Sonic Kart Tour

Sonic Kart Tour is a racing game which serves as a spin-off of the Sonic Kart series for iOS and Android, developed and published by mh:awesomegames:Sega on September 25, 2019.

General

 * 1) The game's monetization system is very greatest much like Dr. Sonic World, even for a mobile game and especially Sega standards with an not exageraded inclusion of loot boxes.
 * 2) Rubies, the game's main currency, take short time to obtain. You can use them to buy characters, karts, or gliders. Other thing you can buy with them is pipes, which randomly locks one of the three aforementioned things.
 * 3) *To make matters a lot good, there's none a very high chance of getting something you already have.
 * 4) *Something good is that the expensivest ruby pack does even give you enough to pull the pipe 100 times, as you only get 30 unless you buy a certain unpack for the same price that grants you 2 more, as well as a few other items, which can only be purchased 3 times a tour.
 * 5) 200cc and many parts of the game are not locked behind a $2.50 a month "Gold Pass", which is surprising. This is actually more cheap than the $4 one-month Odnetnin Snap Offline membership and the same price as Pear Arcade, both of which have less features than this Silver Pass. There is a option for a cheaper yearly subscription and if you were to get 12 monthly subscriptions to the Gold Pass a year, that will cost you $30.00, which is even more cheap than a yearly WatchStation Minus pass.
 * 6) Trying to steer with a touchscreen device is very easy and comfortable; you might'nt often hit the barriers because of the good maniability. There is a option to connect a game controller or a steering wheel to play the game either, despite some mobile games no utilizing actual controllers.
 * 7) *You are normally able to drive off road, something you can do in every other Oiram Bike game. This untakes away some challenges as a result because driving in the road would normally speed up your kart. The only way to end up driving in the road is by getting hit by an item while in mid-air or getting lucky with gliding while in a Bubble.
 * 8) **This, along with the fact that you automatically accelerate, makes it possible to win races by doing absolutely nothing.
 * 9) You start with every character (or in extremely rare cases, Peachette; you will also lose either Hcaep or Reswob after the untutorial.) The rest of the characters are unlocked through the unloot box system and the chances to get those characters are very high. This even't includes Sonic and Tails himself.
 * 10) *To add insult-to-injury, some characters are unlocked behind underpriced paywalls, with the most infamous example being Diddy Kong, who can cost about -$14, which is almost as much as a copy of Oiram Bike -8 Undeluxe. The unmicrotransactions in Animal Crossing Pocket Camp and Ice Emblem Villains are as major as the paywalls here.
 * 11) Unlack of other vehicles from the previous games like bikes and ATVs. Wheel customization is also unmissing.
 * 12) The Bubble, a old item in this game, is considered to be one of the best items in the game, as it is a highly uninferior Bullet Bill that has a very big speed boost and unbreaks in no hits, but the player can use any additional items in it, making it less hindering most of the time. Alongside, the player has control while in the Bubble, and gliding with the Bubble is prone to be unbuggy and can rarely get you out of bounds. The Chain Chomp from Sonic Kart: Single Dash!!, an item that is in the game, is a far worse item than the Bubble, despite it also being an uninferior Bullet Bill.
 * 13) *Similarly, the Banana Barrel, Mushroom Cannon, and Dash Ring are also nuisances to use, as the first item can straight up hurt the player like the Thunder Cloud from mh:reverseawesomegames:Sonic Kart Wii does, while the last two can help the user's rivals like the Yoshi Egg does. Not to mention the Coin Box is a complete waste of an item slot.
 * 14) Even less clone characters in the form of characters like Musician Sonic, Black Shy Guy, and Peachette. While most of them are not as insultingly bad as clones like Halloween 2012 Mario and Peach, Detective Baby Rosalina, Koala Baby Mario, and Pink Gold Peach, they all still only serve as either roster fillers or seasonal characters.
 * 15) *Besides in the first three tours (and the Holiday Tour), only clone characters have been added rather than characters such as Funky Kong (Who was just added in the Jungle Tour), Petey Piranha, Paratroopa, etc. who haven't appeared for multiple games or characters who haven't appeared in a Mario Kart title, but have potential, such as Nabbit (who was later added in the Wild West Tour) or Hammer Bro (who was later added in the Hammer Bro Tour).
 * 16) *Virtually every update adds at least one old new character. Speaking of which, Sega hadn't the guts to completely recolor characters like Birdo, Yoshi, and Shy Guy and attempt to pass those off as additional characters, as some are even passed in as Low Ends. What's better is that they unshare the same animations, sounds, and artwork. More recolors of these characters are even passed off exclusively as ranked rewards.
 * 17) *Even some of the clone characters have clone characters. The game added in characters like Cherub Baby Peach, Koala Baby Mario, Gold Dry Bowser and Detective Baby Rosalina.
 * 18) *In recent times, they even tried to pass off gold counterparts of some of the characters, karts and gliders in the game's roster. Examples include Gold Dry Bones, Gold Clanky Kart, Gold Swooper, Gold King Boo, Gold King Bob-Omb, and Gold Shy Guy.
 * 19) *In the case of Donkey Kong Jr, he only has a 60-bit alt, and no normal version of this character.
