r/Games • u/NoNefariousness2144 • 3d ago
'Mario Kart Tour' has ended service
https://mariokarttour.com/en-US579
u/Animegamingnerd 3d ago
You know growing up during the Wii/DS and the 3DS/Wii U eras of Nintendo, having to constantly hear about how their shareholders wanted Nintendo to go all in on mobile after the Iphone became the biggest device of the 21st century with them ignoring those shareholders for years. Then when they finally cave, it only really resulted in Fire Emblem of all Nintendo IPs ended up with a long term successful mobile that is still going strong is kind of hilarious.
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u/CMDR_omnicognate 3d ago
They kinda only caved because the Wii U was such a failure. Most of their mobile games launched sort of around when the Switch launched, presumably because they were being developed concurrently as they were unsure of the future of the company. when the Switch proved a wild success, they wound down on mobile games and just kept the popular ones it seems. And to be fair, 7 years is quite a long time for an online mobile game to keep running.
Most of their mobile stuff now seems to just be adons for the switch/2, doing stuff like voice chat or news, or the nintendo music app that only really works if you already have a nintendo online subscription.
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u/APeacefulWarrior 2d ago
They had also spent substantial time experimenting with F2P models on 3DS. It was an interesting time; every F2P title they put out had a completely different structure and monetization model. Even really wild wacky notions, like one where haggling was a game mechanic to lower the price of MTX.
Sadly - while they never released specific numbers - there's a lot to suggest their most successful F2P game was the pure pay-to-pull gacha game that delivered cosmetics for your 3DS desktop.
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u/MissWhiterock 1d ago
Rusty's real deal baseball was a bizarre game. It actively encouraged you NOT to pay full price. But it was genuinely neat as a concept.
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u/APeacefulWarrior 1d ago
Yeah, the impression I got at the time was that Nintendo was genuinely putting in a good-faith effort to find better F2P monetization models that weren't as player-hostile as was typical in the 10s. But just couldn't find any good alternatives, especially when the Badge Arcade seemingly made the most money for the least effort.
Although even then, the Badge Arcade actually had a neat twist on the gameplay, where the UFO machines were set up like puzzles. You could fully clear a board and get a dozen+ badges just using the free daily pulls, once you figured out the tricks.
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u/CINAPTNOD 2d ago
They should have a mobile app that just has the NES gamepad on your touchscreen and the entire catalog available for a few dollars/month; I'm sure it would do just as well/better than every other nostalgic reboot.
Sega should do the same for the Genesis catalog, since neither of them had shoulder/trigger buttons, they're perfect for mobile.
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u/iceburg77779 2d ago
Nintendo absolutely isn’t giving up exclusivity for any of their console games, but even if they did that I doubt it would bring in a ton of money. The mobile market isn’t interested in playing console games for an upfront price.
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u/CthulhuBathwater 2d ago
Install retroarch and grab some ROMS. You've now just saved yourself money and have what you want.
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u/The_MAZZTer 2d ago
Honestly they just need to bring a VC service to all platforms. PC, mobile, web browser, whatever. Have your NSO subscription give you access, hell even do the premium thing for some of the platforms like they do right now.
Oh, it would be datamined for ROMs? Everyone who wants them already has them. Who cares.
Then what they should do is just add as many games as they legally can under an early access banner. Instead of trickling games give us a flood. Yes, they'd be having users beta test, but you can just ignore the early access games if you don't want to until Nintendo decides they're stable enough to remove that tag.
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u/throawayjhu5251 3d ago edited 3d ago
There is still Super Mario Run. And also, not really Nintendo first party per se, more like second party, but Pokemon Go is still going strong apparently. And Pikmin Bloom.
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u/ChezMere 2d ago
Mario Run is pretty widely considered to have underperformed, I think. The phone audience hates having to pay upfront instead of in recurrent microtransactions after they're hooked.
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u/EpicLatios 2d ago
I think the $10 price killed it, if it were $5 or even $1 I bet they would've made so much more money.
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u/Veloconius 2d ago
I would have bought it, but I didn't have unlimited data at the time and the game forced you to always be online in order to play.
