Nintendo Announces New Mario Kart Title For Smartphones

TheGamer

By Scott Baird

Published Feb 1, 2018

If players thought they had enough Mario Kart on the go with the Switch, they were wrong as Nintendo announced an all-new title for smartphones.

Via CrackBerry.com

Nintendo has announced the next game in their library of smartphone titles—Mario Kart Tour will be the latest Nintendo game to hit mobile phones in the future.

Mario Kart Tour is the next venture in Nintendo's successful lineup of mobile games. It might seem like an unusual choice to bring a racing game to smartphones, but the Mario Kart franchise has been one of Nintendo's consistently high-selling series. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was a huge success for the Nintendo Switch, with over four and a half million units sold, despite the fact that it is a port of a Wii U game. Mario Kart 8 was also the best-selling Wii U title during the system's lifespan, with over eight million copies sold.

The biggest question about Mario Kart Tour is how the game can be played on a smartphone. We have yet to see any gameplay footage, nor do we know the pay structure for the game. Super Mario Run had to make several concessions in order to make a Mario game that could be played with a touchscreen and that was a far simpler game than a Mario Kart title. One possible solution is that you hold the phone sideways and use it as a wheel (assuming it has a gyroscope) though this will also make the screen itself move. Those who have played Mario Kart: Super Circuit on an emulator will attest to how difficult it is to play a Mario Kart game using only the touchscreen, so the game will likely have to be simplified in order to fit the smartphone format.

The announcement of Mario Kart Tour suggests further investment by Nintendo into mobile gaming. Super Mario Run failed to meet its profit goals, but the later games (Fire Emblem Heroes and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp) were successful enough for Nintendo. Those last two games made money through copying the Gacha game format and forcing the player to wait for upgrades. One can only wonder how these elements could be adapted for Mario Kart. Will we see the day where you have to pay for Red Shell tickets? The fury invoked by Mario Kart might be enough to create a whole new format - pay to win could be replaced by pay for revenge.

Mario Kart Tour is planned to be released sometime before March 2019.

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