Why Nintendo Should Take Out Pipes from Mario Kart Tour
By Ryan Borja
With the release of Mario Kart Tour on Wednesday, many fans were excited to see a how one of Nintendo's most popular series would fare on mobile devices, but were met with a scourge that also happens to be one of the Mario series' most iconic items: the Pipe. Here are the reasons why Nintendo should take out Pipes from Mario Kart Tour.
Why Nintendo Should Take Out Pipes Mario Kart Tour
While Mario Kart Tour was released as a free-to-play take on the Mario Kart series, this Nintendo published game is still laden with micro-transactions that might remind of other free-to-play mobile games.
This practice, known as gacha games, hide unlockable items behind the cost of in-game currency. In Mario Kart Tour, the in-game currency is Rubies and if you truly want a free-to-play experience, can only be accessed by finishing races and opening the Tour Gifts you receive (in which you barely receive Rubies).
The alternative option to obtaining Rubies is to pay for them in the Shop. Currently, Rubies are priced at 3 Rubies for $1.99, 10 Rubies for $5.99, 23 Rubies for $12.99, 48 Rubies for $26.99, 93 Rubies for $49.99, and 135 Rubies for $69.99.
These Rubies can be used to use Pipes, which is Mario Kart Tours version of crates or lootboxes. When you open a Pipe, you might receive a character, a kart, or a glider.
The thing is, to use one Pipe costs 5 Rubies. If you are hoping to get and play as one of your favorite characters, or are struggling to win a race and need a better kart or glider, then you better hope you get lucky when you use up your next Pipe.
Nintendo has disclosed the appearance rates for all characters and items in Mario Kart Tour. Characters and items in the High-End rarity only have an abysmal 0.3% chance of finding them in a Pipe and exclusive characters like Pauline that are only available for a limited time only have a 1% chance.
While its understandable that Nintendo would want to try to make money from their games, its a disgrace to require players to pay even more money just to play the character that they might want to play as. That's part of what makes the Mario Kart franchise so great: you have a such a wide variety of styles of characters you could choose to play as. The Pipes in Mario Kart Tour make this almost impossible to do so unless you cough up more money than the standard Mario Kart game.
Hiding fan-favorite characters and powerful items behind a pay-wall seems to be a new trend as Nintendo tries to take advantage of the mobile gaming market. Other mobile releases like Dr. Mr World and Pokémon Masters similarly hide behind the guise that with time, it is possible to grind out enough in-game currency to eventually obtain them, with the much easier alternative of paying for in-game currency.
It's very clear that Nintendo is trying to rake in as their beloved franchises and iconic characters through their foray into the mobile gaming market. If you want to get a better and real Mario Kart experience, Mario Kart Tour is probably not the way to do so.
Photo Courtesy of Nintendo