The first images from the new Mario Kart smartphone game are starting to emerge after the beta version was released in the USA and Japan.
The game - called Mario Kart Tour - was announced back in January 2018 but has since been beset by long delays. Now, we finally have our first look at what the actual gameplay will look like, with the aim of an official release this summer.
Of course, that isn't confirmed yet, but Nintendo said a while back that summer 2019 was the planned release date.
So, with that in mind, what can we tell about the game from these few images?
Well, it looks like the game will be played vertically with the player controlling the iconic karts by swiping on the screen. If that is to be the case, you'd have to imagine that the speed that you're going at will be controlled automatically.
As for the environments that we'll be racing about, it looks as if the game will be packed full of classic locations for fans of the original Nintendo game to razz themselves around.
As for all of your favourite characters, it looks as if you'll have to unlock them as you go through the game, but there will eventually be a whole host of playable characters to choose from.
They seem to include Luigi, Peach, Baby Daisy, Baby Rosalina, Toadette, Rosalina, Waluigi, Baby Peach, Metal Mario, Daisy, Toad, Larry, Lemmy, Ludwig, Dry Bowser, Dry Bones and - of course - Mario himself.
It is worth remembering that this is only the beta version and it is entirely possible that some of this will change, but any changes are likely to be pretty minor ones.
Well, unless something else goes awry, that is.
As mentioned earlier on, the game should really have been out now already, but Nintendo has been hit by a whole heap of problems with the game.
In their recently announced quarterly earnings report, the Japanese games giant said: "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 Mario Kart series started all the way back in 1992 with Super Mario Kart for the Super Nintendo console.
Since then there have been nine titles in total, including the utterly legendary Mario Kart 64. The most recent game was 2017's Mario Kart 8 Deluxe which was released on Nintendo Switch.
Featured Image Credit: NintendoTopics: GAMING, UK Entertainment, Technology, US Entertainment