You steer your character with the touchscreen, and use weapons by tapping said screen (some items can be sent forward or backward by swiping in those directions). Though the feeling of having less control is a bit of a bummer, it ultimately makes sense considering this is the Mario Kart you play on your phone. It’s almost surprising how well Mario Kart works on a mobile device: the characters move automatically, as opposed to holding a button like the rest of the series.
While Mario Kart Tour successfully translates the series’ fun gameplay to mobile phones, the game’s seemingly never-ending paywalls end up putting a damper on the experience. And sure enough, 2019 saw the release of Mario Kart Tour, the mobile iteration of Nintendo’s system-selling kart racer, which proved to be a record-breaking success for Nintendo. Where Mario platformers go, Mario Kart is sure to follow. But the thing about the Super Mario series is that it isn’t just one series.
It’s hard to imagine how things could have gone wrong, it’s Mario! And considering how well Pokemon translated to phones in the form of Pokemon Go, it’s all the more baffling (this also has to be the one and only instance in history where Pokemon was more fun than Mario). The first mobile Mario game, Super Mario Run, was released in 2016 to a lukewarm reception. Mario’s foray into the mobile gaming market has been interesting, to say the least.
