Parents' Guide to Mario Kart Tour

While this does a decent job of translating the arcade-driving series to mobile devices, it's doesn't satisfy the need for speed as well as other installments or other mobile driving games. Like other Mario Kart games, Mario Kart Tour has Mario, Donkey Kong, and their associates engaging in a series of go-kart races. Except that unlike any other go kart races you've played in games or real life, this one not only lets you race against the computer or other people, but it also lets you take them out by tossing turtles, bombs, and other items at them. This also has a large variety of twisty, jump-filled tracks — including some ones from earlier Mario Kart games -- and will even change them up every two weeks.

What sets this apart from other games in this series — aside from being playable on your phone or tablet, and thus having simplified touch controls, of course — is that it not only has tracks from its console counterparts, but new ones that are designed to look like wherever the tour is currently being held. That's why, for example, when you're racing in Manhattan, you get to speed past The Limelight on 6th Ave. Unfortunately, this game does hit some speed bumps. Not only does it awkwardly play in portrait mode, not landscape, but it also looks more like 2008's Mario Kart Wii than the more recent, and thus more detailed, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for the Switch. It also doesn't have a lot of pep when you're first starting out (though, in fairness, neither do real go-karts). But while that means there's better mobile racing games, and better Mart Karts, Mario Kart Tour is still a halfway decent way to get your motor runnin' when you can't sit on the couch.