The post Mario Kart Tour gets its first original track appeared first on Game News.
]]>Just below, you can see footage of a user playing the new Merry Mountain track, which was just released earlier today for Mario Kart Tour on Android and iOS. As you might have guessed from the name, it’s a Christmas-themed track full of presents and candy canes dotting the area surrounding the race course.
Previously, Mario Kart Tour has featured a variety of tracks from previous games in the Mario Kart franchise. We’ve seen tracks from throughout the history of the storied Nintendo franchise, from Super Mario Kart on the SNES, all the way to Mario Kart 7 on the 3DS.
If it wasn’t a track from a previous game though, Mario Kart Tour’s other tracks were all based on real-world locations. There’s the London Loop for example, or the Paris Promenade, all based on cities dotted around the world, so players could race through iconic locations.
Now though, Merry Mountain marks a big departure for Mario Kart Tour. It’s been well over six years since Mario Kart 8 first launched in 2014 on the Wii U, and it’s been well over three years since the game was re-released for the Nintendo Switch as Mario Kart 8 Deluxe in 2017. There’s speculation that Mario Kart Tour could be used to tease the future of the Mario Kart series, in which case original tracks like Merry Mountain might give us clues as to what to expect from the next instalment in Nintendo’s long-running racing series.
That’s not to say support isn’t still going strong for Mario Kart Tour, though. Earlier this year, Nintendo introduced both online and local multiplayer for the mobile game, and Donkey Kong Country-themed races were introduced slightly later in May 2020.
To check out behind the scenes pictures from Nintendo’s next venture using the Mario Kart series, head over to our report on the Super Nintendo World theme park in Japan.
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]]>The post Mario Kart Tour beta is live now, check to see if you got in appeared first on Game News.
]]>The beta period is scheduled to last for two weeks, from May 22 to June 4 – make sure you start playing as soon as you can, because you’ll get a login bonus for racing every day. Nintendo says dates may change without prior notice, but we’ll keep you updated here if the schedule changes.
Unfortunately, if you’re not already in the Mario Kart Tour beta, you can’t get in now. Nintendo had a set period where it accepted applications and that window has been closed for several weeks. The full game’s set to arrive this summer though!
Mario Kart Tour beta players get access to a limited selection of the game’s content, in this case a series of Cups that consist of multiple courses or challenges each. Playing through Cups will earn you currency that you can spend on gacha-style random pulls for new drivers, cars, and accessories. Nothing that players earn in the beta will transfer over to the full game, so don’t worry about certain people having a head start.
If you didn’t get into the beta test, or if you already love it so much that you won’t be able to stand not playing after it ends, you won’t have to wait too much longer. Mario Kart Tour is planned for a full release sometime in Summer 2019.
For more Nintendo goodness that you can play right now, check out our list of the best Switch games (opens in new tab), or watch a rundown of what’s new in games and entertainment this week with our latest Release Radar.
The post Mario Kart Tour beta is live now, check to see if you got in appeared first on Game News.
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