Mario Kart World Tour

Ten days from Play Welcome to have a nicer play your Weekly mobile game review program. I'm Edwin and I'm Sam and in this podcast we review a game for seven days see how long it takes us to play it this past week. I recommended Mario Kart World Tour by Nintendo. I'm gonna come on set right off the bat. Maybe the best game Nintendo was made for iOS, huh out of all the

three they've done so far. I know I'm not perfect by any stretch, right Maya. Initial reaction is it's probably was like the weakest for me. Oh, okay. Let's get right clicks. I like it. This makes for great conversation. Tell me about your impressions of this game like all around. I mean first off. I hate the Nintendo account login to begin with as just awful. I feel like they've kind of done through with it. Like all I had to do was accept

the terms and agreements. Yeah, maybe I wouldn't have to like login or anything interesting because I mean you have a switch your a Nintendo boy right? You only have me Already, I for some reason didn't have any count. I think this was the first time you needed one to play. I don't think Mario capsule World required this. Anyway, this is the first time I had to go through the steps of finding a username and your

blood bubble asked clicking. Yes, okay on the email then going back to logging in and then I'll finally oh, you know what I did. Yeah, you're right. There is like a login screen, but I think I just accepted as guests just to proceed on with the game always look for that sneaky. Yeah, he was guest which is on the smallest. First smallest font possible, right? Oh rats. Normally I quite pride myself on my ability to where's Waldo? Where's the continuous guest button?

But damn they got me this time you like then sucker. Yep, I did for those that might have not seen or heard of Mario Kart ever before doesn't the symptoms. I thought we were here. Yeah. Sure. The Mario Kart is a racing game where you are one of the characters from the Mario World driving. go-kart And in this particular iteration of Mario Kart, it is called World Tour because you have different venues of I guess countries and maps and nobody's around the world. Right?

And you all you have to do it's very much like a normal Mario Kart game where you're going around a track, but the the special thing about Mario Kart is that you have weapons and power-ups that you can use along the way the race is consisted usually of three laps and you just have to make sure that you place either one, too. Three in order for you to get some points and yeah, it's geared towards more of a family

friendly game. But some of the races can get very heated and exciting especially when you level up. Yeah, do not play Mario Kart with my boyfriend's sister. She gets very, um, enthusiastic shall we say, it's it's I think she'd been banned from playing in the office because of the string of expletives that's come out of my mouth while playing it's a game where you can actually break friendships like if you really pick on someone And you can really give them a

bad day. Yeah, but this game is obviously the handheld version. So the controls have been modified a little bit which I think own work. Well, there's no accelerate or brake. You merely go you nearly go and you turn and from off the bat. There are two modes to play this. Yeah. I didn't like the way you what kind of present it to you without any kind of context

right one is normal mode. And I think the other one is called like something like manual mode or something like that where You can control your drifts a little easier and stuff like that. Yeah, I didn't I never liked how they present choices like this is like, what's normal? What's Advanced? Where am I? How do I know? Which one to choose right? It's almost don't give me that option up front.

Maybe you just make everyone quote unquote normal and then there's like some settings somewhere because me being me I'm like, oh, I think I'm a master. Yeah, I can drive stick because I Learned to Drive in the UK, so I think I've got this Advanced drift control down. So that's why I chose obviously you regret it, or did you have a

good time with it? Well, the thing is, there's no way to know what normal is like right or at least without going back to England setting playing again, so I can't deal with it. I thought it was pretty good. I wasn't mad at it. I had an opposite reaction to it. I had no idea what was going on in terms of the controls. It just felt all over the place. I couldn't get a grasp for it. And normally I get a grasper things pretty quickly in terms of games. But yeah, I don't know.