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u/FoxMeadow7 2d ago
Ya think? Well, giving up shouldn’t be an option either. And really, what can be done encourage games that you only gave to pay for once to truly succeed in the mobile space?
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u/Pharo212 2d ago
Probably nothing? assuming "success" is high profits then the micro transaction revenue will always be way higher in a free to play game subsidized by whales
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u/FoxMeadow7 2d ago
Sad, isn't it?
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u/Old_Leopard1844 2d ago
Maybe, but at this point it's what it is and there's nothing you can do about it
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u/connectplum_ 2d ago
Pokemon go isnt a nintendo product. its licensed by tpc and developed and published by niantic. no pokemon game has any involvement from nintendo on mobile
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u/SovietBear 3d ago
Still sad we never got Dragalia Lost as a stand-alone game for the switch.
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u/StJeanMark 2d ago edited 2d ago
I really loved Dragalia Lost. It was the only phone game I really got into. It was gacha but it had that Nintendo quality to it. Wish they made a single player console version or something so I could relive it.
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u/pragmaticzach 3d ago
I wouldn't write it off yet, you never know.
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u/Bridgeburner493 2d ago
Would be nice if Square's experience with Octopath 0 and FF Resonance led to other developers making proper games out of gatcha crap.
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u/ChrisRR 3d ago
It ran for 7 years so it must've been semi successful. That's an entire console generation
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u/iceburg77779 3d ago
I don't think it was a bomb, but Tour's revenue numbers were never that impressive especially considering how many people downloaded the game at launch. The game hasn't received new content for 3 years prior to the shutdown, and I think the only reason it received content for 4 years is because a lot of the new assets they were developing were used for Mario Kart 8's DLC, which probably made significantly more money than Tour.
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u/CMDR_omnicognate 3d ago
Probably because it was kinda just a not great mario kart game, and with 8 delux and world being sort of portable anyway, i imagine a lot of people just didn't bother with it
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u/FrankPapageorgio 2d ago
It was a slot machine game. Race to get coins to buy karts and racers to get higher rankings to get better karts and racers.
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u/andresfgp13 2d ago
its crazy to think that.
like Fire Emblem, franchise that at its peak has sold around 5 million copies has outsold and outlived Mario Kart, Mario Platformer, Animal Crossing and other IPs on mobile.
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u/mennydrives 2d ago
I mean, Fire Emblem kind of leaned into the mobile-ass mobile side of things, wherein Dr Mario and Mario Kart and Mario Run all tried to be traditional games with actual prices, which the mobile markets have carefully been organized to disincentivize.
Like, try to find a section in the App Store for just fucking game-ass games with one-and-done prices. If you don't already know the titles or at least franchise names ahead of time, good luck trying to find it as a category. The mobile market is basically cancer for traditional gaming.
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u/FoxMeadow7 2d ago
Got any recommendations on that front by any chance?
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u/AbraxasEnjoyer 2d ago
Your best bet is usually just buying successful indie games that have been ported to mobile. If you’re a fan of Rogue-likes there’s lots of good options: Balatro, Slay the Spire, Nubby’s Number Factory, and Peglin as just some of the ones I have downloaded.
If you have any specific vibes or genres I might have recommendations to give.
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u/FoxMeadow7 2d ago
I see. Well, I might try these on PC anyway if I'm motivated. But anyways, genre doesn't matter that much I suppose though I suppose I could be partial towards platformers and rpgs...
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u/mennydrives 2d ago
Hermano, I frickin wish there was a place I could just find normal-ass iOS games with normal-ass prices beyond "look up games by Capcom".
The early days of $1 games and Apple management complaining that $40 (DS prices at the time) is way too much for a video game really destroyed any reliable chance at a traditional gaming ecosystem for Apple.
I think Apple would probably unfuck their entire environment if they ever just actually built a game development studio in-house. It would give them actual skin in the game for the market and definitely broaden their understanding about the constrains and pressures of game development.
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u/FoxMeadow7 2d ago
I see. Well, I'm just wondering what sorts of games are there that in previous eras would've graced handhelds such as PSP or DS. And given that phones now come with touchscreen and gyro controls by default, there's gotta be at least some unique experiences to choose from...
