

https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/958876622517452801

blockfighter · 01-02-2018 08:22AM

Great for people who don't own a switch. Could act as an incentive to buy the console.
Personally I've no interest. I already have a portable Mario kart game.

CiDeRmAn · 01-02-2018 10:18AM

As a potential new Mario Kart game I can't wait, but I would hope that they don't overload this with micropayments and social media connections.
The Super Mario Run model is possibly the one they'll use but, in that title, it all was so brief!

earthwormjack · 01-02-2018 12:56PM

I don't think they'll use the super mario run price model. One off payments don't make enough money on mobile unfortunately.

Fire Emblem Heroes made a little bit more money with far less downloads as far as I recall. Mario Kart will be a grind for coins to race or a limit of 3 to 5 races a day for free and pay for "race boosts" or some nonsense i think. Hopefully I'm very, very wrong which will most likely be the case

Mr E · 01-02-2018 01:02PM

I wonder if they'll go the Subway Surfer route (having set 'tracks' through the play area, swipe to move between them).
They could have branching paths, power ups and could still be good fun if done right.

It would work better on mobile than a virtual joystick anyway... They could monitise it very easily too.

CiDeRmAn · 01-02-2018 01:08PM

As said already by blockfighter, good thing we all have perfectly fantastic portable Mario Kart games already, MK7 and MK8Dx!

Bob24 · 12-02-2018 12:07PM

earthwormjack wrote: »

I don't think they'll use the super mario run price model. One off payments don't make enough money on mobile unfortunately.

Fire Emblem Heroes made a little bit more money with far less downloads as far as I recall. Mario Kart will be a grind for coins to race or a limit of 3 to 5 races a day for free and pay for "race boosts" or some nonsense i think. Hopefully I'm very, very wrong which will most likely be the case

I hope Nintendo is better than this, but sadly you might be right.

I guess it depends on how they see it. If the goal is to give the best user experience and attract people to the Switch, a one off payment is probably better (Super Mario Run is partly why I bought a switch after years of not play games on any platform bar iOS games once in a while, but hating the free to play model).

If they look at the game in isolation and the goal is to have as many users and make as much money as possible, a free to play model with micro transaction is probably the way to go.

Mr E · 12-02-2018 12:29PM

They've already said that it will be "free to start", so you would assume that it will be a freemium game with micro-transactions.

Having said that, SMR was free to start too (the first 4 levels could be played as much as you wanted).

Bob24 · 12-02-2018 12:43PM

Mr E wrote: »

They've already said that it will be "free to start", so you would assume that it will be a freemium game with micro-transactions.

Having said that, SMR was free to start too (the first 4 levels could be played as much as you wanted).

Yes based on SMR “free to start” could also mean a trial mode with maybe just one track and not all game modes, and a once off payment to unlock everything else.

In that case I wouldn’t mind, but I don’t think we can assume either way.

Mr E · 22-05-2019 11:34PM

The beta came out today (for those who applied for it). It sounds like a huge mess.
The camera is very close behind your kart, limiting your viewing angle (so you need to know the track very well to take advantage of it).

There are multiple currencies and a play timer. You have 5 hearts and each race costs a heart. You get a new heart every 12 minutes.
There is an emerald currency that you can use to buy new hearts (they will cost real money when the game launches).
There is also a separate timer for unlocking tracks, and driver points (DP) for unlocking other enhancements.
There are tickets for improving skills.
Some courses play best with certain karts/characters - you'll get prompted to buy those too!

Jesus, the whole thing is a cynical cash grab.

From the arstechnica article linked below:

To recap: emeralds can be spent on new characters, karts, gliders, and hearts. Hearts are required to start new races. Coins can also be spent on new characters, karts, and gliders, but these take much longer to accrue. Driver points are earned for your characters, karts, and gliders by grinding through repeat races. Stars are earned by racking up enough driver points in each race, and you need to acquire enough stars to unlock new cups.

Oh, there's also "tickets," which you can spend on enhancing "skills" for any of your characters, karts, or gliders (or to access a "coin rush" mode). Nintendo has not confirmed exactly which MKT currencies can be bought with real-world money, nor how much each will cost.

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/05/mario-kart-tour-beta-hands-on-microtransactions-land-like-a-nasty-blue-shell/

You can watch a german stream of the gameplay here (the video doesn't allow embedding so you have to watch on youtube).

Mr E · 23-05-2019 10:22AM

From reading more about it this morning, the general consensus is that it's 'pay to win', which is the worst kind of Freemium game.

chalkitdown1 · 23-05-2019 11:50AM

Mr E wrote: »

The beta came out today (for those who applied for it). It sounds like a huge mess.
The camera is very close behind your kart, limiting your viewing angle (so you need to know the track very well to take advantage of it).

