Mario Kart Tour: a racing game for Android and iOS

Luis Fernando - Nemesis Team | Games™

Today I will be bringing you a racing game for mobile devices, which was launched last year, but still manages to stand out among the many other mobile games.

Mario Kart Tour was launched on September 25, 2019, having been in beta for almost a month before being released. The first Mario Kart franchise game released for the mobile platform was announced in January 2018 and produced by Nintendo and Bandai Namco Studios.

About the game

The goal of the game is to reach first place among 7 other players at the end of each race, using items obtained when driving through the Item Boxes, in addition to collecting stars to unlock gifts and obtain high scores in each race.

Gameplay

The game can be played with the device vertically or horizontally. The kart accelerates automatically. There are three ways the player can make turns. For the phones supporting it, the gyroscope can be used to steer.

The player can choose what action is started when tapping and sliding the fingers on the main area of the screen, with the other action being performed by tapping a small circular button at the bottom and then sliding the fingers if needed. The main setting has the driver jumping every time the screen is tapped, allowing the kart to drift by sliding the fingers.

In the other configuration, the kart does not jump when tapping the screen, which results in it steering when sliding the fingers on the screen. After steering for a while, the kart starts auto-drifting and charging Mini-Turbos and Super Mini-Turbos, but not Ultra Mini-Turbos that are only charged when drifting.

Tours

Every 2 weeks, a new season is introduced into the game. Each season brings new characters, new karts and new gliders, as well as new tracks (whether original or new versions of tracks already existing in other games in the franchise).

Each tour has a series of cups, each cup having 3 tracks and 1 challenge. During the first week, a new character (or sometimes a recurring character) stands out on the pipe, where 99 other drivers, karts and gliders remain. In the second week, another character is highlighted. Depending on each tour, a 50-item pipe can be introduced as well, with drivers previously introduced. The goal is to obtain these characters, as they are favored on some tracks, giving you more points and chances to rank in higher Ranked Cup positions7

Ranked Cups

Each week of a season has a ranked cup. The goal is to get the highest scores on the 3 tracks in this cup. Staying in the top positions guarantees you an increase in the league and several rewards such as rubies, points tickets and level tickets to improve drivers, karts and gliders.

Rarity of Drivers, Karts and Gliders

Drivers, karts and gliders are classified by their rarity. There are three levels of rarity: Normal, Super and High-end. While normal characters are easier to unlock, the rarer ones generally require a lot of rubies to be unlocked.

Rubies and Coins

Rubies can be obtained from gifts, challenges or daily rewards. They can be used to obtain drivers, karts and gliders from the pipe.

Coins are easier to obtain and can be found on tracks and challenges. They can be used to buy tickets or drivers at the store.

Download

Mario Kart Tour is available for free on the Play Store, but you can make in-app purchases, such as the Gold Pass that allows you to earn more rewards, or buy rubies and characters.

Download here.