Template talk:Kart infobox

Variations

Could we add "variation of" and "variations" parameters? The variations parameter is for karts that have a variation/variant, not including color changes. The variation of parameter is for karts that are a variation of another kart. It's mostly to get rid of some unnecessary sentences that I think fit better in an infobox. For example, the Gold Standard is a variant of the Standard Kart, so it will have Standard Kart in the "variant of" parameter, while the Standard Kart has the Gold Standard in the "variations" parameter. -- 12:32, September 9, 2020 (EDT)

Is this infobox necessary?

This talk page or section has a conflict or question that must be answered. Please try to help and resolve the issue by leaving a comment.

In my opinion, this infobox is redundant. The main thing that separates it from {{item infobox}} is that it has parameters to denote the size class, "strong stats", "average stats", and "weak stats" of a kart, but what makes a stat strong or average or weak can be vague. For games like Mario Kart 8 where karts either add, subtract, or do not modify stat points, it makes sense to classify them that way, but for games like Mario Kart DS where kart stats are all positive numbers, what makes a stat good or bad is nebulous probably a bit subjective. Also, on pages for karts that appear in a lot of games, like the Standard Kart and B Dasher, their infoboxes have to cram information about stats from almost every game they appear in, which makes them bloated and hard to read. I can only speak for myself, but if I want to know what stats a kart excels and falters in, I would just go to the statistics section. I never find the infobox stats worth looking at.

These parameters also abbreviate the names of games to save space. Currently the wiki only explicitly forbids abbreviations in article names, but I don't see abbreviations used anywhere else in the content of articles (ignoring "meta" aspects of the wiki like template and file names), so it's very jarring to me that this is the one exception.

If you take the stat parameters away, all you're left with is the parameters for game appearances and variants, something that {{item infobox}} already covers. At that point, why not retire this infobox and just use the item infobox for karts instead, and move the size class information to the statistics section? Would the wiki really be missing out on anything by removing this infobox? If yes, do the benefits of fixing the bloated parameters outweigh the downsides? Dive Rocket Launcher 04:09, February 16, 2026 (UTC)

And then for the Mario Kart Tour karts, AKA the majority of the karts, kart infobox does actual nothing. Mario Kart Tour doesn't have handling and off road in the way other games think of it, so the stat parameters don't get used. Actually, kart infobox does worse than nothing, because an infobox like that of the one on a kart that appears in a non-Tour game and a Tour game like Cact-X and Steel Driver requires active editor intervention to add abbreviations, lest they imply the karts have stats like acceleration in Mario Kart Tour at all. (The linked examples make a mistake to this effect, with a strong or weak stat not indicated to not apply in Mario Kart Tour. This is very hard to spot on a whim, meaning errors like the linked ones could be all over the wiki and persist for years. We should probably structure pages to make them as easy as possible to maintain (while containing all information), not harder to maintain. I agree with all other stated points, this template isn't quite holding its own in the face of karts varying wildly across different games in the same series. Salmancer (talk) 05:12, February 16, 2026 (UTC)

I didn't even realize that the majority of pages that use this template don't even use the stat parameters. Retiring this infobox and replacing all instances with {{item infobox}} would also be a good opportunity to go through all the kart pages to fill out the variants/variant of parameters, since I noticed a lot of kart pages don't use them yet. (Also, not really an issue with the template itself, but it's awkward that the template is called "kart infobox" when it's also used for tires and gliders.) Dive Rocket Launcher 01:18, February 18, 2026 (UTC)

@Dive Rocket Launcher and @Salmancer I definitely agree with the overall sentiment that the stats parameters are often bloated and disorganized, but I don't think we should be removing them. In cases where karts have only appeared in one game, it is a helpful to immediately display their relevant stats on the infobox. For karts which appeared in multiple games, but which maintain the same general spread of stats (I don't know how often that happens), it is also interesting to use these fields to present what the kart is generally good/bad at. I know we don't exactly display that Bowser is usually a Power-type character in his infobox, but these karts are made for this. Having these stats is their entire purpose. But I could be completely wrong and every time a kart returned it is a coin flip if it will have good or bad speed, handling, etc.

The {{course infobox}} already has fields which are game-specific and have (imperfect) notes to distinguish them, so I feel like keeping some of these stats as game-specific fields (such as size), wouldn't be the worst idea. Maybe also include some of the stats from Mario Kart Tour, specifically the special bonus each kart grants.

