Classic ‘Mario Kart Tour’ game planned for mobile devices

NINTENDO is pushing on with its colonisation of smartphone devices, announcing a “Mario Kart” game for release sometime in the next year.

Mobile game number five from Nintendo will be “Mario Kart Tour,” set for launch before March 2019.

Details are scant, with the title announced through Nintendo’s social media accounts:

“The chequered flag has been raised and the finish line is near. A new mobile application is now in development: Mario Kart Tour! Releasing in the fiscal year ending in March 2019,” it wrote this week.

On consoles, entries to the “Mario Kart” franchise stand among the best-selling video games of all time, with 2008’s “Mario Kart Wii” shifting over 37 million copies and 2005’s “Mario Kart DS” clearing 23 million sales.

“Mario Kart 8” was the Wii U’s number one, while on the current Nintendo Switch “Mario Kart 8 Deluxe” is the system’s second favourite game, with just over half of the Switch’s 14m owners having a copy of the remastered edition.

Nintendo started its smartphone odyssey with an original take on social networking, “Miitomo,” in March 2016.

“Super Mario Run” followed in December (March 2017 on Android), “Fire Emblem Heroes” landed February 2017, and “Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp” in October 2017.