Welcome to the tenth edition of Web3 Game Review, where I share my unbiased analysis on Web3 games, from a retail investor / gamer's perspective.

Our template will be as follows:
📝 Overview
👨‍👨‍👦‍👦 Founding Team
🤝 Advisors and Partners
📈 Tokenomics
🛣 Roadmap
🐂 Why I'm bullish

Disclaimer: For educational purposes only. Nothing in this article is financial advise. Invest at your own risk!

Overview

Gameplay

Nitro Nation World Tour is a Web3 mobile racing game that offers highly engaging social features and true digital asset ownership in a World Tour setup. Players have several game modes to choose from. They can earn their tour credentials in the Campaign game mode's immersive story, filled with memorable characters. Each race completed in the campaign unlocks higher car tiers, and rewards players with in-game currency. Players can set their personal best or break other players' records by taking on the Challenges game mode, which includes time trials, reaction times, top speeds, and more.

There is also a PvP game mode, which is divided into Ghost Races and Duels. The former is an asynchronous race that matches players with others' track times, while the latter is a more competitive PvP. Duels are real-time races that have a pre-set reward, either in-game tokens or even the opponent's car if they want to be extremely competitive. The player who gets defeated has a chance to buyback their car, where the cost will be dependent on the car's attributes (performance tier, rarity, upgrade level, condition, etc.). 85% of the buyback fee goes to the winning player, otherwise, the car will be transferred to their collection if the opponent is not able to re-obtain the car. There will be Tournaments / Events in the game, which will be divided into weekly / monthly / seasonal Single Player and Club tournaments.

NFT Cars

The cars in Nitro Nation World Tour are fully licensed from premium brands like Mazda, Ford Shelby, Mitsubishi, Pagani, Volkswagen, Jaguar, and Lotus. Players can start playing the game with a free car, which can be upgraded into an NFT as they progress in the game. Cars are divided into five performance tiers S, A, B, C, and D, corresponding to Best, Great, Good, Decent, and Starter, respectively. Each tier is divided further into three star levels. The D and C-tier cars start off as non-NFT game assets, but are automatically converted into a tradable NFT when it reaches a certain upgrade or performance threshold through gameplay. The non-NFTs have unlimited supply, while the B+ tiers will have a finite supply (to be announced).

Just like in real life, cars will receive some wear and tear as they participate in PvP races or Campaign, and will be needing some servicing to ensure peak performance. The more the damage, the more expensive and longer it will take to be serviced. This is where Workshops come in.

Workshops and Social Clubs

Players can service, repair, upgrade, and customize their cars in Workshops. Workshops have ten types (Core Shop, Upgrade Shop, Repair Shop, Service Shop, Custom Shop, Auxiliary Shop, Expediter, Manager, Transfer Shop, and Collective Shop) with four rarities (Common, Rare, Epic, Legendary). They can be a Player's Default Workshop, which could only upgrade cars to level 1, or a Club Default Workshop, which can level up members' cars up to level 3, but can be expanded when joining a Club.

Obtaining a Founders' Edition NFT Workshop through the presale entitles the purchaser to receive one Rare, Epic, or Legendary Founders' Edition NFT Workshop. Compared to standard workshops, Founders' Edition Workshops provide more slots, in-game rewards, and bonuses. There will be 4 pricing tiers, with the cheapest starting at $24.99, going all the way to $124.99.

Social Clubs are similar to clans and guilds. The Nitro Nation World Tour experience wouldn't be complete without Social Clubs, as they allow members to increase the level cap of their cars and workshops. NFT Workshops can be equipped onto the club, in order to upgrade, service, repair, and customize multiple cars at once. The higher the Club level, the more NFT Workshops can be equipped. Players can rent, borrow, and loan other cars from other members in the Club. In essence, Club members have a lot of perks compared to an average solo player, as they get to earn more rewards, progress faster, and gain access to exclusive Club events and competitions.

Founding Team

The game is being developed by Mythical Games, a game development studio led by veterans from major franchises like World of Warcraft, Call of Duty, Marvel Strike Force, and Guitar Hero. It has been operating since 2018, and has raised a total funding amount of $260M over 7 funding rounds from investors like Binance Labs, a16z, Fenbushi Capital, Alumni Ventures, and more.

Advisors and Partners

Tokenomics

The game will be directly tied to the Mythos blockchain, through the $MYTH utility token. There are two in-game currencies directly tied to $MYTH, Nitro Coin and Gear Coin. Both of them have unlimited supply, and can be used to purchase NFTs, upgrade / repair / service / customize cars, and can be converted into wrapped $MYTH. The coins (Nitro or Gear) converted to wrapped $MYTH are retained for possible conversion to the opposite direction (MYTH token to Nitro or Gear Coin) in the future.

Roadmap

✅ 2022: Website Launch
⬜ Q1 2023: Workshop Pre-sale, Soft Launch
⬜ Q2 2023: Global Launch

Why I'm Bullish

Huge potential in the racing game genre. There is a growing trend in the online racing games market, as its market volume is expected to reach $4.46B by 2026, at a compound annual growth rate of 9.98% from 2022-2026. Racing games give players a competitive, fast-paced, adrenaline-inducing gaming experience, which makes it one of the most popular game genres. Whether the game design is an arcade-style racing, where gameplay is focused more on speed and daring tasks, or a race simulator where a real driving experience is emulated, or a kart racing game where players go through obstacles with ramps, boosts, and power ups, racing games are a staple in the games industry. Nothing beats the excitement of being able to emulate a racing or driving experience through a game, and owning your first sports car / super car in the game. As game graphics technology catches up, and with the popularity of VR equipment which can further enhance the gaming experience, there's a lot of room for racing games to grow.

Easy onboarding combined with the mobile platform. The game is highly scalable and accessible, as they chose to be based on mobile. Mobile games account for 52% of the games industry, and I'm pretty sure that there wouldn't be any difficulty in marketing their game. Players can seamlessly start playing the game, without even being familiar with crypto, as there is no crypto wallet or Mythical account needed to start playing the game.

Creative and intelligent way of implementing Workshops and Social Clubs. NFT Workshops are not just some random digital asset in the game. Other than giving players the ability to service, repair, upgrade, and customize their cars, it's also considered a ticket or gateway to an exclusive Social Club community. Workshops have a total of 40 types, which provide a variety of benefits depending on its stat combination. The highly diverse nature of Workshops encourages Club members to really strategize and collaborate to come up with the best Workshop combinations that would be beneficial for their Club's goals.

Reliance on a strong and active community. Since players are incentivized to join a Social Club in order to gain more rewards and upgrade their cars and Workshops further, a closely-knit community is key to making the game more fun. Players will feel more included in the game if they are part of the community, and no one will want to play solo, as there are certain limitations. I think that the reliance of the game on an active community proves the point that it is a good selling point for the game, because players can spread the word to their friends and actually make them start playing the game for them to build and team up in their Social Club. The more the players, the more Social Clubs there is, and the more competitive the game is.

Competitive and high-stakes gameplay. I like the feature where players can pre-determine the rewards, and even race for a chance to win their opponent's car. The buyback feature for the defeated opponent makes the game even more exciting, as they can prevent their car from being taken away by playing more races and earning in-game currency. The feeling of going all-in in a race, and having the chance to buyback, gives players a whole plethora of emotions, which is what you want in playing a game, because it makes players more attached to the game.

Twitter Thread

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Web3 Game Review: Nitro Nation World Tour (@NitroNationTour)

A Web3 AAA mobile racing game in a unique World Tour setting with always-on car meet-ups.

Lets dig deep right into why I'm bullish about the game.