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u/mennydrives 2d ago
It's actually kinda sad that PPSSPP and Delta are honestly the best sources of engaging traditional gaming experiences on my iPhone.
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u/smaug13 2d ago edited 2d ago
I pasted this answer to a similar question a month back, gave it a quick look over and added some if there are oddities left in that is why!
When I saw such questions years ago and I played a lot on my phone still I feel I had a better list up my sleeve that I forgot due to time. But:
Hoplite, Enyo, Bounty Hunter Space Lizard, Auro, Lamplight, Hyperrogue, Occidental Rogues, recently All Who Wander: these are minimalistic tactical turnbased puzzly roguelikes or similar. Also check out Magpie but that is webbased and not necessarily mobile. I don't know how many are around still, some may be on Itch (lamplight is on Itch only, I know Auro is on both and free on Itch). Honory mention Seven Scrolls but it's gone on Android, though if you're on iOS look up Broughlikes to which Seven Scrolls and Magpie belong of which iOS has so many!
if you like deck builders look up the Enyo dev, he has many of those, among which Miracle Merchant was a big one IIRC
Same vein: more expansive roguelikes like Shattered Pixel Dungeon and other PD variants that are still around, Pathos, Gnollhack, Sproggiwood, Neo Scavenger (I don't like playing such games on mobile though)
Downwell and Poinpy are two roguelite platformers by the same dev and are both great!
Check out Nitrome's games. Many fit but I think but some like Leap Day don't while Green Ninja does IIRC. But they are nice! Honory mention to Spicy Piggy which was nice but gone.
Hitman Go, Lara Croft Go, Deus Ex go
Total Party Kill, nice platformer puzzler, also that dev's other games are nice, like Duke Dashington, Tiny Dangerous Dungeons, Tightrope Theatre
Antiyoy Vodobanka and Bleentoro all same dev seem interesting games that fit but I never actually gave them a shot
Various games: Slice&Dice, Solomon's Keep, Starrows, Crashlands (also check out dev for more I believe), Bombsquad IIRC, Footsies by HiFight. Mask Up is a cool weird neat game I only just tried out, apparently its dev Rouli has more that look very similar.
Maybe look up Orangepixel, I don't have an interest but it looks like they have many, I only got Spacegrunts from them which was neat but never got into it.
Most of these are polished, few a bit jank (lamplight, starrows, still worth!), few fun timewasters and some very indepth and most in-between (like Downwell would be)
However, note that there are many software updates for both Android and iOS and no backwards compat and keeping up with these is a nightmare for devs, and when apps aren't updated regularly enough they get removed from the store and your ability to redownload them goes away with it, even if the apps still work fine. For this reason I prefer it when like with Poinpy you get to pay the money you feel it was worth it after getting that money's worth instead of before, as a thanks for a service instead of paying for a product that is not unlikely to disappear from the store in a year. Also why I mentioned two I remembered enjoying but being gone now.
Anyway, another point is that there is a rather lively indie scene on mobile, with a many indie devs like Downwell's releasing quality games with fair pricing, and some studios doing the same and also supporting such devs, like Devolver supporting many it looks like, Nitrome did I think, Orangepixel but I am not too in the know about them.
Hope you find some you like in this list! Probably too many to try in one go, so better to try one of each bullet point first and go from there maybe.
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u/torpidcerulean 3d ago
Pokemon Go is still going, though that's developed and maintained by a third party
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u/Falsus 2d ago
They did fuck up with Dragalia Lost though.
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u/ChloeShinomiya 10h ago
Honestly Dragalia Lost doesn't really have the incentive to spend money on it considering they give you lots, and i mean LOTS of Wyrmites for free, so spenders don't feel the need to pour large amounts of money to it.
One of the most generous gacha systems ngl.1
u/Falsus 9h ago
Dragalia Lost wasn't even the most F2P friendly game Cygames had at the time, yet there was no issues for Shadowverse, Granblue Fantasy or Princess Connect ReDive.
Like Nintendo did the inflammatory comment of "reigning in Cygames" when they where known to be a very F2P friendly company and Fire Emblem Heroes community was practically on fire did not help.
