Ten days from Play Welcome to have a nicer play your Weekly
mobile game review program. I'm Edwin and I'm Sam and in
this podcast we review a game for seven days see how long it
takes us to play it this past week.
I recommended Mario Kart World Tour by Nintendo.
I'm gonna come on set right off the bat.
Maybe the best game Nintendo was made for iOS, huh out of all the
three they've done so far. I know I'm not perfect by any
stretch, right Maya. Initial reaction is it's
probably was like the weakest for me.
Oh, okay. Let's get right clicks.
I like it. This makes for great
conversation. Tell me about your impressions
of this game like all around. I mean first off.
I hate the Nintendo account login to begin with as just
awful. I feel like they've kind of done
through with it. Like all I had to do was accept
the terms and agreements. Yeah, maybe I wouldn't have to
like login or anything interesting because I mean you
have a switch your a Nintendo boy right?
You only have me Already, I for some reason didn't have any
count. I think this was the first time
you needed one to play. I don't think Mario capsule
World required this. Anyway, this is the first time I
had to go through the steps of finding a username and your
blood bubble asked clicking. Yes, okay on the email then
going back to logging in and then I'll finally oh, you know
what I did. Yeah, you're right.
There is like a login screen, but I think I just accepted as
guests just to proceed on with the game always look for that
sneaky. Yeah, he was guest which is on
the smallest. First smallest font possible,
right? Oh rats.
Normally I quite pride myself on my ability to where's Waldo?
Where's the continuous guest button?
But damn they got me this time you like then sucker.
Yep, I did for those that might have not seen or heard of Mario
Kart ever before doesn't the symptoms.
I thought we were here. Yeah.
Sure. The Mario Kart is a racing game
where you are one of the characters from the Mario World
driving. go-kart And in this particular iteration of Mario
Kart, it is called World Tour because you have different
venues of I guess countries and maps and nobody's around the
world. Right?
And you all you have to do it's very much like a normal Mario
Kart game where you're going around a track, but the the
special thing about Mario Kart is that you have weapons and
power-ups that you can use along the way the race is consisted
usually of three laps and you just have to make sure that you
place either one, too. Three in order for you to get
some points and yeah, it's geared towards more of a family
friendly game. But some of the races can get
very heated and exciting especially when you level up.
Yeah, do not play Mario Kart with my boyfriend's sister.
She gets very, um, enthusiastic shall we say, it's it's I think
she'd been banned from playing in the office because of the
string of expletives that's come out of my mouth while playing
it's a game where you can actually break friendships like
if you really pick on someone And you can really give them a
bad day. Yeah, but this game is obviously
the handheld version. So the controls have been
modified a little bit which I think own work.
Well, there's no accelerate or brake.
You merely go you nearly go and you turn and from off the bat.
There are two modes to play this.
Yeah. I didn't like the way you what
kind of present it to you without any kind of context
right one is normal mode. And I think the other one is
called like something like manual mode or something like
that where You can control your drifts a little easier and stuff
like that. Yeah, I didn't I never liked how
they present choices like this is like, what's normal?
What's Advanced? Where am I?
How do I know? Which one to choose right?
It's almost don't give me that option up front.
Maybe you just make everyone quote unquote normal and then
there's like some settings somewhere because me being me
I'm like, oh, I think I'm a master.
Yeah, I can drive stick because I Learned to Drive in the UK, so
I think I've got this Advanced drift control down.
So that's why I chose obviously you regret it, or did you have a
good time with it? Well, the thing is, there's no
way to know what normal is like right or at least without going
back to England setting playing again, so I can't deal with it.
I thought it was pretty good. I wasn't mad at it.
I had an opposite reaction to it.
I had no idea what was going on in terms of the controls.
It just felt all over the place. I couldn't get a grasp for it.
And normally I get a grasper things pretty quickly in terms
of games. But yeah, I don't know.
