In a surprise move, Nintendo has announced its working on a brand new Mario Kart game for iPhone and iPad.
The game will be titled “Mario Kart Tour” and — well, actually, that’s about all we know so far. Just how much of a full-fledged kart-racing experience we’ll get is up for debate, although Nintendo did confirm that the game will launch in the next year or so.
This will be the fifth big Nintendo franchise to hit the App Store after various outings for Pokémon, Super Mario, Fire Emblem, and Animal Crossing over the past year or two.
Those other releases have distilled core gameplay elements from existing games into simplified experiences more suited to short play sessions on a touchscreen device. It’s likely a similar strategy will be employed with Mario Kart, though exactly what that will entail remains to be seen. Hopefully, the frantic competitive fun of the original games won’t be lost in the move.
We still firmly believe Nintendo should be releasing classic games from its impressive archives onto the App Store. There’s an embarrassment of riches ready to be mined, but it’s unlikely that will happen anytime soon.
Could we one day see 90s classics on iOS?
In the meantime, we should be pleased the gaming company – currently enjoying huge success with its Switch console – is still focusing some of its energy on iOS.