This game has some issues don't get me wrong, but overall I'd say it's getting slightly more of a bad rap than it deserves; I would consider this one of the better Mario Kart clones.

It's fun to play and the amount of content without even having to touch the microtransaction weirdness is not too bad. It has a decent lineup of characters, a nice cute story mode that doesn't outstay its welcome, a decent selection of modes in general... I also really like some small quality of life things, like the quick respawning of items during races. I played a little of the GP mode and although it was slightly slow to matchmake, it seemed to run and work well enough, and the premise of the mode is neat.

Unfortunately the item stun time is unacceptably long, if it was half as long it would be a vast improvement. And of course, the weird battle pass thing they're going with... I don't even think in itself it's horribly bad, but the way the menus present it as if it's a mobile game trying to juice you is a good chunk of the problem, and the fact that it will probably be dead fairly quickly at this rate will also create issues. I also don't think you level fast enough from my small experience, but I cannot say that definitively.

I could say more, but overall a pretty decent game with some flaws, I like it and will probably stick it out for awhile without spending anything, maybe see where it goes. Maybe they'll see the hubbub and fix it.... hopefully lol.