Nintendo has finally announced a release date for multiplayer on Mario Kart Tour – more than five months after the game first launched.
Nintendo revealed the news through the official Mario Kart Tour Twitter account earlier this morning.
Multiplayer for #MarioKartTour comes out on Mar. 8, 8 PM PT! You can compete against seven other players, whether they're in-game friends, nearby, or around the world. Are you ready to play? pic.twitter.com/IRwBONq560
— Mario Kart Tour (@mariokarttourEN) March 3, 2020
According to the tweet, Mario fans can look forward to competing against up to seven people locally or online.
Multiplayer mode will roll out at 8pm Pacific Time – that’s 4am here in the UK – on March 8.
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While Sunday may seem close now, many Mario Kart Tour players have been waiting months for the new feature. The game first dropped on the App Store and the Google Play store on September 25 over five months ago and fans have been asking when multiplayer will arrive ever since.
Mario Kart Tour is Nintendo’s attempt at adapting the popular Mario Kart racing franchise for your smartphone.
The app is compatible with iOS and Android, trading the classic controller mechanisms for simplified swipes and taps as you move your way through cups collecting stars, coins and rubies as you go.
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While the mobile game has many of the features integral to Mario Kart, including the most recent Nintendo Switch installation Mario Kart 8, it lacked the all-important multiplayer feature. After all, what’s the point in winning a race if you can’t shove it in someone else’s face?
Mario Kart Tour is free to play but there is the option to buy a Gold Pass subscription to unlock certain exclusive features – 200cc speeds, for example. Gold Pass members were actually among those offered the chance to join the beta for the new multiplayer mode back in December.
The Mario Kart Tour hype is, in large part, over now. We’ll have to wait until the 8th to see if the new multiplayer feature can get people talking again – and live up to our high expectations.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
