Mario Kart Tour info has leaked

[Armagon]

So there's currently a Mario Kart Tour closed beta going on, which means the players aren't allowed to share screenshots and whatnot......but it's the Internet so stuff still got leaked regardless. I won't actually post any screenshots (you can just go on Twitter for those) but here's what we know of the mechanics so far.

• It's a gacha game. And it seems to be a lot worse in terms of that compared to FEH and Dragalia Lost. Basically, there's different rarities for drivers, karts and gliders. No tires so i assume those are always set. The bad part comes from the fact that rare drivers have advantages in racing. So it's not like FEH and Dragalia where you can make do with what you have. No info on rarity rates or in-game currency though so we'll have to wait and see. Stamina's also a thing.
• Some retro courses will be appearing
• Each character has a signature item and up to three items can be held at any given time, exceeding the previous limit of two in some mainline Mario Kart games.
• Despite being a racing game, game is still played vertically.
• Auto-item use is an option.

[Interdimensional Observer]

Eh, gatcha again? I thought Nintendo might hesitate to use that.

DL is never competition against others. FEH does, but I can't see MK having it being totally better or totally worse. MK could be better in that player skill in the form of reflexes does matter, FEH is skill-free; worse in that MK while I enjoy it plenty single player, definitely has a stronger multiplayer aspect.

Verticality for a race isn't all that bad I guess. Less room for bumping into other players or seeing them do so, but more of the track ahead can be seen.

Signature items sounds like a way for gatcha uniqueness and powercreep. A Red Shell+ today, a Red Shell+++ eight months from now.

Retro courses are to be expected and good. Though I'd be disappointed if the first batch (more will certainly come) had that classic-but-overdone Baby Park.

[Water Mage]

A Gacha Mario game huh?

Is Mario going to be to be a Super Rare character for the first time in a game?

But Luigi should not have been Rare but Common, his whole theme is being a loser and second banana.

[Interdimensional Observer]

14 minutes ago, Water Mage said:

A Gacha Mario game huh?

Is Mario going to be to be a Super Rare character for the first time in a game?

But Luigi should not have been Rare but Common, his whole theme is being a loser and second banana.

I'd assume plenty o' alts. Not all alts, but more than FEH should (the reality is so different) have.

Classic Mario would be a freebie. Metal Mario a 4*, SMS Shine Sprite Shirt + Sunglasses Mario a 5*.

 

[Water Mage]

8 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I'd assume plenty o' alts. Not all alts, but more than FEH should (the reality is so different) have.

Classic Mario would be a freebie. Metal Mario a 4*, SMS Shine Sprite Shirt + Sunglasses Mario a 5*.

 

I wonder if there’s gonna be fanservice alt...

Bridal Peach and Swimsuit Daisy when?

[Interdimensional Observer]

21 minutes ago, Water Mage said:

I wonder if there’s gonna be fanservice alt...

Bridal Peach and Swimsuit Daisy when?

We already do have Bride Peach of course:

And Swimsuit Daisy too, thanks to the Mario & Sonic Olympic Games games.:

IS likes having it easy with alts sometimes, the FEH Summer Seasonals have had most of the Awakening and Fates swimsuit DLC characters, we're only missing Chrom, Tharja, Ryoma and Hinoka and the entire swimsuitted TMS crew!, so I'm expecting at least two of these to come this year. Chrom hasn't had an alt in a while and Tharja's daughter dearest is in a swimsuit, so I could see it being them.

-So what I mean is that Ninty may indeed include the two above Peach and Daisy alts because they already have the designs.

And the topic of Mario sports makes me wish Square would let Ninja, White Mage, Black Mage, Cactaur, Moogle, and Slime in in a collab. But SE is stingy about giving out their stuff.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

If this is like Fire Emblem Heroes I won't ever get Peach or Daisy but I will be drowning in their alts. I STILL don't have vanilla Lucina or Azura.

For real though, this is some lame news. I wasn't on the edge of my seat wondering how fun a Mario Kart mobile game might be, but these gacha models are cancerous. And it's a big deal when one gets made out of a property as large as Mario. I hope Nintendo appreciates the raw power they wield and takes steps to make it less of a money sink.

[know_naim]

Gacha mechanics aside, it looks & works like I imagined Mario Kart would on mobile. Auto accelerate was a given, am actually surprised it's horizontal + touch controls and not gyro,  but it makes sense, since all of Nintendo's mobile games are kinda build around the idea that you should be able to play them with one hand. 

What else could they have done with the IP other than playing it safe (again) and using an already established model in the genre? At this point I'm more excited about the LINE Dr. Mario app, 'cause there is hardly something they need to water down there to fit the platform.   

