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Mario Kart Tour Multiplayer: Can You Play With Friends? It's Strangely Confusing

Mario Kart Tour is available now, bringing the classic Nintendo franchise to mobile devices. But its multiplayer options can be a bit confusing. Can you add friends? Can you play with your friends? Why aren't those the same thing? Aren't you already playing multiplayer anyway?

For starters, you are able to add friends. That option can be found in the Friends section of the main menu, and it will pull suggestions from your Nintendo, Facebook, or Twitter accounts if you link them to the game. However, this feature is limited to comparing your rankings against friends. You can't play against them, and a "Multiplayer" feature is grayed out in the main menu with a promise that it is "Inbound!"

Compounding the confusion is the fact that the game is online-only, and you appear to be playing multiplayer against strangers all the time. The matchmaking is very fast, creating the possibility that your opponents are actually bots with randomized usernames.

There is one way to compete with your friends, albeit indirectly. Once you open up Ranked Cups--the first of which is the Koopa Troopa Cup, the fourth available Cup--you'll be racing to achieve a ranked score against random opponents. That score entitles you to extra rewards like bonus rubies or coins after the week-long scoring period. The ranked score menu has a Friends tab, where you can compare your score to your friends. That appears to be the only way to compete with friends for the time being.

GameSpot has reached out to Nintendo to confirm details on the current and upcoming multiplayer features.

Mario Kart Tour's first event is live now, offering Pauline from her revival in Super Mario Odyssey and Musician Mario as bonus characters. It's free-to-play, but the monetization hooks are surprisingly aggressive, implementing both gacha mechanics and a Battle Pass-like subscription.



from GameSpot - All Content https://ift.tt/2l7XOuT

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