Think about this maybe even playing because I'm used to
playing other Mario Karts. Like it just didn't feel like
Mario Kart driving for me, right that's interesting point because
the context I've not really played Mario Cart since those
Super Nintendo Entertainment System and even then I wasn't
super into Mario Kart. I was a supermario boing myself.
So I don't really have a much haven't played a whole bunch of
Mario Kart, especially the newer iterations on switch or your
GameCube the king. Cube so I was coming at it
reasonably fresh in terms of like how it should feel and I
quite enjoyed it. I think it certainly took me a
couple of games to understand at least in the steering mode that
I chose, you know, the further to the edge of the screen the
more you turned which sounds stupid now, I say it out loud,
but it did take me a while to actually realize that the amount
you move your thumb does actually change the amount you
steer. Yeah rather than just being a
kind of a linear left, right? So yeah if you put Um, and the
center of the screen is sort of like evens UI as normal you're
driving straight. If you move your finger to the
right it turns you to the right. Yeah, but also if you're in like
this drift mode will also start you to drift and then like if
you put it in opposite direction and allow you to drift the
opposite way to counter steer and vice versa on the other
side, so it's kind of intuitive but I think if you start off and
the manual mode where you have the control of drift, it could
be a little confusing for me. Me, I don't think it was a
confusing. It was just like I didn't feel
like it was accurately representing my intent of moving
around the screen if that makes any sense like yeah.
Yeah, it was it seemed a little bit counterintuitive in terms of
the movement for me, right because you always drift in this
mode which I think if memory serves with my Super Nintendo
Entertainment System Controller drift was the top buttons left
and right as you hop a little bit Yeah, whereas just left and
right would do a normal. Stay out here.
In this case. You can only drift which is a
different way of steering because now you're sliding
around a corner rather than just moving left as it were like you
doing Jersey only turnpike's all those, you know, night Fast and
Furious boys over there with their with their cars and
upgrades. I don't know what I'm talking
about. We talked about the metagame the
Collectibles and the everything's around it right
elements. Of this because there's a whole
bunch of character collecting items as we discussed in the
last episode. I always like to play as Yoshi,
but I'm sad I have not yet got to play as Yoshi because he I've
not unlocked him yet through a series of confusing Jim's pipes
cars yields some something or other.
Yeah. In fact, I don't think I could
actually tell you how this whole system works because I think
it's kind of deliberately confusing it is when you start a
game you're presented with spot see me.
Feels like 12 screens where you need to select a card from each
one and then your viewer illuminated because those ones
have you collected so you can't we just tap and play you have to
tap only you're choosing something and then you're
choosing your hang-gliding option.
Then you're choosing your car. Then you're choosing your
character, which I know you did in the in the in the older
version but somehow. It is presenting the very
confusing way and there's some objectives to use certain
character combinations or certain combinations of things
to get more points and sure I was confused.
But yeah, it was confusing. I think yeah, it starts you off
with I think the towed off the bat that's the first character
that sort of unlocks for you and then shortly after that I think
something like Bowser is unlocked for you.
Oh, yeah. Okay.
So there's a Linea that's it was the same thing.
Yeah, that does seem like you need to play more in order to
unlock and I can see That really ties into the monetization in
order for you to unlock stuff. You can just pay your way to
have them. But well you can pay your way to
buy rubies and then rubies allow you to shoot things out of a
pipe. Hmm, which is the unlock which
is the unlock their eyes. They catch up on got your pipe
indeed. There was some of the copy was
interesting. I should take a screen grab of
this because the middle little Papa who waves the flag.
He's kind of your buddy guiding you through this largely
confusing menu system. So he pops up now and then one
of the things he said way to go this calls for a celebration and
what better way to celebrate than firing something out of a
pipe. I remember noting that it's all
it's just confusing and it seems out of place right with the rest
of the copywriting which is pretty standard, right?
Yeah. I mean they making a losing the
fireworks. I don't know.
They're just saying like hey, this is a celebratory moment
where she was like, yeah. Yeah, that was awkward but funny
but strange Sam. Do you think you were playing
against other real players? Or other real races so the world
that's the illusion that It Go view right?
