Kart

Karts (not to be confused with Car) are the vehicles used in the Mario Kart series. They are Go-Karts of many different colors.

Karts first appeared in Super Mario Kart, then Mario Kart 64, then Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Mario Kart DS, Mario Kart Arcade GP, Mario Kart Arcade GP 2, and in Mario Kart Wii.

A Kart also appeared in Super Smash Bros. Melee as a trophy.

Mario Kart Double Dash!! was the first game to stray from the tradition of using only Go-Karts while racing. Racers now had other types of vehicles to race in. the Toad Kart and Toadette Kart could both be considered the game's only actual Go-Kart type vehicles.

In Mario Kart DS, all karts have about even stats (depending on the character's weight, the weight changes) with the occasional high or low. Like Double Dash, racers were able to use other types of vehicles besides Karts in the races.

The Karts in Mario Kart Wii were based off of the characters weight. This led to only 3 actual Karts being used. They were the Standard Kart S, the Standard Kart M, and the Standard Kart L, and were used by racers of their corresponding weight class. Each of the Karts were recolored to Match the design of their racer. Like the previous two Mario Kart titles, racers could also use different types of vehicles. But they could also use different types of motorcycles too.

In the Club Nintendo comic "Die Jagd nach dem Nintendo 64: Krawall im All," Mario and Luigi were seen driving karts in their mission to find a spaceship shaped like the Nintendo 64. They competed against Wario and Bowser, and made another reference to the Mario Kart games by dropping Banana Peels and making them crash. Unlike their video game equivalents, the karts in the comic could also be turned into jet skis by pushing a button on their steering-wheels.

The term Kart has another meaning in the game Super Mario Kart, in which Karts replaced the term of Extra Lives in Grand Prix mode. When a driver only reached the fifth position or below, he would lose one of his four Karts. Losing the last Kart would quit the Grand Prix. However, it is possible to get one back under certain circumstances.

Trophy Information from Super Smash Bros. Melee
''The famous racing karts from the ever-popular Mario Kart racing series come loaded for spee with three different engine sizes: 50, 100, and 150 cc. The karts' handling differs with the characters driving them, but all of them utilize Mario Kart standards like drift, jump, and turbo. They're extremely durable and impossible to total.''

Trivia

 * The Kart appears in Nintendo Monopoly, where it replaces Reading Railroad as a purchasable station. It costs $200.
 * In Mario Kart Super Circuit and Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, the player could press the item button (if he or she had no item) to sound the horn.