There are some franchises that are so popular that they demand to be released on every possible platform. Though Mario Kart has traditionally been a game that's only been made for Nintendo consoles, it does finally have a mobile version for those who don't own any of Nintendo's gaming machines. How this iteration stacks up to the rest of the series is, however, often hard to determine.

Features

Mario Kart Tour can best be thought of as a simplified, mobile version of the classic Mario Kart franchise. In fact, the game positions itself as something of a Great Hits' version of the popular series, grabbing different tracks and racers from various iterations of the game to give players the ability to play through a stripped-down version of some of the best courses to ever be included in the series.

The game features a fairly standard progression path through the various Cups, but it also has modes like Real Time Multiplayer to give players a chance to engage in competitive racing. The game also offers players the ability to earn (or buy) in-game currency in order to unlock new racers and kart parts, which does give players a goal to reach for when playing through the game's still-limited number of tracks.

Benefits

The big benefit of Mario Kart Tour is the fact that the game is a nice mobile adaptation of the Mario Kart franchise. It might be stripped down and simplified to a significant degree, but the game does manage to capture the feel of racing in a way that some might think impossible without the presence of a physical control scheme.

Though the game might not be the hit that Nintendo had initially imagined, it's also had an impressive amount of support thrown behind it. That means that not only are there always new releases coming down the road, but there are enough events and special situation that that the game feels like it always has something new to offer. Once you get the hang of the basics, this really is a game that seeks to keep your attention.

Pros and Cons

The big pro of Mario Kart Tour is that the game is free. Sure, you might have to pay money to get the 200cc cup and to make a few other purchases, but the actual bulk of the game won't ever cost you a dime. This isn't the most odious free-to-play model out there, and the constant influx of new material really will give you something new to play with no matter how long you've had the game.

The downside is that so much of the game is locked behind gacha mechanics. The randomness what you'll unlock and win can be frustrating, especially as you grind towards the characters or the kart parts that you really want. Even worse, these elements make it harder to justify playing the game if you already have one of the handheld or console versions of Mario Kart.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, Mario Kart Tour is really torn between two worlds. On one hand, it seems to want to be a legitimately fun kart racer that takes a lot of what makes Nintendo games so special and shrinks them down to work on a mobile scale. On the other hand, though, it unfortunately also wants to embrace some of the worst parts of free-to-play games. Though it's a perfectly competent racer that will thrill those who can't otherwise find a copy of Mario Kart to play, the truth is that the microtransactions reduce the amount of fun that non-paying players can have.