1.5/5 ★ – jacklg's review of Mario Kart Tour.

Mario Kart Tour is the inevitable reaction to everyone scoffing at Super Mario Run's meaty price tag - a free to play game that is built fundamentally to encourage buying microtransactions. However you spin it, it's clear that was the reason many of the games odd design choices were made, and it is the main reason this game is hard to reccomend. But let's take a step back. Is this game manipulative on more of a core level than most mobile games? Perhaps not. But the Nintendo label made many assume it would be an exception. When you boot up Tour, it's visuals and presentation feel head and shoulders above almost every other mobile game out there. There are no pop up advertisements, it looks polished and well made, and the controls whilst a little strange at first, function well with a single finger. However, the problems seep in when you look deeper. Levels are scored by the points you earn, not the position you come, meaning you can come first but still not have 'completed' the track, or come second and have enough points to clear it. How are these points determined? By the character used of course. And how do you get the characters? Lootboxes. It sucks for many reasons. It means when you have the right character, winning can become trivial, but without the right one, winning is close to impossible. You no longer pick your favourite characters, but select the one the game says is best. It means multiplayer just has a tone of the same characters. It's not fun. Technically, one can scrape by without using the best characters, but as the tracks become harder, winning is out of the control of the skill of the player, and that is a real shame. Had the characters been just cosmetic, I wouldn't have minded, as mobile games have conditioned me to almost enjoy the grind to unlock as much content for free as possible, but here, unlocking stuff for free so brutally difficult and frustrating. But then, I remember that the game is entirely free with no subscription service required, and that it looks and sounds great, and that the tracks are all unique and fun and have interesting remixes. And for a moment it all seems okay. But then I remember that you have to pay £20 to unlock Diddy Kong. That it has a subscription service that gives you more lootbox pulls. That there are more than triple ultra rare characters than common ones. And I feel sad. Its a blantantly calculated product with no heart, and yet it could have been so much more