Nintendo will be shutting down one of its own games later this month, with no plans for an offline version, meaning it will effectively be unavailable to anyone interested in checking it out. Compared to many other game companies, Nintendo rarely releases live-service games, but it has on occasion, especially when it comes to its mobile titles.
Wanting to drive players to its dedicated handhelds and home consoles, Nintendo resisted the urge to develop games for mobile devices for years. It finally gave in with Super Mario Run, which eschewed the traditional free-to-play model that many mobile games employ in favor of a more traditional approach. Later, Nintendo mobile games went free-to-play instead and leveraged heavy microtransactions and live-service elements, as is the norm, to varying degrees of success. Over the years, Nintendo has released live-service mobile versions of some of its top franchises, including Fire Emblem, Animal Crossing, and Mario Kart.
When is Mario Kart Tour Shutting Down?
Mobile game Mario Kart Tour was first released in 2019 and earned negative reviews for its gacha elements and aggressive monetization. Still, even though Mario Kart Tour is the lowest-rated Mario Kart game, there are still many that have played it and enjoyed it. If nothing else, it’s neat to have a Mario Kart game readily available to play on your phone. Unfortunately, Mario Kart Tour‘s time is coming to an end, as Nintendo has confirmed that the game will be permanently shutting down at 1am CST on Wednesday, September 30. From that point forward, Mario Kart Tour will effectively cease to exist.
Who’s That Character?
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
This isn’t the first time Nintendo has shut down one of its mobile games. Seven years after it was first released, Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp‘s online features were shuttered. However, Nintendo went the extra mile and released a paid offline version of Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp to replace the free-to-play online-only version. Unfortunately, Nintendo has not announced any plans to do the same for Mario Kart Tour, so anyone interested in playing it is running out of time to do so.
There are some that consider Mario Kart Tour a main series entry in the long-running Mario Kart franchise, and so that makes it especially painful to see it shut down. We will exist in a world soon where it will be impossible to play all the Mario Kart games if you want to, which is a shame. The good news is that Mario Kart Tour will still live on in some form. Luckily, some Mario Kart Tour tracks have been added to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe over the years.
While it’s a shame that Mario Kart Tour is shutting down, the good news is that there’s a newer Mario Kart game readily available to play. Those with a Nintendo Switch 2 can play Mario Kart World along with many classic entries in the series, from the SNES original through the GBA release. And since Nintendo Switch 2 has GameCube games in the Nintendo Classics lineup, one has to imagine that it’s just a matter of time before Double Dash makes its debut as well.
- Released
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September 25, 2019
- ESRB
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e
- Developer(s)
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Nintendo EPD
- Publisher(s)
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Nintendo
- Engine
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Unity
Who’s That Character?
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