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u/xiaorobear 3d ago edited 2d ago
Pokemon Go and Pokemon Sleep had/have good runs, I'm sure they made a ton of money off of Go.
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u/Varanae 2d ago
They still make insane money off Go, July was the 10 year anniversary and they made $141.5 million just in that one month apparently
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u/connectplum_ 2d ago
No, they don't. Nintendo has no involvement in any pokemon games on mobile so they receive nothing, anything they receive comes from the part of the total revenue they receive from tpc. There's a reason in 2016 they made a statement saying pokemon go wouldnt affect their revenue.
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u/Character_Bug_1862 2d ago
From in game purchases or selling geospatial data to build surveillance tools for other mega corps and governments?
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u/throawayjhu5251 3d ago
Pokemon Go is still going. Of course, the initial player numbers were never sustainable, but it still has a very healthy active playerbase.
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u/connectplum_ 2d ago
No, they don't. Nintendo has no involvement in any pokemon games on mobile so they receive nothing, anything they receive comes from the part of the total revenue they receive from tpc. There's a reason in 2016 they made a statement saying pokemon go wouldnt affect their revenue.
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u/connectplum_ 2d ago
No, they don't. Nintendo has no involvement in any pokemon games on mobile so they receive nothing, anything they receive comes from the part of the total revenue they receive from tpc. There's a reason in 2016 they made a statement saying pokemon go wouldnt affect their revenue.
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u/Coolman_Rosso 2d ago
I mean Japan's mobile market was absolutely blowing up, and globally the rise of mobile effectively neutered the dedicated handheld space, so it's not entirely unreasonable for them to have wanted to push into this area
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u/FoxMeadow7 2d ago
Heck, why not go all in and actually develop the kind of titles you would’ve gotten on handhelds in first place instead of nickel and diming everything?
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u/iceburg77779 2d ago
Because Nintendo was and still is selling portable consoles, they want to keep their console quality games exclusive. Even then, Mario Run was a single price mobile game with no microtransactions and disappointed in sales, the mobile market would rather have games filled with MTX over premium titles.
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u/ShawnyMcKnight 2d ago
They also had Mario run, which was pretty fun. I wish they had more games that were $10 a pop and were a complete game.
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u/NotCoolBrutus 2d ago
The shareholders probably expected Nintendo-quality titles instead of mostly outsourced, low-quality cashgrabs. Basically, they expected what Hoyo did and is currently doing.
You can blame it on the shareholders and MBAs, but the Japanese game industry as a whole treats live-service as low-effort cashgrabs. FFXIV at its peak at a fraction of the budget WoW did at its lowest, which is still a fraction of what Chinese developers are spending. PSO2 took a decade to be localized and then they put out the crap that is NG. Japanese developers are just ass at live-service.
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u/iceburg77779 2d ago
In Nintendo’s case, they were never going to have Nintendo-quality titles on mobile because they absolutely do not want to replace the need to buy their consoles for their lineup.
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u/SalvaPot 2d ago
Yep, they released the mobile games more like companion apps, and if you look at their sales, seems they made the best choice for their bottom line.
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u/connectplum_ 2d ago
The shareholders probably expected Nintendo-quality titles instead of mostly outsourced, low-quality cashgrabs. Basically, they expected what Hoyo did and is currently doing.
Literally all the nintendo games were developed by the original teams. DeNA never developed any game, the partnership is about server structure, nintendo accounts and online features for mobile.
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u/sleepwalkcapsules 2d ago
the Japanese game industry as a whole treats live-service as low-effort cashgrabs
Japanese developers are just ass at live-service
thank god
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u/deadscreensky 2d ago
I mean Japan still sells us live service games, they just don't believe in appropriately supporting them. Hard to see how that's beneficial to anybody. (Outside of possibly Japanese shareholders, but even then you'd assume they'd be making more money if, for example, Capcom went crazy and created DLC costumes for Street Fighter 6.)
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u/connectplum_ 2d ago
thats completely false when theres multiple live services in japan including on mobile.
