A while back, Nintendo stopped official support for Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp, but released an offline version of the game that fans could continue to play. So when Nintendo recently announced that Mario Kart Tour is shutting down, players were surprised to learn that there would be no equivalent offline version offered – the game in its entirety will cease to exist in September. That means Mario Kart Tour will be the first Mario Kart game that’s completely inaccessible via legal means – though you could sort of argue for Mario Kart Arcade GP to be included in that category.
Despite its closure, though, Mario Kart Tour made an impact on the franchise as a whole. So today, we’re going over what set Mario Kart Tour apart, and the exclusive content it still has that hasn’t made its way to any console title (at the time of writing).
Exclusive characters and courses
Mario Kart Tour received a wealth of content updates over the years, which means it’s got plenty of characters and tracks that never made it to any other Mario Kart game. In terms of drivers, three unique ones remain exclusive to Mario Kart Tour: Dixie Kong, King Bob-omb, and Poochy. And those are just the drivers that haven’t appeared in any other Mario Kart game – if you count ones that don’t appear in Mario Kart World, you’d be adding Diddy Kong, Funky Kong, Peachette, Pink Gold Peach, Metal Mario, and Petey Piranha, among others. And even that’s not counting the treasure trove of character outfits this game has – almost all of them are absent from Mario Kart World, even though that game does have a good amount of outfits to offer.
The game also has plenty of tracks that aren’t in Mario Kart World, but a big number of them are present in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe’s Booster Course Pass DLC. But when Mario Kart Tour shuts down, the original track Piranha Plant Pipeline will become completely inaccessible, as it has never appeared in any other title. That makes it a prime candidate for theoretical Mario Kart World DLC, but there’s a problem: the Piranha Plant Pipeline theme is already present in the game as a track that plays on intermissions. Does that disqualify it from appearing as DLC? Does any Mario Kart track that plays during intermission mean its associated course can’t become DLC eventually? We have no idea, but all we know is that Piranha Plant Pipeline definitely deserves a second chance on Nintendo Switch 2.
Mario Kart Tour’s lasting impact
We’re not pretending that everyone loved Mario Kart Tour – it had its fair share of problems, though its biggest one is ironically that it was a mobile game. Spending real money for a chance to pull random characters is never a consumer-friendly mechanic, and everyone knows about the $40 Diddy Kong pack. But even with its flaws, Mario Kart Tour did have an impact – mainly, on Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
Mario Kart World entered development for the original Nintendo Switch after Mario Kart 8 Deluxe released in 2017, but as we know, World wound up being too ambitious a title. So while Mario Kart World continued development and eventually moved to Switch 2, Nintendo wasn’t expecting Mario Kart 8 Deluxe to become the best-selling game in the entire franchise. But since Mario Kart Tour was also ongoing as of 2019, courses redesigned for it could be ported over to 8 Deluxe more easily. This eventually came to fruition in the form of the Booster Course Pass, which added many courses from Mario Kart Tour to the game as well as a few originals plus some additional drivers. Given that most of the tracks originate from Tour, though, they’re of a significantly lower visual quality than the courses in base Mario Kart 8 – the difference is very, very noticeable.
Even though they weren’t up to par in terms of visuals, the Booster Course Pass added 48 more tracks to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, meaning it’s now the most content-rich game in the series. And this extra content was never originally planned – it’s possible it’s only there thanks to Mario Kart Tour, though it was also made to hold over fans until Mario Kart World and Nintendo Switch 2.
Mario Kart Tour also featured many tracks that originated there, most of which (except for Piranha Plant Pipeline as mentioned earlier) made it into Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Many of these courses are based on real-world locations, so they’re a little bit forgettable in comparison to Mario Kart’s normal fantasy locations, but they’re still all of at least decent quality. Tour also introduced Merry Mountain, Ninja Hideaway, and Piranha Plant Cove. So a lot of content from this game made it into 8 Deluxe, the most popular title in the franchise.
While Mario Kart Tour’s gacha elements won’t be missed, its exclusive content and differing gameplay loop to the core series certainly will. It wasn’t a replacement for core Mario Kart – it was more like a kind of spin-off of it – but it was still loved by many even with its flaws.
Have you played Mario Kart Tour, and if so, what do you think of it? Where does it rank among every Mario Kart game for you? Let us know in the comments down below.
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