Think about this maybe even playing because I'm used to playing other Mario Karts. Like it just didn't feel like Mario Kart driving for me, right that's interesting point because the context I've not really played Mario Cart since those Super Nintendo Entertainment System and even then I wasn't super into Mario Kart. I was a supermario boing myself. So I don't really have a much haven't played a whole bunch of Mario Kart, especially the newer iterations on switch or your

GameCube the king. Cube so I was coming at it reasonably fresh in terms of like how it should feel and I quite enjoyed it. I think it certainly took me a couple of games to understand at least in the steering mode that I chose, you know, the further to the edge of the screen the more you turned which sounds stupid now, I say it out loud, but it did take me a while to actually realize that the amount you move your thumb does actually change the amount you

steer. Yeah rather than just being a kind of a linear left, right? So yeah if you put Um, and the center of the screen is sort of like evens UI as normal you're driving straight. If you move your finger to the

right it turns you to the right. Yeah, but also if you're in like this drift mode will also start you to drift and then like if you put it in opposite direction and allow you to drift the opposite way to counter steer and vice versa on the other side, so it's kind of intuitive but I think if you start off and the manual mode where you have the control of drift, it could be a little confusing for me. Me, I don't think it was a

confusing. It was just like I didn't feel like it was accurately representing my intent of moving around the screen if that makes any sense like yeah. Yeah, it was it seemed a little bit counterintuitive in terms of the movement for me, right because you always drift in this mode which I think if memory serves with my Super Nintendo Entertainment System Controller drift was the top buttons left and right as you hop a little bit Yeah, whereas just left and

right would do a normal. Stay out here. In this case. You can only drift which is a different way of steering because now you're sliding around a corner rather than just moving left as it were like you doing Jersey only turnpike's all those, you know, night Fast and Furious boys over there with their with their cars and upgrades. I don't know what I'm talking about. We talked about the metagame the Collectibles and the everything's around it right

elements. Of this because there's a whole bunch of character collecting items as we discussed in the last episode. I always like to play as Yoshi, but I'm sad I have not yet got to play as Yoshi because he I've not unlocked him yet through a series of confusing Jim's pipes cars yields some something or other.

Yeah. In fact, I don't think I could actually tell you how this whole system works because I think it's kind of deliberately confusing it is when you start a game you're presented with spot see me. Feels like 12 screens where you need to select a card from each one and then your viewer illuminated because those ones have you collected so you can't we just tap and play you have to tap only you're choosing something and then you're choosing your hang-gliding option.

Then you're choosing your car. Then you're choosing your character, which I know you did in the in the in the older version but somehow. It is presenting the very confusing way and there's some objectives to use certain character combinations or certain combinations of things to get more points and sure I was confused.

But yeah, it was confusing. I think yeah, it starts you off with I think the towed off the bat that's the first character that sort of unlocks for you and then shortly after that I think something like Bowser is unlocked for you. Oh, yeah. Okay. So there's a Linea that's it was the same thing. Yeah, that does seem like you need to play more in order to unlock and I can see That really ties into the monetization in order for you to unlock stuff. You can just pay your way to

have them. But well you can pay your way to buy rubies and then rubies allow you to shoot things out of a pipe. Hmm, which is the unlock which is the unlock their eyes. They catch up on got your pipe indeed. There was some of the copy was interesting. I should take a screen grab of this because the middle little Papa who waves the flag. He's kind of your buddy guiding you through this largely

confusing menu system. So he pops up now and then one of the things he said way to go this calls for a celebration and what better way to celebrate than firing something out of a pipe. I remember noting that it's all it's just confusing and it seems out of place right with the rest of the copywriting which is pretty standard, right? Yeah. I mean they making a losing the fireworks. I don't know. They're just saying like hey, this is a celebratory moment

where she was like, yeah. Yeah, that was awkward but funny but strange Sam. Do you think you were playing against other real players? Or other real races so the world that's the illusion that It Go view right? But there is no way that was actually the case. I feel like because no matter like every time that I played against quote-unquote real people around the world with their user names because you can see their usernames.

Yeah. I always came in first and I drove horribly for like the first two times y because of your thumb drift problems realm worse than them drift. Drift drift. Yeah. I don't know. It's like an illusion that makes you feel like oh, yeah, this is all connected. Yeah, but I don't think it was real. Yeah, I think I was the same. I was the same as well to begin

with I thought oh, wow. I'm racing into other people maybe later on. Once you get past the guards of handhold novelty learning levels. You actually weighs against other people. Hmm. I don't know. I don't think there just wasn't enough of a waiting time for it to really match up that quickly. That's also true. Yeah, it might have been like pre-recorded. I don't know that doesn't make sense because you interact with them on the other thing is you need to be online to start a

game. Yeah, but if you go offline while playing a game you still carry on playing and everyone's racing against you. Yeah, I don't happen to me on the subway because I could oh, I'm in the station. I can start a game go go go and then I can play it right do do do do do. Then I go into the tunnel again, and obviously no cell network connection. Yeah, but that's all works like still race. Then I think my results was not recorded.