But there is no way that was actually the case.
I feel like because no matter like every time that I played
against quote-unquote real people around the world with
their user names because you can see their usernames.
Yeah. I always came in first and I
drove horribly for like the first two times y because of
your thumb drift problems realm worse than them drift.
Drift drift. Yeah.
I don't know. It's like an illusion that makes
you feel like oh, yeah, this is all connected.
Yeah, but I don't think it was real.
Yeah, I think I was the same. I was the same as well to begin
with I thought oh, wow. I'm racing into other people
maybe later on. Once you get past the guards of
handhold novelty learning levels.
You actually weighs against other people.
Hmm. I don't know.
I don't think there just wasn't enough of a waiting time for it
to really match up that quickly. That's also true.
Yeah, it might have been like pre-recorded.
I don't know that doesn't make sense because you interact with
them on the other thing is you need to be online to start a
game. Yeah, but if you go offline
while playing a game you still carry on playing and everyone's
racing against you. Yeah, I don't happen to me on
the subway because I could oh, I'm in the station.
I can start a game go go go and then I can play it right do do
do do do. Then I go into the tunnel again,
and obviously no cell network connection.
Yeah, but that's all works like still race.
Then I think my results was not recorded.
So yeah, I mean back and I'd have to play the game again,
right and that was probably one of my biggest issues which we'll
get to very soon on the three by threes may be next.
Yes, three by threes three things good and three things
bad. My first point.
I thought it was a faithful Recreation of Mario Kart.
I know you disagree so that should be a good point to
discuss further. But as someone who admittedly
has not played much Mario Kart, especially since the Super
Nintendo, I was there feels like Mario Kart right now.
My feeling is I quite like the good the touch controls after a
few races. Oh, I got the I got the gist of
it three or four races in. Yeah.
They're looking Fields. Definitely Mario Kart.
I mean they've gotten a lot of stuff right in terms of making
this feel like a polished Mario game.
Yeah, actually tell you what can I just clarify my position?
On that. Yep, the racing natural game
itself feels like Mario Kart. They are no good job of that so
I can see the point for the bad. So the actual racing part, I
think they made really good concessions as a mobile
experience. Like I think if I actually got
used to it and I actually started to enjoy it which I'll
get to later. I think it's something that that
that totally makes sense from a mobile racing perspective
because it allows you to drive it with one hand, which is great
as a mobile gaming experience. Like this is almost a perfect
format. It's a Portrait you can control
that with one hand everything all the menus and buttons are
sort of laid out and towards the bottom of the screen which is
like super convenient. So they thought a lot about this
stuff and it shows and the Polish nice.
Good point. I think the monetization was
reasonably well done. I mean, there's nothing
spectacularly new or different about it.
But you know, you can play for a bunch of times without having to
pay and if you want to shoot more stuff out of your pipe, you
can pay the piper great. Yes to celebrate.
Yes the celebratory moment only. Of course, you can pay to buy
more Rupees to do that. I thought was fairly uh, none
obnoxious, right? I mean, there aren't really any
ads or anything like that that gets in your way.
Really the only way that they monetize is to buy these gems to
upgrade your stuff. If possible, yeah, and also
follows like a nice progression, right?
Like it gives you stars in gems appropriately like throughout
your experience. If you're a Casual Gamer, like
you're not really gonna want to create other characters or like
get other characters off the back because the the characters
that you start off with are pretty charming and fun to play
with so I thought that progression is really nice and
you know, they've got to make money somehow.
So I appreciate that. They've thought of these things.
Well, yeah, I'd also like to give you You a bunch of
customization options. You can choose to race if you
played Mario Cart before you are very familiar with this.
You can play the 10cc casual the hundred cc experience.
I think there's few more ones to become unlocked later on and
although the options of how to steer seems confusing to present
to user before they've even played the game.
I still like that those options are there and if I wanted to
fine-tune my controls, I guess I can yeah as if you do open up
the In you you there are bunch of different control methods so
you can do manual drift smart steering Auto item.
