Christine Sells

The gaming giant, Nintendo released “Mario Kart World Tour” for iPhones and Androids on Sept. 25, and since its release it has been downloaded over 90 million times within the first week.

The new Mario Kart game is very different from the versions that have come out before. Instead of getting to pick a racer from a large collection, gamers are randomly given a racer. The first one is free, but every racer after must be purchased with in game money, in the form of gold coins, or gamers can pay rubies for the chance to launch a cannon and win a new racer at random.

Another interesting feature is the fact that gamers must pick either simple or drift mode. If a player selects drift mode, then every move they make is accompanied by a drift instead of just a simple movement. The simple mode does not have this feature, but it is not recommended that players pick the simple mode as drifts provide both boosts in speed and extra points.

The game awards players points for a variety of different things within a race. Points are awarded first for the racer selected, the kart and the type of glider selected. Each course has different items that will provide a player with more points. For example, Toad themed courses will reward extra points if the Toad racer and matching Toad kart and glider are selected.

“It forces you to change up what you use rather than using the customization every time,” FSC Esports team member Isaac Garay said. 

Drifting, jumps, hitting an opponent with an item, gliding and avoiding difficult items will allow players to earn points and the game allows for combos so the more actions performed within quick succession the more points a player will receive. Finally, a player will receive points for their final position with first place receiving the most points.

The points are totaled at the end of the race and the player is given a star rating between one and five stars. Each course has different requirements for the amount of points needed to earn a specific number of stars, meaning that for some courses only 4000 points are needed for five stars while others require upwards of 10,000 points. 

The fact that the points are awarded for a variety of things throughout the race means that it is not necessary for a player to get first place in order to get all five stars. When a player receives a specific number of stars, they will get gifts which consist of anything from gold coins or rubies to new racers and karts.

The initial release was followed by a series of problems. Many people complained when the game demanded an update that was not available yet. Even when that problem was resolved some, including myself, found that the game crashed shortly after they logged in. 

Again, the creators were quick to solve the problem and have made efforts to provide quick solutions for cases when the game crashes again.

The controls have also become one of the biggest problems. The constant drifting has made it difficult for gamers to make simple adjustments on the course, but selecting the simple mode puts them at a significant disadvantage.

A multi-player mode has been a big demand from players and should be coming out soon as there is already an icon for it within the app. The limited amount of course selections and the lack of other Mario Kart mini games has also been a disappointment for long time Mario Kart fans. 

“They should add more maps or more game modes such as battle mode in normal Mario Kart,” Garay said. “Once you complete all the courses, there isn’t much to do so adding those things will add a lot more interest to the game.” Overall, the game so far has been well received, but there is still much to be desired.

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