I have no doubt that I am only one person among millions who would love to see one of the best games on Nintendo, Mario Kart, make its way to Android. For years Nintendo said they wouldn’t do it but have changed their minds on it recently and the good news is that a closed beta is set to arrive next month.
Overnight Nintendo have informed that they will be having a closed beta test of their new Mario Kart Tour app from the 22nd of May until the 4th of June culminating in a full release to the public in “Summer 2019” — ie. summer in northern hemisphere so our winter.
There are of course some rules regarding the beta test. It is only open to USA and Japan – but in saying that I have already registered and have my PureVPN account ready for use, it certainly won’t be the only thing I use that for. Supported devices are Android devices running Android 4.4 or later which must have more than 1.5GB of RAM. Interestingly not ALL devices running these are supported:
Even if a device satisfies the above requirements, depending on the specific device and settings, the game may not run as expected. The Android Q is not supported. Android Tablets are not supported.
These specs may not be the final requirement once the game is fully released but they are the specs required if you want to jump onto the open beta.
If you want to apply for the beta — I did not require a VPN for this part — you must have a Nintendo Account that is registered with a Gmail email address. You can sign up for one if you don’t already have one as well. Applications for the beta test are open until the 7th May so don’t hesitate if you are interested.
Only one application can be submitted per person and once accepted and after the 22nd May you will be able to download the beta app from the Google Play Store. Keep in mind you should only be using the beta test app to practice for the real thing because “closed test save data cannot be transferred to the full version of the game when available with the official release”.
There will be in-app purchases within the final release of course but not in the beta – you cannot purchase anything in-game in the beta app. One final stipulation is that you must be over the age of 18 to participate in the closed beta test for some reason.
If you are interested in applying to be a part of the closed beta for Mario Kart Tour for Android head on over to the Nintendo website on your Android device. If you are reading this on a PC you can just use Google Lens to scan the QR code in the image above.
Finally Mario Kart Tour is about to make it to Android. If you are at all interested go and sign up now but even if you miss out the final version will be available within a few months. Who else is excited for this release (yes I am still 10 years old)?
