North Texas Daily

The much anticipated Mario Kart Tour mobile app finally came out towards the end of September, and it proved to be a game with some major problems that has even been accused of being nothing more than just a cash grab. Compared to other Mario Kart games, such as Mario Kart 64 or Mario Kart Wii, it simply isn’t the same as the games Nintendo fans have loved over the years. 

First off, the lack of a multiplayer mode is unsettling. Mario Kart games in the past have always included a multiplayer mode, it increased the intensity and competition of the game by being able to play with your friends. 

As of right now, when racing in the game, you’ll play against other characters that seem like real people, but they aren’t. Despite having usernames that look legitimate, all the characters you play against are bots. While the game is supposed to have a multiplayer feature coming out soon, who knows when it will actually come and if it will have a paywall like many other game features.

In addition to having no multiplayer option, the game itself is bland and hard to manipulate.

Users can really only steer left or right and use items by touching the screen. It is super simple to accidentally use an item, and the lack of acceleration control and better steering manipulation makes the game difficult to control and unappealing to play.

Of course, like most mobile games, it has many, many prizes that require real money. Leveling up allows users to gain small prizes, but most substantial items come with a price tag. 

One “special offer” on the app allows you to buy 45 rubies, which are used to try to win prizes, five star tickets, which serve as grand stars that allow you to progress in the game, and the Mario character for the price of $19.99. Asking for $20 just to play with the actual Mario character, on a game called Mario Kart, is absolutely ridiculous and seems like a scam. 

Even with using rubies to “fire off” pipes that award items, high end items are extremely hard to come by. Most of the high end prizes, such as the metal Mario character or the bandwagon, occurs in the game only about 0.2 to 0.3 percent of the time. So even if you tried to work and grind your way to get prizes, the chances of getting the good items are slim anyways.

Despite all these other negative aspects of the game, probably the most outrageous demand is the subscription to the “Gold Pass” of $4.99 a month. The subscription allows users to get gold gifts in racing tours, earn badges from gold challenges and to unlock 200cc races. Anyone looking to play in the most competitive and fast paced racing (200cc) has to pay to play, and it is a huge turn off for most app users.

For $4.99 a month, Apple users could purchase the Apple Arcade app – which holds over 100 games for its users. Student Spotify premium is $4.99 a month and it includes free Hulu and Showtime with it. Instead of wasting your money on the Mario Kart Tour Gold Pass, use it for other subscriptions that have way more to offer. 

Mario Kart Tour is just another sad cash grab app, and users should not play into the capitalist scheme Nintendo is trying to create. A subscription to the gaming app was a terrible decision by developers and will be detrimental to the game’s success.

Featured Illustration: Olivia Varnell