Announced last year, Mario Kart Tour was originally scheduled for release on iPhone, iPad and Android devices this March. However, Nintendo has revealed that the game will be delayed.

That's the bad news. The good is that the delay is not too long; it will be coming in the summer instead. And, the delay was necessary, claims the Japanese gaming giant, to ensure that the final release will be of a sufficiently high standard.

It explained the delay in its latest earnings report: "In the smart-device business, Mario Kart Tour was scheduled to be released this fiscal year, but in order to improve quality of the application and expand the content offerings after launch, the release date has been moved to summer 2019," the company wrote.

"As we endeavor to develop future planned applications, we will also focus on continued service operations for applications that have already been released so that consumers can enjoy playing them for a long time."

There are no further details on Mario Kart Tour as yet, including how it might play on a mobile platform. We suspect that, like Super Mario Run, controls will be kept simple and to a minimum - with acceleration being automated and steering through motion control or on-screen buttons.

We'll find out more this summer, it seems.