Mario Kart Tour – How to Drift

The first mobile Mario Kart game is here. Well, unless you like your mobile games to be more of the handheld Game Boy/DS/3DS/Switch variety. But if you play your games on-the-go on a smartphone then this is your chance to find out what all the fuss is about. Mario Kart Tour has arrived for Android and iOS, though it’s currently in closed beta and not full release. To help you get started earning coins and winning races we wanted to break down some of the gameplay elements of the series and how they work in this new mobile world. Here’s how to drift in Mario Kart Tour on Android and iOS.

How to Drift in Mario Kart Tour

One of the things that smartphone games typically try to do is simplify the controls. There’s no smattering of buttons to choose from like there is on the Switch and other Nintendo handheld devices. Everything has to be managed on the touchscreen and with that usually comes much easier to manage elements like drifting. For Mario Kart Tour the answer to how to drift is much simpler than on its larger cousins, since the game sort of handles it for you.

To drift you simply need to make your turn as sharply as possible. There’s no jumping or button presses to initiate a drift, it happens automatically as you enter the turn. Your boost at the end will also trigger automatically as you straighten out. So drifting in Mario Kart Tour is more about maintaining and holding your turn until you achieve the desired boost level (blue for single, yellow for double), then straightening out to trigger it when it will most benefit you.

For example, if there’s a sharp turn coming up, you can try to get a double boost off of it by entering it at a decent angle, then making the turn sharply and straightening out at the end. For longer turns you can actually get a couple of boosts out of it. Simply initiate a drift by turning a bit sharper than you need to, then letting it build up. Once it’s ready, straighten out to get the boost then start turning again to get into another drift. This is similar to “Snaking” as seen in the other titles, where players try to always be drifting and boosting around the track.

Alternatively you can enable Manual Drift in the game’s settings. This unlocks a third boost (purple) and allows more direct control over your kart. Once enabled you will need to release and tap the screen to hop and initiate a boost then release the screen to boost out of it. Everything else remains the same.

And that’s pretty much all there is to know about how to drift in Mario Kart Tour. It’s a simpler mechanic overall, but that also makes for more complex choices from the player. Figuring out when to drift can be tough as you make your way around the many tracks found in the game.