Exploration Tour (2023)

The Exploration Tour is the eighty-ninth tour of Mario Kart Tour, which began on February 8, 2023 and ends on February 21, 2023. The tour introduces a brand new course to Mario Kart Tour and the Mario Kart series called Piranha Plant Cove and is the first tour to introduce a new course not based on a city since the Sundae Tour thirteen tours prior (which introduced Sky-High Sundae). Reflecting the theme of the tour, two variants of Shy Guy based on the yellow and light-blue Exploring Shy Guys seen on GBA Sunset Wilds were added as new drivers.

The Winterfest, which began in the previous tour, lasts until the end of this tour.

Today's Challenge
Players' most recently used kart and glider are chosen, and favorite and favored ones have extra priority. Opponents are arranged randomly. On day 1 of this tour, players finish a balloon battle in GCN Cookie Land in the Mii Cup using the Petey Piranha Mii Racing Suit for a free pipe launch. Starting from day 2, players have to finish a race in the earliest incomplete course that is not in any of the ranked cups using the driver shown on the course's thumbnail every day to obtain the corresponding reward in the table below. Once all of the courses are completed, the courses are selected at random.

Rewards
Gold cells indicate rewards that are exclusive to Gold Pass members.

Courses

 * Piranha Plant Cove (N, R, T, R/T)
 * Piranha Plant Cove 2 (N, R, T, R/T)

Announcement
In the announcement post for the tour on official social media accounts, two images of Piranha Plant Cove, acting as a, were released, featuring ten differences in total:
 * 1) Luigi's kart is a Red Crawly Kart in the first image, and a Blue Crawly Kart in the second.
 * 2) A boomerang is present behind Petey Piranha's kart on the far-left of the second image, but is absent from the first.
 * 3) Captain Toad is in a different pose.
 * 4) A large pillar is standing upright in the second image, but has fallen over in the first.
 * 5) The Maw-Ray is higher in the second image.
 * 6) Purple sparkles in the background are in a different arrangement between the images.
 * 7) Mario uses his normal variant in the first image, but his Classic variant in the second.
 * 8) Bowser is holding a Bowser's Shell in the first image, but a Spiny Shell in the second.
 * 9) The Shy Guy at the front is blue in the first image, but yellow in the second.
 * 10) The Item Boxes are at a different angle between the images.