There are multiple currencies and a play timer. You have 5 hearts and each race costs a heart. You get a new heart every 12 minutes.
There is an emerald currency that you can use to buy new hearts (they will cost real money when the game launches).
There is also a separate timer for unlocking tracks, and driver points (DP) for unlocking other enhancements.
There are tickets for improving skills.
Some courses play best with certain karts/characters - you'll get prompted to buy those too!

Jesus, the whole thing is a cynical cash grab.

From the arstechnica article linked below:

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/05/mario-kart-tour-beta-hands-on-microtransactions-land-like-a-nasty-blue-shell/

You can watch a german stream of the gameplay here (the video doesn't allow embedding so you have to watch on youtube).

Sounds like the worst kind of PTW mobile game which is very disappointing. Especially so when Nintendo got it so right with Super Mario Run.

Star Lord · 23-05-2019 11:50AM

Yeah, sounds very much that way tbh.
Which is a shame, as gameplay wise, it looks pretty good...
Depending, of course, on how it actually controls for accelerating / turning / using the items.

There was a lot of potential there, as anyone that's played Mario Kart with motion controls would know. And that also makes it seem strange that it's portrait layout rather than landscape.

manual_man · 23-05-2019 12:42PM

They may well change things based on the feedback(blowback)

Bob24 · 23-05-2019 01:57PM

chalkitdown1 wrote: »

Sounds like the worst kind of PTW mobile game which is very disappointing. Especially so when Nintendo got it so right with Super Mario Run.

Wholeheartedly agree if I think of what I value in a game.

But I guess if you look at it from Nintendo’s finance team perspective, Super Mario Run wasn’t so right as it made a lot less money than freemium games (now I think that’s a short sighted view and in my case Super Mario Run got me interested in Nintendo again after almost two decade of not touching their stuff, and I ended up buying a Switch and games partly because of it; but still some people at Nintendo must be looking at how much money each individual game is making as a metrics for success).

Inviere · 23-05-2019 05:21PM

Mr E wrote: »

There are multiple currencies and a play timer. You have 5 hearts and each race costs a heart. You get a new heart every 12 minutes.
There is an emerald currency that you can use to buy new hearts (they will cost real money when the game launches).

Wow, what a shameful cash grab.

Mr E · 27-08-2019 06:35AM

Out September 25th. I wonder if much has changed since the beta?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1V6XecP27wE

CiDeRmAn · 28-08-2019 12:33AM

I'd be happy to spend €20 on the full game, oddly enough.
But this "Free Until You Play" game just damages the brand.

manual_man · 28-08-2019 12:55AM

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

I'd be happy to spend €20 on the full game, oddly enough.
But this "Free Until You Play" game just damages the brand.

They may have fixed that given how much negative feedback was received. It has the potential to be fun

I'm still dreaming of Mario Kart SNES for Switch Online with online multiplayer play

Mr E · 25-09-2019 07:24AM

Out now. There is a maintenance window until about 8 this morning according to the title screen, so it can't be played yet.

128mb download.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.nintendo.zaka

(Apple peeps - search the appstore)

chrislad · 25-09-2019 08:27AM

It got pushed to my iPhone last night. Haven’t played it yet as it’s still in the maintenance windows until 8am in a time zone somewhere

CiDeRmAn · 25-09-2019 08:54AM

Trying to download and install as we speak, sh1t internet here in work though, so it might take a little time!

shanec1928 · 25-09-2019 09:11AM

looks like you need an active internet connection to play. servers are getting hammered

Mr E · 25-09-2019 09:12AM

How many companies would launch a game in a maintenance window, let millions of people download it, specify a time that it would become active, then when millions of people try to access it at the same time, give a message that says "The servers are experiencing heavy traffic. Your login request will be processed in the order it was received".

Banjo · 25-09-2019 09:55AM

"Please understand...."

bada_bing · 25-09-2019 09:57AM

managed to get in for a short tutorial on gameplay and then it tells you to download another 248 MB of data to continue the game.

blockfighter · 25-09-2019 11:48AM

bada_bing wrote: »

managed to get in for a short tutorial on gameplay and then it tells you to download another 248 MB of data to continue the game.

Just got the same myself. Thats a hefty download. Actually enjoyed the gameplay from the tutorial. Plays better than I though it would.

CiDeRmAn · 25-09-2019 09:58PM

Well, that's for deleting.
Why bother when the 3DS and Switch already have full great kart games

conormario · 25-09-2019 10:23PM

Hmmm, not sure if this is a good tactic by Nintendo. Ie tacky phone games. The average Joe will see this and disregard the real gems that Nintendo has.

Star Lord · 26-09-2019 08:30AM

Actually quite enjoying what I've played of this so far! Obviously the controls aren't as sharp, but it works reasonably well!

manual_man · 26-09-2019 12:56PM

Is there no option to buy the game outright? The idea of endless micro-payments is putting me off

Mario Kart Tour

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