Mario Kart Tour is ditching gacha mechanics, adding Battle Mode

Mario Kart Tour might not be the best game in the series, but it sets itself apart with different mechanics and courses. One of those mechanics is the use of loot boxes dressed up as Warp Pipes, but despite making good money for Nintendo, it isn’t a favorite of the Mario Kart community. Thankfully, it’s going away in a new update coming relatively soon.

The game currently functions like this: you pay Rubies (which can be purchased with real money or earned in-game) to make a Warp Pipe spit out a random reward. This is known as a “gacha mechanic,” and while it’s quite common in the mobile gaming scene, it’s not exactly a beloved thing. Thankfully, “[Warp] Pipes you can fire by using Rubies will be removed” from the game, as announced by the Mario Kart Tour Twitter account. That update arrives in “late September,” and once it’s live, it’ll replace the gacha mechanic with “a Spotlight Shop where you can exchange Rubies for drivers, karts, and gliders.” Considering all the content that Mario Kart has gotten over the last few years (things like Vacation Luigi and Mii costumes), it’s good to know that players will be able to directly purchase the cosmetics they want.

Additionally, Mario Kart Tour will be adding a Battle Mode — a staple of the series since the original Super Nintendo game. In most cases, players drive around with a number of balloons attached to their kart; getting hit with an item causes one to pop. The last racer an intact balloon wins. As gacha goes out, Battle Mode will come in, letting mobile players get in on the same action.

We’ve also seen Mario Kart Tour content bleed into Mario Kart 8 Deluxe thanks to that game’s Booster Course pass. Tracks like Ninja Hideaway, Paris Promenade, and New York Minute have made the jump from mobile to console as part of the DLC. The remaining courses in the expansions also seem to have leaked thanks to leftover music files.