The Story Mode, again, doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it is a welcome time sink and a lot more relaxed than the rather tense online races. You’ve got Speed Race, which is your standard rally, the Item Mode, which allows you to forget about the drifting in favour of shooting each other with Water Flies and using angelic halos to protect yourself, as well as a Story Mode, among others.

The modes on offer really help to keep things exciting too. That’s just the basic driving, and that’s not all that there is with KartRider Rush+. There were a few moments as I tried to get to grips with it, but once I’d mastered it, every corner felt like an opportunity to improve my standing, an obstacle to not just overcome, but a springboard to leap into a better position. It’s a satisfying little loop, even if it can feel a little finicky at first to get used to. If you can boost into a drift and do it perfectly, then you might instantly refill your boost again, allowing you to continue on at rocket speed. That’s the norm in racing games, but it gets interesting here because you generate the ability to boost by doing so. You hold the drift button and a direction to drift through a corner, then you have to straighten up as you come out of the turn. The primary skill you’ll need to master is the drifting. Not having to worry about accelerating means that the tracks can be a little bit more involved, and the action isn’t about trying to get back up to speed, but navigating each course as well as you can. Instead, your main focus is on turning, drifting and using items. You automatically accelerate, so you never need to worry about doing that. Plus, it’s incredibly charming and a lot of fun, making it one of the best mobile games out there.

There are also multiple modes and it is best played against other people. It’s filled with chibi characters all playfully shooting each other with missiles and trying to decimate other players on the racetrack. KartRider Rush+ is a kart racer much like any other.

Thankfully that’s not always the case though, and KartRider Rush+ is here to show everyone how it should be done. Even the biggest names can fall foul of the cold icy grip of capitalism, and it can often feel like mobile games aren’t designed to be fun at all, but to drain your wallet until it’s empty. You can see just how invasive these issues are when you’re playing one of the more popular franchises in kart racing, which may or may not rhyme with “Marry Yo Heart”. Trying to make money from a game isn’t inherently bad, but the way that a lot of companies go about it can often feel as though it interferes with the game itself, turning it from an entertaining pastime into something altogether more sinister and bank account draining. This is true on any platform but seems especially so on mobile thanks to the monetisation of games on the platform. Kart racing games are incredibly hit-and-miss.

Kartrider