So yeah, I mean back and I'd have to play the game again, right and that was probably one of my biggest issues which we'll get to very soon on the three by threes may be next. Yes, three by threes three things good and three things bad. My first point. I thought it was a faithful Recreation of Mario Kart. I know you disagree so that should be a good point to

discuss further. But as someone who admittedly has not played much Mario Kart, especially since the Super Nintendo, I was there feels like Mario Kart right now. My feeling is I quite like the good the touch controls after a few races. Oh, I got the I got the gist of it three or four races in. Yeah. They're looking Fields. Definitely Mario Kart. I mean they've gotten a lot of stuff right in terms of making this feel like a polished Mario game.

Yeah, actually tell you what can I just clarify my position? On that. Yep, the racing natural game itself feels like Mario Kart. They are no good job of that so I can see the point for the bad. So the actual racing part, I think they made really good concessions as a mobile experience. Like I think if I actually got used to it and I actually started to enjoy it which I'll

get to later. I think it's something that that that totally makes sense from a mobile racing perspective because it allows you to drive it with one hand, which is great as a mobile gaming experience. Like this is almost a perfect format. It's a Portrait you can control that with one hand everything all the menus and buttons are sort of laid out and towards the bottom of the screen which is like super convenient. So they thought a lot about this stuff and it shows and the Polish nice.

Good point. I think the monetization was reasonably well done. I mean, there's nothing spectacularly new or different about it. But you know, you can play for a bunch of times without having to pay and if you want to shoot more stuff out of your pipe, you can pay the piper great. Yes to celebrate. Yes the celebratory moment only. Of course, you can pay to buy more Rupees to do that. I thought was fairly uh, none

obnoxious, right? I mean, there aren't really any ads or anything like that that gets in your way. Really the only way that they monetize is to buy these gems to upgrade your stuff. If possible, yeah, and also follows like a nice progression, right? Like it gives you stars in gems appropriately like throughout

your experience. If you're a Casual Gamer, like you're not really gonna want to create other characters or like get other characters off the back because the the characters that you start off with are pretty charming and fun to play with so I thought that progression is really nice and you know, they've got to make money somehow. So I appreciate that. They've thought of these things. Well, yeah, I'd also like to give you You a bunch of

customization options. You can choose to race if you played Mario Cart before you are very familiar with this. You can play the 10cc casual the hundred cc experience. I think there's few more ones to become unlocked later on and although the options of how to steer seems confusing to present to user before they've even played the game.

I still like that those options are there and if I wanted to fine-tune my controls, I guess I can yeah as if you do open up the In you you there are bunch of different control methods so you can do manual drift smart steering Auto item. And so in fact, you can also do the gyro the driver scope handling so you could steer with tilting or phone if that is the kind of thing you enjoy doing. Yeah, the the settings are very clear and pretty well done in terms of like the different

toggles that you have. I appreciate that. They have like a power saving mode in case you know, your phone gets too warm, but just want to play as Yoshi. Would you have paid to just play as Yoshi, like if you can just like by the characters off the bat? Yeah, you can pay 20 bucks to get what is called. The jeez what this is called is called like the New York pack or something as the New York set which gives you Mario star ticket and 45 rupees for the princely sum of 1999.

Oh boy, which is quite a lot. Yeah, that isn't gonna like well, I mean, how much value do you place in fun? Haha question to ask yourself every day. Yeah, if I could pay 20 bucks to play as Yoshi mean I might do it but it I wouldn't feel good about it. Hmm. I feel a little bit icky. I mean this is kind of same problems. I like Star Wars ran into with yo.

Hey play for free. But oh you want to play as your favorite character, then we got to cough up those there's Benjamin's extra digital dollars, which I can understand the strategy. Yeah, but if you're on the end of it It doesn't feel great. And also like I don't think it's really hard for you to just spend a little time with the game and earn your way through it, which I think is totally possible as well. Right, but at the moment, I'm not quite sure how to do that. That's true.

