Life is full of beauty —  the sun piercing through a storm cloud, the way the leaves gently drift from the oaks once autumn begins, the cry of a newborn baby, or the smell of rain on a cool day in March.  

Beauty is the feeling of pure happiness , and I can feel it when I play Mario Kart Tour. 

34 years after the initial release of Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, the franchise has cemented itself as a staple among party games with its simplistic gameplay and recognizable characters. Nintendo finally deemed the time right to make the jump to mobile by announcing Mario Kart Tour in January of 2018. 

Over a year and a half later, Mario Kart Tour was released to the general public through the App Store and Google Play. I had no idea what to expect from the game, and was hoping for as true of a Mario Kart experience as I could get from playing on console. 

My first impressions were not good.

The controls are clunky, the races use bots to simulate live multiplayers and the game relies too much on in-app purchases, even offering a “gold pass” where you pay five bucks a month to get extra loot and special karts, drivers and gliders. It definitely gave off a pay-to-win vibe. 

However, as soon as the first tour ended, my entire opinion flipped. Every week or so, the “tour” ends, new special items are released and new races are unlocked. It feels like a fresh start, and you get new opportunities to level up, allowing you to better compete in the weekly tournament cup, which pits your best scores against other players. I have not paid a cent in this game, but I am able to compete against and even beat users who pay for the gold pass in the weekly tournaments. 

The amount of content added with each tour and event drives home the fact that Nintendo is putting a lot of effort into the project, and shows that they care. A true multiplayer option is on the way as well, meaning we can have a classic Mario Kart experience with our friends . 

The biggest complaint I have is that it is too hard to earn rubies, which are the in-game currency used to access pipes, the main method of getting new and special items. Combining the scarcity of ways to earn rubies without paying for them with the low odds of unlocking special items through pipes means you will be getting duplicate items a lot, which can be frustrating. However, once I became used to the controls and leveled up a few times, I realized that I enjoy the game tremendously and my complaints were sidelined. 

Simply put, the app keeps me playing. Nintendo has struck a gold mine once again.