NintendoNintendo’s Mario Kart game for smartphones is set to arrive this summer.
I think most people out there will have played Mario Kart at some point in their lives. Whether it be on the old-school SNES, the still quite old Nintendo 64, the more realistic Nintendo Wii version (complete with steering wheels) or on the fancy new Nintendo Switch, millions of people have driven their way to victory on the Mario Kart courses.
Many hours of my childhood were spent steering Toad through Bowser’s Castle and across mushroom-filled landscapes – not to mention my skilled navigation of Rainbow Road – all the while attacking my competitors with bananas and blasting them with flying blue shells.
NintendoUnfortunately my gaming days came to an end when my parents inexplicably threw out the Nintendo GameCube, so naturally I was over the moon to hear Mario Kart was coming to smartphones, to put us all back on the track again.
The game was originally set for release towards the end of March this year, but it has now been pushed back to summer.
The news of the delay was announced on Nintendo’s Twitter account yesterday (January 30), which read (translated):
The “Mario Kart Tour” app for Smartphones will be scheduled to be delivered in summer 2019 to improve the quality of the app and to expand the service content after delivery.
スマートフォン向けアプリ『マリオカート ツアー』は、アプリの品質向上および配信後のサービス内容拡充のため、配信予定を2019年夏とさせていただきます。 pic.twitter.com/YhtI2DWw4H
— 任天堂株式会社 (@Nintendo) January 31, 2019
The Mario Kart smartphone app has been in the works for some time; in fact it’s almost exactly a year since Nintendo of America shared the news of its creation.
In February 2018, their official Twitter account posted:
The checkered flag has been raised and the finish line is near. A new mobile application is now in development: Mario Kart Tour! #MarioKartTour Releasing in the fiscal year ending in March 2019.
The checkered flag has been raised and the finish line is near. A new mobile application is now in development: Mario Kart Tour! #MarioKartTour Releasing in the fiscal year ending in March 2019. pic.twitter.com/8GIyR7ZM4z
— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) February 1, 2018
Of course, we now know it’s not actually releasing in March.
The game, titled Mario Kart Tour, has been shrouded in mystery by Nintendo. The only thing we’ve had that’s even close to a look at the game is the logo, which they shared in the above tweet.
As you can see, it doesn’t give much away.
Still, we can presume many of our favourite characters will be back, and I’m pretty confident when I say there’ll almost certainly be some element of racing involved.
I hope you still have to tap vigorously as the countdown begins to get the engine revving – I developed some impressive speed in my prime Mario Kart days, it would be a shame for it to go to waste.
There might be some dispute here about how helpful the tapping actually was, but I remain adamant it assisted in shooting me into first place almost every time.
Although it’s disappointing to learn we have a few extra months to wait before we can select our favourite Nintendo characters and have them tear across the race courses right from our phones, the promise of improved quality suggests it will be worth the wait.
Bring on summer!
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