Reminiscing on Mario Kart Tour

After just over 7 years, Mario Kart Tour is officially ending on September 30, 2026, 3 days from now. Even if by default it's one of the "worse" Mario Kart games, I'd be lying if I said I am not quite sad about this, in part simply due to preservation reasons, but also since I actually played it a lot during its first 6 months and have a lot of fond memories with it.

It was available to download a bit beforehand, but Mario Kart Tour officially became playable on September 25, 2019, and I played it from Day 1. I played the game very actively up until at least the Vancouver Tour on February 2020, but I've found sporadic screenshots up to the Hammer Bro Tour in March 2020.

As I said earlier, I still love this game despite its issues. When it came out I was at a new school, and I remember playing this game along with friends during recess or during long breaks between classes, and sharing which characters we unlocked and stuff, and I have a lot of fond memories of that. I've dredged up quite a few old screenshots, which I'll share throughout the blog!

I remember my first thought upon playing the game was how similar it was to Mario Kart 7, which might be in part due to both games being on "handhelds", but also upon its release 8 of the 10 retro tracks in the game were previously in Mario Kart 7; the game's tutorial was even in 3DS Toad Circuit, the first course of MK7.

The game did have a steering function, but I always found it quite awkward, both with the on-screen button or tilt controls, so I always played the game with only drifting, but I was fine with that, even if it was a bit awkward the rest of the controls were good enough that it didn't matter much! You can't really fall off or enter the off-road as it automatically steers you off, but it does let you take shortcuts when you have mushrooms or other items, and I always loved how you could have three items at a time depending on the course and character you chose, I found the frenzies especially satisfying.

These compromises were due to the game being on mobile, and although they make it different than the other games and some argue they're "worse" in a vacuum, they make this game feel much smoother in the environment it was designed for, which is great!

Speaking of, I really liked the mechanic of some characters, karts, and gliders being better on certain courses, and the points system in general. Since the game itself was already quite simple, I remember really liking the points system as it gave more depth to the gameplay in a unique way, and actually gave it more replayability than just playing courses again but faster.

I am kinda obligated to mention the awful gacha mechanics and microtransactions that plagued this game, especially when it started, which was a byproduct of this mechanic, but it might also be a general byproduct of it being a mobile game.

Throughout all the time I played it the game didn't actually have online play in any capacity, but I've always been okay with playing against bots for the main cups, as that way there were no connection issues during playing, or anything like that.

Lastly, there is one thing about Tour that was probably my favourite thing about it, and that was looking forward to the new tours and retro tracks they added as it went on!

Like I said, the game started with New York Minute and 10 retro tracks, but with each tour they added more and more retro tracks, and — of course — they had city tours that added tracks based on real cities! Despite their reputation nowadays as mostly filler in the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass, I remember being very excited to see what cities they chose, and all the different variants of them. I vividly remember being very excited for the Vancouver Tour, as my sister studied in British Columbia, and I sent her a lot of stuff of the track.

I also really loved seeing what retro tracks they brought back! Even just the first new tour, the Tokyo Tour, added in SNES Rainbow Road, N64 Kalimari Desert, 3DS Mario Circuit, and 3DS Neo Bowser City, which I remember really liking (but also still show how Mario Kart 7-based this game was). DS Luigi's Mansion and Waluigi Pinball were added in the Halloween Tour right after (as well as the Luigi's Mansion King Boo costume, which I really wish we had in other games), for some reason I vividly remember N64 Frappe Snowland being added in the Ice Tour in January 2020, but definitely the one that hyped me up the most was when 3DS Rainbow Road was added in the first Holiday Tour, which was/is my favourite rainbow road in the entire series (maybe not the Tour version exactly, but still).

And that's pretty much all I have to say! Again, I haven't really played this game for over six and a half years, so I don't have much new to say, and a lot of my memory of it is quite hazy, but looking back at these old screenshots definitely helped bring back all the fond memories I have of this game.

Even if it wasn't the exact same Mario Kart I liked in consoles, it was still a Mario Kart, one that I could play pretty much anywhere, and was around me during one of the most positive moments of my life so far. I really appreciate the design behind this game for working so well despite being on mobile, regardless of the compromises.

I'll always remember all those school breaks with friends, all the time I spent grinding for the challenges, all the laughs I had at seeing what was cheaper than the $40 Diddy Kong Pack, and all the excitement at seeing what tracks, characters, and costumes were being added. I loved this game while I played it, and even if I did for only the first fraction of it, I'll still definitely miss it.