'Mario Kart' for your phone is finally, officially happening

A very good friend of mine is a very calm, rational human being. Any situation - bar one - he will logically make his way out of it with a zen-like attitude.

And what is that one situation? It’s playing Mario Kart. He cannot deal with the inversely meritocratic nature of the game in multiplayer mode. A game that rewards the savvy tactician who lurks back in third place for the whole race before waiting for a Thunder Bolt to come to your aid, enabling you to stroll through to victory on the last lap. Such anger and rage I have never witnessed when, after leading for the entire race, he is pipped at the post once again.

And there’s good news for commuters everywhere because that anger and rage is going to be accompanying you on your delayed journey in: Mario Kart is finally heading to your smartphone.

Nintendo has long put off moving one of its premier franchises to the realm of the phone but now it’s confirmed that a mobile version of the game is currently in development. It’s happening people.

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It’s going to be called Mario Kart Tour, and will be released in the next financial year, meaning that it could drop any time between April 2018 and March 2019, hopefully towards the earlier part of that range.

Nintendo originally planned to release five smartphone games in 2017, but only Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes, Animal Crossing and Pocket Camp made it out, so hopefully they’ll actually produce the goods for this one.

Read more: 20 things you didn’t know about Mario Kart 64

Mario Kart celebrated its 25th birthday last year after being born back in 1992, with 13 games released in the series so far (six for home consoles, three portable games and four arcade games), with the latest being Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which was released for Nintendo Switch in April 2017. They’ve shifted more than 100 million copies worldwide, and for good reason: it’s amazing, brilliant fun.

(Image: Pexels)