I imagine just play it a lot Frey and it like I first few might have been provided and linear but we don't know what the randomness of the characters that are unlocked afterwards would be yeah. Yeah be nice to kind of like, oh if you want this specific character then like get up to this map and finish this purse. This this Court's Vehicles. Yeah. Sounds like we all segueing quite nicely into the bad Points bad points am hit me. I think the biggest bad point for me was the the on online

connectivity. My my commute now is totally different where I need. It doesn't give me like an online connection whenever I'm in the subway.

Yep, and not only did I experience, you know the Midway while you're playing a map and it doesn't save your progress or anything like that sort of just like craps out it also Hence you from starting it up. And anyway, and I found that to be like so baffling I guess because like most developed countries that have the possibility of playing this game on your phone as much better internet connections. That's why it set that way. But yeah, it just drove me to

try attempted. Try attempt it again got it working and then like I'd lose connection for a little bit and it totally crap out not save my progress, right and there's something so passive-aggressive about the message as well. It wasn't even like oh you seem to be offline. Please. Try again later. If it was I don't remember exactly what the phrasing was but like connection error 7 512 one. Yeah. It's like the that error code not human and it's just like what is this thing?

And I don't feel good about what happened just now while the racing you I enjoyed and kind of keep me those Mario Kart Vibes everything else around it the actual app UI I guess. Not only was it like cluttered and unintuitive it also feels slow somehow tapping on buttons This is kind of a lag to it, which is not pleasing. It is wasn't fun to use the rest of the app outside of the actual racing part. Right? It didn't feel like a native

app. Yeah, it felt like they're using like web components and somehow this was like a rapper right? It's probably which is probably the case because I think they are dynamically loading all the content and some of these screens this in a way. This doesn't just doesn't feel Snappy which displeases me. I know it does it's little things like that that I think really puts up the Polish. Even though it may look like Mario just like the transition from like the one one cup to the other cup.

It's the frame rate is very slow. And that's not using to me. My other big issue is the driving. I think if I got had more chance to play with it and actually got used to it without a crapping out online. I think I would have ended up liking it a little bit even though it's really different from like what I expect from a regular Mario game. Yeah. I think there is some fun. To be had but because of the online connectivity like I just didn't find that combination fun.

It wasn't it wasn't a tappable touchable. Joyous experience for me Sam. What is your final 70 rating two days? Oh ouch. There's a harsh one for me. I gave it a good go for both days. I probably tried maybe about like three or four times on each day. And each time. I had like some online connection. Yeah that prevented progress. So I actually didn't really unlock anything. Thing or wasn't able to yeah, how far did you get? Oh, well, let me tell you I will show you actually no, no, okay.

Okay Mario cop New York cheap cheap Lagoon. I couldn't finish this. I've tried like seven times and it never recorded my progress. So after the second day of trying I was like, okay, I am not going to attempt us. And yeah, it's sad face. This is a solid five. I got up to well, there's no numbering but yes, I did get past Cheep Cheep Lagoon. And now the O Sheikh up.

Oh, wow, Daisy Hills, which I think is three screens of swiping even the swiping between is kind of gross its Blacky and yeah rates really slow and then like the I'm just loading a second later. Yeah. Yeah five days. I'm gonna keep it around but very difficult to play on my computer, which is what's the reason I play games right? Like I wish this was playable Mike meet ya, but yeah, unfortunately it is not well. Thank you Sam for thank you for saying thank you for Sam.

Thank you for suggesting Mario Kart World Tour. I wish it was better now Falls to me to choose the next game and we are going to delve into the world of Apple arcades is now live Apple arcade, and if you've not heard about this is Apple's kind of Netflix for games since everything needs to be a Netflix or something nowadays. Thor five dollars a month you get access to all the games you could possibly want that's not true. But the whole bunch of exclusive titles now available so many

yeah. Yes. Yes almost too many. You can start a free trial for the first month. So I yeah check it out. See if there's some games there you'd like maybe even play a game we suggest and it falls to me to suggest it Sam you have seven days to play grindstone. Hmm.

Mmm, not to be confused with grinder different different thing altogether and would you allow me as always and is as is customary to leads the description first play grindstone with apple arcade a game subscription service with 100 plus groundbreaking new games a game of Sword slashing puzzle battles. Grindstone. Awaits grindstone is a game of Sword slashing puzzle battles while they like like that sword slashing puzzle that has surprisingly hard to say. From the award-winning creators