Mario Kart is an ever-present part of most gearheads’ gaming worlds. Whether your first exposure to it came from blowing dust from a Mario Kart 64 cartridge or alcohol-lubricated dorm-room throwdown races, the title’s tight, balanced, and accessible gameplay has achieved a timelessness to which other arcade racers can merely aspire. Now it’s the next generation’s turn to discover Mario Kart?and Nintendo is answering the call with Mario Kart Tour, a mobile version of the game coming to an Android or Apple smartphone near you next year.
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

The overalls-wearing plumber has been playable on Apple and Android devices for more than a year now in Super Mario Run, a two-dimensional rerun of Nintendo’s Super Mario classic, and the faithful can also access mobile-optimized Fire Emblem Heroes and Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp. (More recently, Mario Kart has gone mobile?although not on phones?via Nintendo’s clever Switch platform.) Following the popularity of those and other re-releases of classic Nintendo titles on mobile platforms over the past few years, it?s no wonder the Japanese gaming giant is bringing the Mario Kart franchise to the same space.

Mario Kar...