Tag: Mario kart »

It's hard to find good racing games on mobile. Most of them are free-to-play, and free-to-play racers generally suck. Even Nintendo couldn't put together a competent Mario Kart game, opting instead for a weird score chaser that resembles--but feels nothing like--actual Mario Kart.

So, when Nexon released KartRider Rush+ earlier this week, I had low expectations, but I decided to boot it up and try it out anyway. I played a few races, and then I played some more. Then I joined a racing club, found myself friending people, and racing even more. Before I knew it, my week was consumed with playing KartRider Rush+ because--somehow--it has managed to create a free-to-play racing experience that actually feels good.

This one is definitely an example of getting the hype train (or kart, I guess) started early. Nintendo has revealed that it's developing a Mario Kart game for mobile. It's called Mario Kart Tour, and it was announced yesterday over on Nintendo's Twitter.

Now, we've already had our say about what Nintendo has to do if it wants to remain relevant in the mobile sphere, and you can check that out by clicking here. But here's the kicker, we've got a long wait ahead of us for Mario Kart Tour.

Nintendo has announced a new feature especially geared towards smartphone-using fans of its upcoming Wii gamem Mario Kart 8. The web service, tentatively known as Mario Kart TV, builds upon the ability of players to share race footage on the internet; the mobile device-ready video feature should be available to right around the official release of the game.

According to investor information presented by Nintendo, the service "will enable more people to easily watch Nintendo’s official videos, view rankings, watch videos that their friends have shared and videos of tournaments in which they have participated. We will work on providing this type of service so that players can enjoy video games more and be in contact with them even when they are not in front of a video game system."

No release date has been confirmed but, as noted, the service should go live at the end of the month (5/30) - around the time Mario Kart 8 is released.