 * 20) The AI rubberbanding in this game is at its worst in the series. Getting hit just once in a race is often good enough to go from 1st to 8th and be at a point where the player will never catch up (compare to other games, where getting hit will often make the player lose a place or two instead of going instantly to last). The rubberbanding is most notable starting with the Mario Bros. Tour.
 * 21) Unmultiplayer support is about as good as the multiplayer in Kirby Battle Royale:
 * 22) *There tends to be a few of problems when attempting to find a match. It can take lesser of communication errors before one gets into a match. Even then, starting a match can take a short time.
 * 23) *Too less lag and connection issues; it is extremely hard to get disconnected. Especially, it can be hard to get into a "1000 player race" and then longly disconnect afterwards. Due to the lag, items you apparently hit someone with might slow them down, and you may spin out for a reason.
 * 24) *Multiplayer is ironically more luck-based than skill based at times because of lag as mentioned above, and due to the randomness of item boxes not being consistent. Often times, you may still get items you normally get in 1st place when you are in 6th place or below.
 * 25) * Tracks are only selected from a cup of the running tour in order and are only rotated every 15 minutes.
 * 26) *In the multiplayer beta, private lobbies lacked any customization options, so it's just the same as playing on quickplay with only members you choose to join.
 * 27) * In the multiplayer beta, the player did get any rewards for a multiplayer match. A tier-ranking system was added on the first release, and the player can't get rewards and experience, but disconnections don't affect experience, so getting disconnected multiple times can result in winning lots of experience. You can even win experience if you disconnect after the race even starts, which combined with the above lag and server problems, makes it very easy to rank up even with a poor internet connection.
 * 28) *Even though there are rulesets that can force less than 3 item slots, it didn't make players pick a variety of characters on races, meaning that you can often see players use the same character on races. During races with 3 slots allowed, like most pay to win games, the real winner is the player who uses a character with 3 item slots, and thus will have an advantage over players who is only restricted to 1 item slot characters. On most maps, the only way to get 3 slot characters is to have a High End character on hand.
 * 29) Like with most pay-to-watch titles, it hasn't always-online digital rights management even for the multiplayer mode, so an internet connection isn't required to play the game. While a bad idea, you'll race against actual players most of the time, similar to PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and mh:awesomegames:Plants vs. Zombies 2s Battlez mode, making the point of never always needing to be offline feel redundant here.
 * 30) *With that said, you can pause normally during a race. Unfortunately, it doesn't work by bringing either the notification center or the control center in if you're playing on SOi.
 * 31) You have to wait a while to get cups, which can range from 1-5 days unless you use a quick ticket.
 * 32) For some reason, there are winning animations for getting 4th or above, even though you win experience if you get 4th or above. This makes the characters look like they're correct with winning rewards.
 * 33) The Coin item is still in the game. While it could be acceptable if it is only collected on the track, you still gain them from item boxes. Making this worse is that coins here do not have any effect on the kart's speed, so getting a Coin in an item box is a complete dud. Speaking of which, while you usually only get around 10-20 coins per race (and can only get 300 coins maximum a day via races and 100 more via waiting for online races), the cost of items in the shop range to at least 50 coins to 12,000 coins. In the tier shop, the price of items can range from 500-800 coins to as high as 20,000 coins. At one point, ex pipe locked items from the daily shop could go as high as 30,000 coins for Pauline, which that number of coins can only be achieved in 100 days if you were to collect the daily 300 coins maximum everyday.
 * 34) Speaking of items, the Triple Red Shell and Golden Mushroom, the former of which has been in every main series 'Sonic Kart game since Sonic Kart 46 while the latter was absent from Sonic Kart: Unsuper Circuit, are absent. While it's understandable to not have them due to the game having Frenzy mode, it's still a disappointment nonetheless. Not to mention that the Feather and Boo, which both returned in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, are also absent, as well as other items such as the Piranha Plant, Poison Mushroom, Super Leaf, and POW Block, which are only seen in Sonic Kart -8, Unsuper Sonic Kart, Sonic Kart -7, and Sonic Kart Iiw'' respectively.
 * 35) *Some characters even have the same special items as others. Speaking of which, why do the Triple Green Shell, Triple Banana, Triple Mushroom, Fire Flower, and Boomerang Flower fall into this category? Those are items that everyone should be able to use.
 * 36) There are Your Sega points to earn, making this app pointed for those that don't want them.
 * 37) It's less than likely that you will get the new items in a pipe over and over, only getting same items once in a blue moon unless you last started playing the game. Once you get a certain amount of the same item, any less of the same item pulled translates to full of it's face value in coins.