Maybe I am just grasping at straws because I like the unique colors, but we could also have something like a "type" parameter denoting which type of vehicle it is (like a Bike or an ATV) or if it is a Tire or a Glider (obvious, I know, but still). — Lady Sophie_17 ^(T|C) 22:25, May 18, 2026 (UTC)

I think the vagueness of what makes a stat strong or weak or average outweighs the benefit of being able to see a general outline of the stats in the infobox. Well, at least for the games pre-MK7 where the stats are absolute instead of relative. I can see the benefit of keeping those parameters for kart parts in MK7 and later games, but then you run into the issue of what to do for karts that returned from previous games that didn't use that stat system.

From looking at dozens of pages for karts in MK7, MK8, and MKWorld, it seems like karts rarely have similar stats when they return. There's the Pipe Frame, and some karts that stayed mostly the same between MK8 and MK8D, but I didn't find much else. Meanwhile, many karts had their stats completely overhauled between games, including between MK8 and MK8D. I didn't check very thoroughly and I didn't look at any of the tires or gliders, so take this with a grain of salt.

Another idea I had was to list the actual stats in the infobox, but only use it in games where it appears once... but that's similar to what this wiki used to do for Paper Mario enemies, and that was axed in this proposal, so that might not fly. It's not an issue for the course infobox to have game-specific stats because this wiki splits different iterations of courses into separate articles, so the infoboxes don't have to compile stats from five games all at once. Dive Rocket Launcher 04:55, May 19, 2026 (UTC)

That Standard Kart infobox is not doing Kart Infobox any favors. The Average Stats row is nigh unreadable with all the parentheticals. Even if we don't remove Kart Infobox, and the unreadability of Standard Kart's infobox is an argument in favor of doing so, I think we should retire the "average" parameter just to make the infobox easier to parse. The average stats can just be implied by them not being strong or weak stats. Salmancer (talk) 06:09, May 29, 2026 (UTC)

Kart infobox
Vehicle type	Lorem ipsum
Associated character	Lorem ipsum
Appears in	Lorem ipsum Lorem ipsum
Variant of	Lorem ipsum
Variants	Lorem ipsum

@Dive Rocket Launcher and @Salmancer Alright, here's my idea for a kart infobox revamp. If this receives positive feedback, I'll make a formal proposal regarding deleting/reworking the template. I tried to include parameters which are intrinsic to the vehicle itself and which don't change based on the game.

• Vehicle type: Serves to list the vehicle's type from each of the individual types in Category:Mario Kart vehicles.
• Associated character: To be used sparingly when a kart has an obvious character it is associated with/designed after. Think B Dasher being Mario's default kart in DS, or Wild Wiggler being designed after a Wiggler. NPC opponents using those vehicles in races do not count for the purposes of this parameter. A separate field called Associated object can be used for cases like the Pipe Frame or the ? Block (glider), which have clear design origins tied to Super Mario objects (or objects from other recognizeable franchises). I can see the scope of this field narrowing with more discussion, because we did remove the parameters "Subject origin" from {{species infobox}} due to being too broad.
• Appears in: I don't think karts reappear often enough to the point where the "First/Latest appearance" system used in item infoboxes works. Simply listing the two or three games the kart appears here is sufficient (and the exceptions like the Pipe Frame are not nearly as lengthy or wordy as the stats sections. This field would also be restricted strictly to "Driveable appearances in the Mario Kart series", to avoid adding clutter such as trophies, cameos or other appearances which are secundary to the kart's purpose as a kart.
• Variant of / Variants: Used in the same way the item infobox parameter is used. A Related field can also be included for cases where the original is not clear. I know Mario Kart Tour has some weird edge case scenarios regarding which kart recolor is the original and which came first, so I'm not offering a hard rule at the current time.

What do you think of this layout? — Lady Sophie_17 ^(T|C) 12:43, June 1, 2026 (UTC)

Are you going to include tires and gliders under "vehicle type"? I think it's odd to describe those as vehicles (which is also why I'm in favor of removing them from Category:Mario Kart vehicles). I don't recall if gliders are ever referred to as kart parts in MKT, or if they're exclusively treated as their own class of item, like drivers are. If they aren't considered kart parts in that game, then we shouldn't treat them as such.

Other than that, I think this is fine. A "related" parameter would also be useful for cases like the Dozer Dasher and Firefly where they don't really have a variant-type relationship, but are obviously meant to look similar. I would also prefer if the "variants"/"related" parameters were full-width, like in the item and species infoboxes. Dive Rocket Launcher 22:19, June 1, 2026 (UTC)

Alright. I will make a version which replaces "Vehicle type" to a more generic "Type", and full width "variants"-type parameters. My plan already had a "related" parameter I didn't include in the example for brevity, anyway. I should start that proposal once I am finished with the Double Dash!! infobox proposal, as to not leave any lose ends. — Lady Sophie_17 ^(T|C) 13:29, June 4, 2026 (UTC)