Topic: Mario Kart 8-Themed Games Available Through McPlay App

[Professor Clayton]

Who says Happy Meals are just for kids?

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/news/38029/mario-kart-8-themed-games-available-through-mcplay-app

A selection of games themed on Mario Kart 8 are playable through the McDonald’s McPlay app for iOS and Android mobile devices. The games are unlocked by either scanning Happy Meal toys with the app or earning coins by completing levels in other McPlay games.

As reported recently, this month McDonald’s is giving out an assortment of Mario Kart toys in its Happy Meals. Each figure can be scanned with McPlay to unlock a corresponding Slide ‘n Ride game based on that character. Players can also unlock games by completing levels in HappyBall, another game in the McPlay app based around plotting a trajectory to get the titular ball to land in the appropriate spot and collect three food items along the way. Each level yields a coin, and five coins unlocks a game.

The seven Slide ‘n Dash games seem to all be character-based reskins of the same core set of puzzles. The gameplay is reminiscent of something like Pipe Dream: an icon representing the racer slowly moves along the track while the player attempts to slide pieces around a grid to create a path leading to a predetermined endpoint.

This isn’t the first Nintendo related McPlay game promotion. Recent Pokémon Happy Meal toys unlocked a sliding puzzle-style game in the app as well.

[Eiksirf]

And Nintendo goes third party!

This is a good move, really. If young kids are being introduced to games on smart phones, Nintendo probably wants to connect with them there if it hopes to turn them into more traditional customers later (or, right away).

[EvilMario]

The screen shot actually reminds me of Minis on the Move with a Mario Kart skin slapped on it.