And so in fact, you can also do the gyro the driver scope
handling so you could steer with tilting or phone if that is the
kind of thing you enjoy doing. Yeah, the the settings are very
clear and pretty well done in terms of like the different
toggles that you have. I appreciate that.
They have like a power saving mode in case you know, your
phone gets too warm, but just want to play as Yoshi.
Would you have paid to just play as Yoshi, like if you can just
like by the characters off the bat?
Yeah, you can pay 20 bucks to get what is called.
The jeez what this is called is called like the New York pack or
something as the New York set which gives you Mario star
ticket and 45 rupees for the princely sum of 1999.
Oh boy, which is quite a lot. Yeah, that isn't gonna like
well, I mean, how much value do you place in fun?
Haha question to ask yourself every day.
Yeah, if I could pay 20 bucks to play as Yoshi mean I might do it
but it I wouldn't feel good about it.
Hmm. I feel a little bit icky.
I mean this is kind of same problems.
I like Star Wars ran into with yo.
Hey play for free. But oh you want to play as your
favorite character, then we got to cough up those there's
Benjamin's extra digital dollars, which I can understand
the strategy. Yeah, but if you're on the end
of it It doesn't feel great. And also like I don't think it's
really hard for you to just spend a little time with the
game and earn your way through it, which I think is totally
possible as well. Right, but at the moment, I'm
not quite sure how to do that. That's true.
I imagine just play it a lot Frey and it like I first few
might have been provided and linear but we don't know what
the randomness of the characters that are unlocked afterwards
would be yeah. Yeah be nice to kind of like, oh
if you want this specific character then like get up to
this map and finish this purse. This this Court's Vehicles.
Yeah. Sounds like we all segueing
quite nicely into the bad Points bad points am hit me.
I think the biggest bad point for me was the the on online
connectivity. My my commute now is totally
different where I need. It doesn't give me like an
online connection whenever I'm in the subway.
Yep, and not only did I experience, you know the Midway
while you're playing a map and it doesn't save your progress or
anything like that sort of just like craps out it also Hence you
from starting it up. And anyway, and I found that to
be like so baffling I guess because like most developed
countries that have the possibility of playing this game
on your phone as much better internet connections.
That's why it set that way. But yeah, it just drove me to
try attempted. Try attempt it again got it
working and then like I'd lose connection for a little bit and
it totally crap out not save my progress, right and there's
something so passive-aggressive about the message as well.
It wasn't even like oh you seem to be offline.
Please. Try again later.
If it was I don't remember exactly what the phrasing was
but like connection error 7 512 one.
Yeah. It's like the that error code
not human and it's just like what is this thing?
And I don't feel good about what happened just now while the
racing you I enjoyed and kind of keep me those Mario Kart Vibes
everything else around it the actual app UI I guess.
Not only was it like cluttered and unintuitive it also feels
slow somehow tapping on buttons This is kind of a lag to it,
which is not pleasing. It is wasn't fun to use the rest
of the app outside of the actual racing part.
Right? It didn't feel like a native
app. Yeah, it felt like they're using
like web components and somehow this was like a rapper right?
It's probably which is probably the case because I think they
are dynamically loading all the content and some of these
screens this in a way. This doesn't just doesn't feel
Snappy which displeases me. I know it does it's little
things like that that I think really puts up the Polish.
Even though it may look like Mario just like the transition
from like the one one cup to the other cup.
It's the frame rate is very slow.
And that's not using to me. My other big issue is the
driving. I think if I got had more chance
to play with it and actually got used to it without a crapping
out online. I think I would have ended up
liking it a little bit even though it's really different
from like what I expect from a regular Mario game.
Yeah. I think there is some fun.
To be had but because of the online connectivity like I just
didn't find that combination fun.
It wasn't it wasn't a tappable touchable.
Joyous experience for me Sam. What is your final 70 rating two
days? Oh ouch.
There's a harsh one for me. I gave it a good go for both
days. I probably tried maybe about
like three or four times on each day.
And each time. I had like some online
connection. Yeah that prevented progress.
