Mario Kart Tour’s first beta test kicked off this week. Nintendo asked testers to refrain from posting images and videos online, but that was never going to happen. And that’s great for those of us who didn’t get beta invites.

Screenshots and clips of the game have now started popping up all over the place. There’s a lot to be excited about if you’re a Mario Kart fan, but it’s not all good news.

Nintendo has finally kicked off its first Mario Kart Tour beta test.

A lucky few have received invites to play the game early ahead of its public release this summer. Nintendo hopes the test will help “improve the quality of the game” before every Mario Kart fan gets their hands on it.

You’ll have to wait longer to get your hands on the very first Mario Kart game for Android and iOS.

Nintendo has confirmed that the launch of Mario Kart Tour has been pushed back to this summer. The much-anticipated title was originally scheduled to arrive by the end of March, but Nintendo says it needs more time to “improve quality of the application.”

It is Nintendo’s second big delay in just one week.

Nintendo has told us very little about Mario Kart Tour since it was announced for iOS back in January. But there’s one important piece of information that the Japanese company has confirmed this week: The game is still on track for an early 2019 release.

Fortnite’s exciting new Playground mode finally relaunched this week, giving new players the chance to learn the game outside of Battle Royale matches. But you don’t have to use it for practice.

The beauty of Playground mode is that you can do almost anything you like in it — including making your own Mario Kart clone. Check out this amazing track built in Tilted Towers.

Nintendo’s upcoming Mario Kart Tour game will be “free-to-start” on mobile, developer DeNA has confirmed.

Much like Animal Crossing and Fire Emblem Heroes, you’ll be able to enjoy the game without coughing up any cash, though optional in-app purchases will provide some advantage.

Apple’s got big plans for iOS 12, and we’ll tell you all about them this week on The CultCast. Plus: New details tell us more about 2018’s iPhone X Plus; Nintendo says a new Mario Kart is coming to iOS; Apple works to bring iPad apps to Mac; and don’t miss our review of the Elgato Stream Deck, a must-have accessory for you Twitch, Mixer and YouTube streamers.

Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. It’s simple to accept Apple Pay and sell your wares with your very own Squarespace.com website. Enter offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off any hosting plan.

Nintendo finally gave in and started developing games for mobile devices last year, and now Sony is following suit.

The Japanese electronics giant today confirmed it will bring more than five PlayStation games to Android and iOS before March 2018.

Star Wars and Mario Kart don’t seem to have much in common at first glance, but when you mash the two mega-universes together at hyperspace speeds, the results are more than super.

Dark Pixel created an incredibly fun new video called Star Kart that imagines what it’d be like if Mario and his pals cruised around the Star Wars galaxy in your favorite spaceships, complete with all the banana peels, golden mushrooms, turtle shells and wacky racing the Nintendo game is known for.

Watch Bowser and Baby Bowser try to take down Mario and the gang as they race from Tatooine to Hoth — and then ultimately the Death Star:

Hell just froze over.

Nintendo has finally given in to the fact that smartphones have dealt its handheld gaming business a huge blow; the only way they’re going to stay relevant is to release their immensely popular gaming characters and game franchises onto the devices we all have in our pockets.

Whether you’re a Nintendo super fan or just looking at the gaming history this venerable Japanese company represents, you’ll be excited for this new era in which Nintendo partners with social and free-to-play juggernaut DeNA to bring it’s valuable content to mobile devices.

Even though Nintendo’s president Satoru Iwata insists that the company has no intention of porting existing games to mobile devices, he said nothing about not brining the incredibly popular and cash-generating characters and franchises that have become synonymous with the company, and with video gaming in general.

Here, then, are ten of our top wishes for the characters and franchises Nintendo should bring to the iPhone or other smartphones.