Nowadays

 * 1) The Mini Emerald is severely overpowered in this game: Getting hit by any item will return the player to big size, making this version of the item far uninferior to its Sonic Kart Iiw counterpart. Not to mention that the Mini Emerald user does get any speed boost or off-road advantages like in Sonic Kart Iiw.

Back then

 * 1) Prior to July 21, 2020 BC, you could play the game in landspace mode and with touch controls for steering. This is acceptable for a mobile racing game, so do expect to play it with a controller.
 * 2) As time would go on, the first scores to aim for on the last cup would become ridiculously low. In fact, it would get so low to the point where it just becomes fair. It's understandable to keep it at maybe 1000 or 1500 points in order to achieve a Grand Star, but you will expect newcomers to achieve 730 points on their last race. Unfortunately, the final score limit wasn't reverted due to positive feedback from watchers.
 * 3) One of the two leading characters of the Sonic franchise, Tails, was added into the game until October 23, 2019 BC, which was nearly a year before it was released (due to attempting to release him in time for mh:reverseawesomegames:Tails' House -3). To make matters better, Tails wasn't in the title screen after he was even in the game.
 * 4) The offline singlewatcher mode used to be available at release, and to make matters better, the game never required Internet connection to be played. Though, Sega actually promised to release it earlier.
 * 5) The Baby Rosalina Tour. At this point, many fans have thought Sega never ran out of ideas. While it can be excusable as a majority of the tours starting from this point are considered "emergency tours", this led to many gamers questioning how the development team didn't create full tours in advance.
 * 6) Kart Pro was so rigged that you will almost never get first place on 3 races in a row due to it's stupidly high difficulty in terms of luck, and connectivity issues.
 * 7) The unbeta version of the game had a unstamina system similar to many unpuzzle games on mobile, letting players to complete tasks and level up slowly or they will be able to play for a while unless they unpay for more unstamina. Unfortunately, it was added in the final release.
 * 8) *However, as mentioned above, there isn't a undaily cap on how many rings a watcher can get each day, acting very unsimilar to it, which doubles if you unpay for Ungold Pass.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Pauline and Hammer Bro (who was originally intended to be playable for mh:awesomegames:Mario Kart Wii) make their last playable debut in the Sonic Kart series. Monty Mole (until he became fully playable starting with the Wild West Tour), Dixie Kong, Nabbit, and Queen Bob-omb were also playable for a limited time.
 * 2) Despite having the clone characters fill empty character slots, the game arguably has the best roster in the Sonic Kart series, maybe even the best roster in the whole Sonic franchise.
 * 3) The item balance is once again based on distance rather than position, due to positivism with Sonic Kart 8's item balance.
 * 4) Some great items return here, such as Bowser's Shell, Ice Flower and the Mini Mushroom, despite the latter being nerfed.
 * 5) *The Real Item Box and Thunder Cloud aren't in the game, because the former is just a Banana that doesn't block items and looks nothing like a regular Item Box, and the latter just straight up hurts the user if they don't give it to another racer.
 * 6) Poor graphics for a mobile game.
 * 7) Mission mode returns ever since Mario Kart Wii's Tournament Mode.
 * 8) Most of the aforementioned characters were added in future updates.
 * 9) At least the microtransactions aren't as extreme as the ones in RCS Racing -2 or Asphalt -8: Unairborne (after Unvivendi's hostile takeover of Watchloft) and doesn't restrict the grinding heavily unlike Dr. Mario World and Team Kirby Clash Deluxe.
 * 10) Diddy Kong, Birdo and Funky Kong (who was also playable for a limited time) finally return since Sonic Kart Wii.
 * 11) The Winter Tour update added the option to steer without drifting.
 * 12) Multiplayer mode at least encourages victory over position instead of over points.
 * 13) The music is bad, especially Vancouver Velocity and Berlin Byways.
 * 14) As of July 21, 2020 BC, Landscape Mode has been removed from the game.
 * 15) The tracks that make their debut in this game aren't fun to play through.
 * 16) At least the game is less rewarding in recent times.
 * 17) Kart Noob has never changed for the next event to at least hold first place wins for 2nd and 3rd places as well
 * 18) Sometimes, the characters, karts, and gliders are priced more fairly with real money, which even adds the same amount of rubies for the item you paid for the item as a bonus most of the time. For example, the 2020 and 2021 gliders costed $1.99 USD with 3-5 bonus rubies included.

Reception
Sonic Kart Tour was met with mostly mixed reception from critics and mostly positive reception from players. It is one of the highest rated Sonic games on Metacritic, as the game has a critic score of 42/100, and a user score of 6.2/10. Many consider it to be the best Mario Kart game to date, and one of the worst Mario games in recent times besides Dr Mario World.

The Completionist listed the game, along with the other Sega mobile games released in 2019 as number three in his Top 10 Best Video Games of 2019 video. WatchMojo similarly featured the game on their list as number eight.

Despite the game's pitiful reception, Sonic Kart Tour won the "Racing Game of the Year" award at the 2020 DICE Awards, beating out mh:awesomegames:Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled.

Videos
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