I don’t play a lot of mobile games mostly because I lose interest in them over time. However, I’ve been playing a game called Mario Kart Tour more recently and I’ve had some enjoyment from it. Mario Kart Tour is the recent installment in the Mario Kart series made by Nintendo. It features the iconic cast of characters from the Mario series racing each other in karts to the finish line. I’ve had experience with the series for a long time now and I was interested to hear that it was going mobile ever since it was first announced. So, after playing it for a few days now, I do have some thoughts on the game I would like to share.

Starting the game for the first time, the player would be given a character by random that they have to use when playing for the first time. They do get more characters as they play through, however, they have to buy them with ingame currency by random, so they may or may not get a character. The same goes for karts, the vehicles driven in races, and gliders, an item used to glide in the air from jumps. 

When playing, there’s two control options: playing with a touch screen or by tilting the phone. Controlling my kart with the touch controls was better for me because the tilt controls caused me to use items by accident. For the gameplay, it’s a simple racing game that has someone race against opponents to the finish line to get first place. I get to use Items like shells and bombs can be used to knock opponents down and help manoeuvre through different and unique courses in the game.

I enjoyed most of my playtime with the game and it is a good use of my time when I’m waiting in places like a restaurant, for example. When asked about the game, Jordan Dolan shared,“It’s a fun game and I can talk to my friends while playing it.” I would agree with that, since students talk about which characters and karts are good for the game. Being able to race with other friends would be nice, but that currently isn’t an option. Junior Will Tipton thinks the game is, “Pretty darn good.” Mario Kart Tour is a good game. But I wouldn’t consider it to be perfect, since there are things that I hope can be improved later on, such as disregarding the random items and being able to race with other people.

Overall, I think that Mario Kart Tour is a good attempt at a mobile Mario Kart. There are problems that I think could use some improvement but I had some enjoyment from it. It’s a game that many people who want to play a fun racing game on their phones can have a good time.