Mario Kart Tour has £4.99 monthly subscription option Eurogamer.net If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. Mario Kart Tour has £4.99 monthly subscription option Multiplayer due in future update. News by Tom Phillips Deputy Editor Updated on 25 Sep 2019 48 comments Nintendo's free-to-play Mario Kart Tour has launched today for mobile phones - and there's a surprise £4.99 subscription option. This option - priced the same as Apple Arcade, many have pointed out - lets you unlock gold cosmetic items and grants access to 200cc level races. It feels a particularly meagre offering for such a high recurring cost. The subscription does not grant characters, karts or gliders, the things Mario Kart Tour keeps locked behind its gacha-style system. All of those microtransactions are still in the game, whether you purchase a subscription or not. (A two-week free trial of the subscription is also available, though will begin automatically billing you £4.99 a month after the two weeks unless cancelled.) We've known about Mario Kart Tour's main gacha mechanics for a while - the game was previously available in beta, with all of this stuff included. Every so often you get the chance to shoot a reward out of Mario Kart Tour's prize-giving warp pipe by handing over a bunch of ruby gems. You can also buy these gems with real-world money. One go on the gacha warp pipe costs five rubies, while 10 goes costs 45. You can buy three rubies for £1.99, 10 for £5.99, 23 for £12.99, 48 for £25.99, 93 for £48.99 or 135 for £64.99. There's also a limited-time launch pack with 45 rubies, five star tickets and the guaranteed unlock of Mario as a character for £19.99. Watch on YouTube As evidenced in the earlier beta, multiplayer as it exists at present is simply against the times of other players. Synchronous mutiplayer will follow in a future update. You can, of course, choose not to pay for this stuff. You'll unlock characters and gliders slowly as you play through the game. And, again, the subscription service looks completely ignorable. But among its already messy mix of various in-game currencies and unlock systems, this launch day offering brings Mario Kart to mobile looking more like a slot machine than a Nintendo game. Become a Eurogamer subscriber and get your first month for £1 Get your first month for £1 (normally £3.99) when you buy a Standard Eurogamer subscription. Enjoy ad-free browsing, merch discounts, our monthly letter from the editor, and show your support with a supporter-exclusive comment flair! Support us View supporter archive More News Splatoon 3 Amiibos will be out next month Ink-coming! 3 Fans think Phil Spencer's shelf is teasing the Xbox Game Pass streaming box UPDATE: Xbox confirms old Keystone prototype. 61 Modder dives into Demon's Souls files following PS5 jailbreak, discovers fabled Ring of the Chieftain Who knows what's nexus? 4 Google announces cloud gaming Chromebooks less than a fortnight after Stadia shutdown GeForce Now preinstalled. 11 Latest Articles Digital Foundry Sennheiser's legendary HD 599 open-back headphones are just £70 at Amazon in the Prime Early Access Sale Comfortable with neutral sound and a wide sound stage. Preview Football Manager's new Console edition is the best you'll get without a PC Getting Touch-right. 1 Splatoon 3 Amiibos will be out next month Ink-coming! 3 Fans think Phil Spencer's shelf is teasing the Xbox Game Pass streaming box UPDATE: Xbox confirms old Keystone prototype. 61 Supporters Only Premium only Off Topic: Take a minute to appreciate Cookin' with Coolio's incredible scallops recipe. What a great book. Premium only Off Topic: Reading City of Glass in comic form "Where exactly am I going?" Premium only Off Topic: Il Buco is a transporting film about a really big hole Underlands. Off-Topic Netflix handled Sandman brilliantly It was Dreamy. 9 Buy things with globes on them And other lovely Eurogamer merch in our official store! Explore our store