So I actually didn't really unlock anything.
Thing or wasn't able to yeah, how far did you get?
Oh, well, let me tell you I will show you actually no, no, okay.
Okay Mario cop New York cheap cheap Lagoon.
I couldn't finish this. I've tried like seven times and
it never recorded my progress. So after the second day of
trying I was like, okay, I am not going to attempt us.
And yeah, it's sad face. This is a solid five.
I got up to well, there's no numbering but yes, I did get
past Cheep Cheep Lagoon. And now the O Sheikh up.
Oh, wow, Daisy Hills, which I think is three screens of
swiping even the swiping between is kind of gross its Blacky and
yeah rates really slow and then like the I'm just loading a
second later. Yeah.
Yeah five days. I'm gonna keep it around but
very difficult to play on my computer, which is what's the
reason I play games right? Like I wish this was playable
Mike meet ya, but yeah, unfortunately it is not well.
Thank you Sam for thank you for saying thank you for Sam.
Thank you for suggesting Mario Kart World Tour.
I wish it was better now Falls to me to choose the next game
and we are going to delve into the world of Apple arcades is
now live Apple arcade, and if you've not heard about this is
Apple's kind of Netflix for games since everything needs to
be a Netflix or something nowadays.
Thor five dollars a month you get access to all the games you
could possibly want that's not true.
But the whole bunch of exclusive titles now available so many
yeah. Yes.
Yes almost too many. You can start a free trial for
the first month. So I yeah check it out.
See if there's some games there you'd like maybe even play a
game we suggest and it falls to me to suggest it Sam you have
seven days to play grindstone. Hmm.
Mmm, not to be confused with grinder different different
thing altogether and would you allow me as always and is as is
customary to leads the description first play
grindstone with apple arcade a game subscription service with
100 plus groundbreaking new games a game of Sword slashing
puzzle battles. Grindstone.
Awaits grindstone is a game of Sword slashing puzzle battles
while they like like that sword slashing puzzle that has
surprisingly hard to say. From the award-winning creators
of superbrothers: Sword & sworcery EP Might and Magic:
Clash of Heroes and Critter crunch grindstone mountain is
overrun with vicious creeps. Slay your way up is treacherous
Peak where Fortune glory and death awaits.
It'll take sharp puzzle. I can embody this but it looks
like a puzzle. Well, I should say that as it
describes itself a sword slashing Puzzle Battle right?
Have you played any of those games from that list that they
mentioned so No, never heard of any of them Might and Magic
Clash of Heroes. Yeah.
So this is from a game company called capybara hmm cutest of
animals, right the cutest and it's like a kangaroo.
It kind of looks like a mix between a kangaroo and a dog.
Well, dr. Rue, okay, but you know less
scary than a kangaroo is kangaroos are I've seen those
viral YouTube videos. never punch a kangaroo But yeah,
awesome. I'm looking forward to this one
truly it is well, yeah because only you say that I don't either
but this time maybe I do yeah, so Might and Magic Clash of
Heroes was one of the games that I played on the Gameboy.
On the 3DS that I really read o might have actually been for the
Game Boy Advance hmm going back in time.
Yeah, dude, but it's one. It's a really great game and
this company made it. So I'm looking forward to this
one. Hmm.
Well tune in next week to see if Sam likes it again or not.
Before we go Sam. Do you have a thing of the week?
I recently watch something on Netflix that I think a lot of
people should watch it's it's called inside bills brain.
Mmm. This before no.
No. The reason I said that is
because my boyfriend keeps saying we should watch this.
Yeah, it's really good. Okay, great.
It's only a three episode sort of style not stylized I'd say
but like a well produced documentary about Bill Gates and
he's in it. Melinda is in it Melinda being
Bill Gates his wife not our buddy Melinda.
We don't have a buddy Melinda just find one.
But it's just really fascinating.
I think always like these deep dives into someone who has done
a lot of stuff is super fascinating but you get to
realize how much he's actually done.
