Nintendo made it very clear in 2023 that mobile game Mario Kart Tour would receive no more updates. As part of the company’s mass move away from mobile gaming, the four-year-old app had had its day. But now, almost two years later, the game is receiving a surprise new campaign to celebrate the recent arrival of Switch 2 exclusive, Mario Kart World.
I’ve instantly forgotten which game is which after writing that paragraph, and that’s why we put numbers in our sequels, folks. But Tour is the older mobile app, World is the brand new Switch 2 game, and the former has been remembered in response to the latter. Running July 23 to August 6, the “Special Campaign” will see Mario and Luigi dressed in the cutest little mechanic outfits, along with the new arrival of World’s Tiny Titan kart, in four colored variants. The trailer rather cheekily calls this “four karts,” but, um, no, it’s just a different spray job. So yeah, OK, it’s not exactly the most earth-shaking update, but it’s still pretty significant to see that Nintendo is willing to go back and breathe a little new life into the game.
The event coincides with the beginning of the latest Ranked Cup, with Sunshine Tour beginning next week, followed by Vacation Tour and then Summer Tour, each two weeks long. Mario Kart Tour rotates in tracks and outfits throughout the year, and that’s continued on since the updates stopped in 2023. Sadly no new tracks are being added, but if Nintendo is really interested in reviving interest in the free-to-play mobile game, perhaps it could still happen?
And, this all follows the return of the rarest track in Mario Kart, Piranha Plant Pipeline, which is currently in the mobile game until July 22. It’s only ever appeared two times before, so you’ve only got a handful of days before it’s gone for who knows how long.
Mario Kart Tour already saw most of its original tracks moved over to the incredibly long-running Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the Switch, but Mario Kart World is too new to have started receiving the deluge of older tracks that is surely to come over the next few years. Still, it’s lovely that it’s a big enough deal to have seen Nintendo return to Tour, even if it really just amounts to a single new kart and some cosmetics. Oh, but those mechanic cosmetics. They’re so adorable!
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