[Emerson]

Not really leaked so much as "the beta started, people talk about it". Speaking of which, I'm in that, so feel free to ask questions.

The advantages aren't rarity based, they're course based. Each course has specific characters, karts, and gliders that have advantages. Theres also 3 levels of advantage.
Characters are either 1 item, 2 item, or 3 item, Karts are 3 levels of top speed, and Gliders are 3 levels of item luck. Currently, I've yet to really notice a difference between the 3 levels of speed or item luck.

The game being vertical is actually better than horizontal tbh. you can see ahead of you just fine and the camera is pulled back far enough to where you can easily see far enough to the side. Controls wise it's fine with the default, but I vastly prefer the "manual drift" mode, which is more like Drift Mode since you can't drift at all in the Standard Mode, where as in Drift Mode you can ONLY drift. It's a bit awkward but good once you get used to it.

The gacha isn't super prioritized. You're given free characters, karts, and gliders by simply playing the game, and karts and gliders can be bought using coins, the non premium currency.

Also, everything has levels that increase as you play, or by using items you can buy with coins. No, they do not give you a higher top speed or anything. They simply let you score higher in races, which lets you get more Grand Stars which are simply a progression item that you can get to unlock gifts (Characters/Karts/Gliders, free premium currency, coins) as well as preventing you from moving to the next cup if you don't have enough, although it's in increments of 5, and the bare minimum to complete every course is 1, 4 courses per cup, meaning you literally have to TRY to not get 5 stars per cup.
Speaking of which, the score in determined by a few things. Using higher advantage char/kart/glider gives some extra points (not too much), what CC you're playing (50, 100, 150, 200) and what actions you perform during the race. Doing mini-turbos, using items, etc. Race placement is the largest sum though.

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 hour ago, Emerson said:

Not really leaked so much as "the beta started, people talk about it". Speaking of which, I'm in that, so feel free to ask questions.

 

How lucky we are to have an SFer who is in it!  Always better to have primary source evidence over secondary (or less secondary at least).

Thanks for the insights! ????

Things do sound better now. 

 

1 hour ago, Emerson said:

The advantages aren't rarity based, they're course based. Each course has specific characters, karts, and gliders that have advantages.

Makes sense, it would encourage you to get more stuff, and for race sets, strategize about what to bring. 

 

1 hour ago, Emerson said:

The gacha isn't super prioritized. You're given free characters, karts, and gliders by simply playing the game, and karts and gliders can be bought using coins, the non premium currency.

Just to make clarify beyond any ambiguity, by "bought", you mean obtained in store sans gatcha? Non-premium currency = non-gatcha, premium currency = gatcha?

 

Can you speak of what courses you've seen? Or at least how many new ones and how many old?

Edited May 22, 2019 by Interdimensional Observer

[Emerson]

39 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Just to make clarify beyond any ambiguity, by "bought", you mean obtained in store sans gatcha? Non-premium currency = non-gatcha, premium currency = gatcha?

Yes.

39 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

Can you speak of what courses you've seen? Or at least how many new ones and how many old?

I haven't seen any new courses, if there are any, they all seem to be retro tracks. Everything so far is from MKDS and 7, and that includes retro tracks from those games, along with their changes. Although the retro track only in DS and not 7 have 7 style changes.

[Armagon]

5 hours ago, Emerson said:

Not really leaked so much as "the beta started, people talk about it". Speaking of which, I'm in that, so feel free to ask questions.

The advantages aren't rarity based, they're course based. Each course has specific characters, karts, and gliders that have advantages. Theres also 3 levels of advantage.
Characters are either 1 item, 2 item, or 3 item, Karts are 3 levels of top speed, and Gliders are 3 levels of item luck. Currently, I've yet to really notice a difference between the 3 levels of speed or item luck.

The game being vertical is actually better than horizontal tbh. you can see ahead of you just fine and the camera is pulled back far enough to where you can easily see far enough to the side. Controls wise it's fine with the default, but I vastly prefer the "manual drift" mode, which is more like Drift Mode since you can't drift at all in the Standard Mode, where as in Drift Mode you can ONLY drift. It's a bit awkward but good once you get used to it.

The gacha isn't super prioritized. You're given free characters, karts, and gliders by simply playing the game, and karts and gliders can be bought using coins, the non premium currency.