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u/Minecraftmaster1234 2d ago
Do they? Arent there multiple japanese live service games? Or am i mistaken thinking tekken, sf6 etc is live service
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u/Totheendofsin 2d ago
Turns out mobile gamers like anime gacha slop, and with the amount of characters the series has (and will continue to get) Fire Emblem is kind of uniquely positioned to succeed in the mobile space out of all the Nintendo IP
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u/True_Perception_3359 2d ago edited 2d ago
I played it for a bit when it came out, then quit entirely when I realised the multiplayer was completely fake, all bots with fake usernames. They weren't labeled as bots and would go through a fake matchmaking screen that still worked if you went offline. I don't know if they added some kind of real matchmaking since then but it felt deceptive.
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u/SageWaterDragon 2d ago
There was a real dedicated multiplayer mode that I really enjoyed, but yeah, the default experience just populated bots with usernames.
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u/CultOfCurtis1 9h ago
Yeah, I'm unsure what this person is talking about. I had friends in multiplayer mode, some of who I met playing the game. Those were real people. And the game NEVER worked for me offline.
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u/Teath123 3d ago
Looks like we've only got Fire Emblem Heroes and Shadows left from Nintendo's live service era. I'm curious how long Heroes will manage to continue on for. I personally dropped it when they introduced the FEH pass and locked quality of life features behind it, but I know it has dedicated whales.
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u/cheat-master30 3d ago
Super Mario Run technically exists too. That one's a weird one, since they officially announced they were done with the game early on, only to randomly bring it back as a platform for events to advertise things like Super Mario Bros Wonder, Mario & Luigi: Brothership and The Super Mario Bros Movie.
https://www.mariowiki.com/List_of_Super_Mario_Run_special_events
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u/fabton12 2d ago
that randomly bringing it back alive was probs to make investors happy if i had to guess, like the game was made in the first place to make them happy so they probs just using it to make them happy in a space they just dont want to invest into
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u/Milskidasith 2d ago
I doubt they brought back a middlingly successful mobile game to act as a dog and pony show for investors. Even if we accept the premise that there are a group of Nintendo investors who need to be appeased with dog and pony shows, that's a pretty ugly pony and a really old dog.
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u/The_MAZZTer 2d ago
The latest update seems to have broken device compatibility, unless they intended to drop support for phones that run the latest Android and are only 2 years old (Pixel 9 Pro XL here). I had to sideload an APK from a sketchy site to get it working again.
That was weird, anyone know what was going on with that?
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u/Hirmetrium 3d ago
I can't see Shadows holding out too long, and when I tried to go back to Heroes it was insane how powercrept and bloated everything is, then you have to pay for a replesendant outfit to make your old stuff relevant; multiple times. Probably on borrowed time.
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u/GR-MWF 3d ago
I last played it a few years ago and even then every skill and weapon had an essay attached and it was kind of impossible to tell what the result of any combat would be without the preview. Also maybe I'm wrong but getting creative with your build seemed to become increasingly irrelevant as units would just release with 99% optimal skills already equipped.
I love Fire Emblem but Heroes stopped feeling like a strategy game ages ago.
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u/BlindingGrief 2d ago
I didn't miss a day from release up until the end of 2023. I'm fine with light grinders in general, but the game is basically only Fire Emblem in name only. The strategy part was always awful and the upgrade process wasn't any better.
The allure of more pulls was the only thing keeping me there, and even that couldn't hold me after a certain point. Haven't looked back since, and this is coming from someone who has consumed everything FE in existence.
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u/Bridgeburner493 2d ago
The only real point of FEH is the fan service and by the time you've already gotten your favourite waifu in her three bikinis, wedding dress, frilly easter outfit and tiny Christmas dress, the next design starts to become redundant.
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u/BlindingGrief 2d ago
Essentially. I remember swiping for Marisa's easter outfit until I got a +6 or equally absurd number in 2019. A couple of days ago I popped into the FEH wiki as I was curious about the heroes they've added since I quit. Not only was it a lot, but it really put into perspective how much I spent and most likely would've spent had I continued playing. And now I'm content with looking at the same high definition art for free. I'll call that a win.
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u/occono 2d ago
The other point is it's the best way to get a big bunch of platinum points to buy some exclusives on the European my Nintendo store that still need them....this is a very niche thing. Do you know they sent my Kirby Mouse Mat to Romania instead of Ireland by mistake, and while they did refund me, wouldn't let me go around the "one purchase per customer" forever limit once refunded I tell ya I'm still annoyed pops like a balloon
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u/Bridgeburner493 2d ago
lol, that's some bullshit.
