SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 20 ― Nintendo's mobile racer Mario Kart Tour is celebrating the northern hemisphere's coldest season with a Winter Tour event that brings a new course, new characters and alternative controls to the game.
Launching November 19, the Mario Kart Tour winter stage brings the thematically appropriate downhill course DK Pass while adding a wintry look to not only some existing tracks but also the game's title character.
DK Pass is covered in snow, just as in Mario Kart DS and Mario Kart 7,” with a giant snowball bouncing down its track.
The decorated fir trees dotted alongside it are also being inserted into existing courses.
Three new drivers are lined up for the Winter Tour ― Santa Mario, Pink Gold Peach, and Black Shy Guy ― with a batch of new vehicle parts also making their debuts; some are being made available as part of the free game's paid-for Gold Pass scheme.
Updated racing controls allow players to steer with a tap and drift with a swipe, or steer with a swipe and drift with a tap, according to their preference.
The Winter Tour follows a Paris Tour event which began on November 6; adding city or season-based tours on a regular basis helps keep players involved with the game.
Previous events have lasted two weeks each, hence the expectation that this Winter Tour will conclude on December 3.
Mario Kart Tour, which debuted for iOS and Android on September 25, was praised at launch for its driving controls and adaptation of the cherished Mario Kart formula for mobile devices, but criticised for pervasive nudges toward in-app spending and season pass costs that were considered excessive.
Nonetheless it roared to 90 million downloads over the course of its first week and over 120 million downloads during its first month, according to reports from mobile app store tracker Sensor Tower, while players generated an estimated US$37 million (RM153.94 million) in revenue over that same four-week period. ― AFP-Relaxnews