Yeah, and there's this really good quote in there that says,
you know, like everyday things don't really get reported
because it's not as exciting as like these big breakout moments
and I feel like Bill Gates is someone that does everyday
things to make improvements on everyday things.
Right and it's just like the compounded nature.
Of all those benefits that Stack Up is really beneficial to the
world so you can pay him. We like a Steve Jobs, right?
And Steve Job is just a complete dick it does this grapple them
unto himself and oh, yeah, he made some great products, but
they're that's it. Yeah, he's revered as a whole.
Do you know let's let's spend a minute to be quiet for a Steve
Jobs or his death anniversary. And yeah, well, I'm yeah, but
then you compare it to like what Bill Gates has done right who
doesn't really have that same. I don't think I've ever hear
people going. I want to be the Bill Gates,
well, maybe they do but maybe there's still doesn't quite he
doesn't have the same cachet for whatever reason but he's like
done a bunch of amazing stuff amazing things.
Yeah, and this sort of like goes through all of this like not all
of it, but just like some of the really important things that
he's trying to solve and I think it's just a really fascinating
look into the guy my thing of the week Joseph Gordon-Levitt
has a podcast been out for a couple of months, but I'm
finally catching up creative processing with Joseph
Gordon-Levitt. I have a feeling you really like
Third Rock From the Sun if you tell me that you have some
secret fandom for Stewart French.
Then I know that I mean he won't install Gates and I think French
Stewart, I believe I was at yeah against Muslims French was
amazing. Sadly.
He didn't quite go on to quite the same success as maybe some
his co-hosts. Yeah.
Yeah big tower of the sun fan back in the day.
I think I taped it. Every episode on VHS amazing off
the TV. Yeah, and then there was one
episode where I was at our house.
So I got my brother to do it and he forgot so they like one Lost
episode. I see before.
Yeah, so so Furious But now you can just watch them all for free
on I think the one who yeah, okay, who do a Netflix see your
things? All right.
So you're saying I'm creating processing from jgl basic
tenants of this is he takes a listener question around
creativity or the world of art or does dear General things
productivity or Focus or how do you get things done, you know as
a as a creative person and then he finds someone from here.
Is rather large Rolodex, which I'm sure he definitely has of
Industry contacts and then talk to them about it.
He's got Ron Johnson on that first episode which kind of made
me want to go watch Brick again, which was their first that's a
great movie. Yeah.
So like for example that question for that episode is how
do you get inspired by other people's creations and create
something unique that is completely your own without
taking too much from my inspiration.
I think is very fascinating because you know, Ron Johnson
has a lot of original stuff, but then he's also in the Star Wars
thing. NG so like how do you work with
in that regards your feelings for that movie?
I feel things interesting. Like how does it create a
filmmaker thin work within the confines of like a giant kind of
rigid structure of well, you could be super interesting.
So that's a great episode the next one which I'm halfway
through right now is as an artist reflecting on political
problems. Is that a cop-out should you
actually be active rather than just making like fun images that
are political should you actually be You're volunteering
and actually doing political work rather than just making art
about it. Mmm.
And so he gets Shepard Fairey who did who's like behind the
obey Andre the Giant's classical stuff.
I'm learning. Well like oh, that's what that
is. So I let slip bunch of stuff.
He's a very good host because he's great and I love him but
he's also a human host. And he has like a whole bunch of
just people you have heard of and then people you should have
heard of how interesting I would say check it out.
This is definitely getting on my list and also be scenario is
like a limited run. So it's not going to go on every
week for eternity. I think it finishes this week or
next week creative processing with Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
And that's our show Sam. You have seven days to play
grindstone grindstone not Grinder like Rhinestone Cowboy
follow us and tweet us at seven days to play.
Don't bother because we don't really, you know do it.
Yeah, but maybe we will you never know.
It's a surprise. We will cool down for the
baroness about Twitter account. It's very true.
We apologize. Yeah, this is let's just listen
to us. That's all you need to do.
Yeah play along with us at home Quinn stone, and we will see you
next week and the server.