Super Mario Kart

Super Mario Kart was a racing game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System released in 1992. It was the first game in the Mario Kart series, and the game that popularized the kart racing style of video game. It spawned many imitators that tried to emulate the Mario Kart formula of simple, fast paced racing with a focus on traps and items, but none has been as successful as the Mario Kart series.

Drivers
Super Mario Kart has 8 available drivers. Super Mario Kart, unlike its sequels, does not categorize characters into the usual weight classes, but there are four types, each of which contains two racers. Each pair of racers is statistically identical. These categories have no official name, but are referred in the manual as different class names.

Courses

 * * Represents a course that reappeared in Mario Kart DS's retro cups.
 * ** Represents a course that reappeared in Mario Kart Wii's retro cups.

Mushroom Cup

 * Mario Circuit 1*
 * Donut Plains 1*
 * Ghost Valley 1
 * Bowser Castle 1
 * Mario Circuit 2

Flower Cup

 * Choco Island 1
 * Ghost Valley 2**
 * Donut Plains 2
 * Bowser Castle 2
 * Mario Circuit 3**

Star Cup

 * Koopa Beach 1
 * Choco Island 2*
 * Vanilla Lake 1
 * Bowser Castle 3
 * Mario Circuit 4

Special Cup
Only availible in 100cc and 150cc
 * Donut Plains 3
 * Koopa Beach 2*
 * Ghost Valley 3
 * Vanilla Lake 2
 * Rainbow Road

Rivals
Super Mario Kart has a different rival system from the rest of the series; the rivals contain one very fast driver, one fast driver, one medium driver, one slower driver and three very slow drivers. It is notable that when one of the three slower drivers gets hit, that kart will keep its place while when one of the faster cars gets shot, it will resume its place.

The rivals for each driver is always the same, the list will be in the order the line up for the first race. It is possible to change the order if the rivals can't recover their place at the end, (Eg. If someone is playing as Luigi and Yoshi finishes last, Yoshi will then become one of the three slower drivers while everybody takes the next position up)

The rivals are determined by the current points standing, meaning that if Yoshi was still only second to the player, he will boost back to first position from the start.

Trivia

 * In the manual, the picture for Mario Circuit 1 is upside down.
 * All 20 of the courses appeared in Mario Kart: Super Circuit, but all of their track hazards have been removed and some tracks changed a little.