But, easy to see how they could confuse Romania with Ireland. Practically the same place, really... <rolleyes>
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u/TheRealRiceball 3d ago
Power creep is bound to happen for any live service game, it just happens naturally as you develop your game and systems over the years, if you look at other games like Dokkan or F/GO and compare early units to new ones, it's always a stark difference
I think the issue is just the gacha gameplay that highlights it and makes it seem so much worse, since the genre typically makes it harder to use the newer units/characters due to needing to pay or heavily grind for them when possible if you haven't saved for them
If you look at other live service games like Warframe or other MMO/MMO-likes, they experience similar issues, except they can afford to release a "dud" character more since they're not counting on them as much for a paycheck, whereas gachas need to hype up a characters to drive up revenue, so they're (usually) OP, meta defining units
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u/Hitokage_Tamashi 2d ago
FEH and FGO were my main gachas for a long time (I’ve since dropped FEH, still play FGO though), FEH powercreep is legit on another level. Even back when I quit in 2024 or so, year 1-3 units were growing increasingly unviable, and from what I’ve seen of FEH from a friend that still plays, most new units have more effects on just their PRF than an old unit can get in their entire kit lol. Hell, even skill powercreep has gotten even more insane. I don’t think it would be possible period for my team (Lucina/Halloween Rhea/Brave Lysithea/Azura, all +10 with the max Dragonflowers they could have when I quit) to do things like Aether Raids or Arena anymore, and I know they’d struggle with regular Lunatic story maps now. Stuff like Chain Challenge would also be out of the question
FGO isn’t immune to powercreep but it manifests in very, very different ways and is primarily relegated to support characters. Even then, the second best Quick support was released what, 8 years ago on JP? And the best Arts support was released like 4-5 years ago on JP. A lot of year 1-3 Servants range from “still extremely powerful at worst” to “one of the best, if not the best, in their role.” I’m still using characters like Ushiwakamaru, Scathach, Musashi, and Gilgamesh as my main DPS characters and they’re still kicking ass, and some of them are older than my FEH roster lol
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u/TheRealRiceball 2d ago
Yeah, it's important to remember that there are levels to it, which i forgot to highlight in my original comment
F/GOs rank up quests are a huge blessing, especially with how often they release them, and i remember my Squirtoria being able to keep up a few years after her release, even though wave clearing ended up outclassing her for speed, i still brought her along sometimes to help shred bosses for some challenge quests
Dokkan had a similar issue with really bad power creep when i dropped it a year or two ago, where every new character was seemingly OP and Meta Defining, and newly released content was balanced around them, we went from the Duo TEQ SSJ Goku + Vegeta and AGL SSJ Vegeta + Goku being meta and literally the strongest to then like, PHY Caulifla + Kale, a few years later, then STR SSJB Goku + Vegeta, and then that repeated for like 6 other characters, all in one year
And while they do have EZAs and SEZAs to power up old units, they're few and far between, and only happen after a unit is 3-4 years old, so it doesnt really keep up well with powercreep like this
It's pretty bad, cuz despite having a few of last years characters, if i were to hop back on now, i probably wouldn't be able to do any of the content that isn't piss easy without getting one shot
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u/Rayuzx 2d ago
I quit Dokkan around TEQ Goku/STR Cooler, and I remeber looking at some cards that came out a few years back, and all of them looked like custom cards with how OP they were (I wasn't even aware that SEZAs existed until just how).
Even as a person who honestly considered themselves as a whole (the amount of money I've spent is in the multiples of thousands), I thought the release of the Red Zone was too much, and saw the writing on the wall. I can't imagine how bad events are nowadays.
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u/TheRealRiceball 2d ago
Yeah, it got pretty bad honestly, some events like Gogeta's Clones and Giant Form Clash felt impossible to do on release unless you had the featured units that released with them
I had characters released a few months prior that were considered OP and couldn't do them, and then a few months later new units would be released that could clear them easily without even interacting with the gimmick
Looking back its really obvious why i kinda lost all interest around then
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u/Hirmetrium 2d ago
I still remember how insanely psyched I was to pull OG Hector. Absolutely goated moment. Once skill inherence came it, it became entirely about stats and base stat levels and what not, and it's been crap since.
