Super Mario Kart

Super Mario Kart was a racing game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System released in 1992 and re-released in 1996 as the Player's Choice. It is also released in Japan on June 9, 2009 as a Virtual Console, but USA hasn't released it yet. 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, such as Sonic Riders or Crash Tag Team Racing, but none have been as successful as the Mario Kart series.

Characters
As well as the eight playable drivers, various other Mario series characters appear in Super Mario Kart. Thwomps, Piranha Plants, Monty Moles and Cheep-cheeps are enemies that serve as obstacles in certain tracks, and Boos appear in the background of other tracks, as well as serving as a usable item.

As stated in the Super Mario Kart manual, Lakitu is the owner of the Super Mario Kart Race Track, and as such, he oversees all races. He holds up the starting signal and various other signs, and for the price of two Coins, he uses his fishing rod to lift any fallen drivers back onto the racetrack.

Drivers
Super Mario Kart has eight available drivers, divided into statistically identical pairs of two. These four categories have no official name, but are referred in the manual as different classes. Later Mario Kart titles categorize characters into weight classes to organize their stats.


 * Character attributes

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 available 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 usually resume its previous place very quickly unless unable to catch up fast enough before the race ends. For this reason, the drivers (except the human racer) will (if uneffected) always finish in the exact same order.

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, Item Boxes are at different places than where ? Panels laid, and some tracks changed a little.
 * The game was placed 32nd in the 100th issue of Nintendo Power's "100 best Nintendo games of all time" in 1997.