Also, everything has levels that increase as you play, or by using items you can buy with coins. No, they do not give you a higher top speed or anything. They simply let you score higher in races, which lets you get more Grand Stars which are simply a progression item that you can get to unlock gifts (Characters/Karts/Gliders, free premium currency, coins) as well as preventing you from moving to the next cup if you don't have enough, although it's in increments of 5, and the bare minimum to complete every course is 1, 4 courses per cup, meaning you literally have to TRY to not get 5 stars per cup.
Speaking of which, the score in determined by a few things. Using higher advantage char/kart/glider gives some extra points (not too much), what CC you're playing (50, 100, 150, 200) and what actions you perform during the race. Doing mini-turbos, using items, etc. Race placement is the largest sum though.

Hey man, i just wanna say thanks for clarifying. I was only going off by what i saw on Twitter so it's nice to know the advantages aren't rarity based (because that's what would've really been bad in a PvP game).

Question, i take it there's no Mirror Mode? 200 CC is a thing so it'd be odd if Mirror Mode is not.

[Emerson]

3 hours ago, Armagon said:

Question, i take it there's no Mirror Mode? 200 CC is a thing so it'd be odd if Mirror Mode is not.

I have not seen Mirror mode, it only lists 50 through 200.

On a completely unrelated note, the game is currently not Player vs Player. The other racers are AI, but with player-like names. This is pretty apparent in how they act. The cups also have a score ranking system weekly which would be pretty odd if it was all online. This isn't necessarily a negative point on it's own, but the lack of a separate online mode currently makes this... frustrating.
We do not currently know if this is how the game will be, or just how the beta is.

Edited May 23, 2019 by Emerson

[Interdimensional Observer]

18 hours ago, Emerson said:

I haven't seen any new courses, if there are any, they all seem to be retro tracks. Everything so far is from MKDS and 7, and that includes retro tracks from those games, along with their changes. Although the retro track only in DS and not 7 have 7 style changes.

Well they were the only portable games not Super Circuit (which has obvious issues directly porting tracks from), so I can see why they'd pick those.

 

I thought I heard somewhere this game was destined for a summer release. There HAS to be multiplayer somewhere, but not testing it now is going to lead to ALOT of complaints later about the connections and stability of races when the game does actually release. Hopefully Nintendo has another beta planned where the focus is specifically on the PvP, get at least some of the server kinks and whatnot ironed out before the iron is hot.

 

 

This is a realllllllllllll longshot, but I'd like a mode based on Excite Trucks and Excitebots. Mobile games do have to keep have to add stuff to keep things fresh.

For the 99% of people who have never heard of or played those games, they're racing, but getting to the finish line first isn't the be all end all. Your goal is to earn the most Stars by the race's end, finishing first gives a 50 Star bonus, which is nice. Yet the primary source of Stars is by completing minigames and QTEs of sorts on the racetrack and performing various tricks- driving very close to trees but not into them and doing midair spins (with a successful landing) being two forms of them. It's certainly not Battle Mode, it's far closer to traditional kart racing, but still distinct. MK could always use more spice, this could be grains of paradise.

Excitebots also had Poker Race. Collect cards to complete hands you then chip in for Stars. You want to drive carefully enough to pick the cards that give you the best hands you can get. But not so slowly that other racers beat them to you first (they're aligned like item boxes on a track), or get the 1st place finish bonus, which again can be a winning edge if everyone is playing comparably otherwise. Not a main feature, but a pleasant side where there is no actual gambling involved, despite the name, the only luck is in the spawned cards.

 

Regardless of how this game plays out, it's free so I'll be downloading it. And I've a relative who'll be looking forward to racing me from hundreds of miles away.

Edited May 23, 2019 by Interdimensional Observer

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

The app came out today, so this thread can be updated. @Armagon

 

Although I am not too much into this genre, I was curious how a racing game would be implemented to a mobile device. As I feared of the controls are imprecisely. Even after doing a bit practice, I still cannot manage to take the turns as I want. Throwing items is actually fine though. It is a gacha. For getting results the player will be rewarded, but I have not really bothered with it yet and never will do because I just want to have fun with the gameplay. And as long I cannot overcome the controls, I do not have it unfortunately.

[Diovani Bressan]

I don't have problems with the controls. The drift works like the main games, but some tracks doesn't work as well in this game.

Yoshi's Circuit has some narrow curves that normally is easier to cross over the grass instead of going in the track, but since the game doesn't allow you to drive in the grass, it slows you down a lot.

Also, the Golden Pass is a dumb idea.

[MisterIceTeaPeach]

I came back because I saw my favorite character in this game got an adorable as scary outfit. 

With my very first summoning in this game (I think second after a default one in the tutorial) I pulled HalloweenRosalina. 

She knows she I love her, but this game also knows how to drag me in. That said I will only play it, if I am really bored and desire for her. Not a game I find enjoyable overall.