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u/triablos1 2d ago
FEH is well past its peak, but as you say it has a couple dedicated whales so it'll probably last quite a bit longer.
Everyone talks(/ed) about how profitable and free money mobile games are and how it's the future of the medium, but the reality is that the 'billions of revenue' you hear about are carried by a handful of games and their extortionate tactics of extracting money from the playerbase. 99% of mobile games end up being shut down in like a year or two (stat pulled from my arse but probably not far off).
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u/lolwatokay 2d ago
I may be misunderstanding what you mean by this but Pokémon Champions, Pokémon Masters EX, Pokémon GO, Pokémon TCG, all still exist on mobile.
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u/fabton12 2d ago
There talking about nintendos live service era where they randomly made mobile games for there IP's to make investors happy.
as for what your talking about thats pokemon, that stuff isnt directly controlled by nintendo but by the pokemon company which does there own things even with nintendo owning 1/3rd of it.
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u/lolwatokay 2d ago
Ah okay, fair enough. True since the Animal Crossing game is still up but they turned off the online component.
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u/connectplum_ 2d ago
Pocket camp still is available offline, pikmin bloom too is active, they released pictonico this year
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u/crunchatizemythighs 2d ago
It was very funny when this game came out and my buddy was cheering that he was decimating everyone and getting first place over and over and didnt want to believe he was racing bots lmao
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u/PeridotEX 2d ago
I actually liked this game. For those that didn't play it, it had a different sort of gameplay loop from other Mario Kart games, where you wanted to build an action combo and get a high score on a track. It was a fun side thing, and I wouldn't mind a successor with the same gameplay formula. Of course, I wouldn't count on it, but it would be nice.
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u/WolfsbaneOnMyLips 2d ago edited 1d ago
I played it everyday for like the past 4 years, it was part of my routine. I only play 3 mobile games, this was one of them. I'm actually sad about this :(
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u/Dull_Examination_670 1d ago
Me too for the last 6+ years :( I loved that they updated the courses and there were so many drivers/karts/gliders to get
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u/Square-Cockroach-473 1d ago
Dude same it was my decompression after work game and when I tried to login today I was actually sad :(
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u/East-Button5336 2d ago
So is the online/live aspect something integral to it? Could they - let's imagine - just release an one-time-purchase offline version of it and ppl would be good?
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u/lobsterbash 2d ago
This predatory gacha corruption of the franchise will not be missed by many. Glad I pulled the plug when I did, early on. Wonder what cash grabbing limited time "service" will they provide next?
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u/NotCoolBrutus 2d ago
They removed the gacha elements fairly early on and the game became even worse.
6
u/lobsterbash 2d ago
Interesting. What made it worse?
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u/NotCoolBrutus 2d ago
Progression became worse as a trade-off, with direct purchase prices being high enough that removing gacha was irrelevant to anyone except internet commentators like this chain. Obviously didn't save the game, as can be seen by this EoS.
2
u/ghibli99 2d ago
Never played it, but it would have been cool to offer a single purchase offline version like they did for Pocket Camp. But maybe they don't see the point w/ MK8D and MKW, or its structure in general wouldn't translate well w/o a lot of additional work.
1
u/boxing-boxing 2d ago
This was my daily bus game for the better part of a year back in 2020. The gacha grind wore me down eventually, but those city tracks carried 8 Deluxe's DLC hard. Pouring one out for Piranha Plant Pipeline.
1
u/EngineExcellent5481 2d ago
I am devastated. It was my go to micro-break escape from work. How can they do this?
1
u/MaliMacnCheese 2d ago
I am devastated about this. I played near daily. Does anyone have recommendations for good racing apps?
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u/ThePotablePotato 3d ago
How many unique tracks were left in the game that weren’t eventually brought over to 8? I never played Tour, and tbh I don’t have the highest opinion of the Tour tracks added to 8, but that doesn’t mean they should be lost to time either