Mario Kart (series)

Mario Kart (Japanese: マリオカート Mario Kāto) is a series of kart racing games developed and published by Nintendo as a spin-off of its flagship Mario franchise. It was inaugurated in 1992 with its debut entry, Super Mario Kart for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, which was critically and commercially successful. There have been a total of eleven titles in the series: five for home consoles, three portable games, and three arcade games co-developed by Bandai Namco Entertainment.

The success of Mario Kart has spawned many cartoon-style racing games published by various gaming companies from the 16-bit generation onwards. It has also been referenced in the Paper Mario role-playing series and inspired several stages in the Super Smash Bros. fighting games. The games in the series have sold a combined total of over 100 million copies worldwide.

Creation
During the development of F-Zero, a Super Nintendo Entertainment System game which was exclusively single-player, Nintendo developers decided to create a two-player racing game for that console as a follow-up. They made a prototype that featured a generic "guy in overalls"; it was decided that Mario characters and concepts be included when the developers added Mario driving one of the karts, out of curiosity as to how the game would look, and were satisfied with it. Thus, the Mario Kart series was born, with its first title, Super Mario Kart, released for the SNES in August 1992. Development of the first Mario Kart game was overseen by Shigeru Miyamoto, creator of the Mario franchise and other successful Nintendo properties. Darran Jones of Imagine Publishing's magazine NowGamer attributed the original success of Mario Kart to its use of the Mario characters and to being a new type of racing game.

Gameplay
In the Mario Kart series, players compete in go-kart races, distributed among several single-player and multiplayer modes, and control one of a selection of major Mario franchise characters. Up to twelve (originally eight) characters can compete in each race. When the characters are ready to begin driving, Lakitu comes in with a traffic light hanging from a fishing pole, which starts the countdown; when the light turns green, the race officially begins. During the race, the player's viewpoint is from behind his or her kart. The goal of the game is to either finish a race ahead of other racers, who are controlled by the computer and other players, or complete a circuit in the fastest time.

Question mark boxes are arrayed on the race tracks and give power-up items to a player-character if their vehicle passes through them. Common power-ups include the Super Mushroom, which gives players a speed boost; the shells of Koopa Troopas, which can be thrown at opponents; banana peels, which can be laid on the track as hazards; and the Starman, which renders the player's kart temporarily invulnerable to attack. The type of weapon received from an item box is often random, though sometimes influenced by the player's current position in the race. For example, players lagging far behind may receive more powerful items while the leader will only receive small defensive items. This gameplay mechanic is designed to give other players or computers a realistic chance to catch up to the leading player.

In some games, lines of coins are found on the tracks, which if run over and collected, will increase a kart's top speed. Having coins also helps players when their kart is hit by another: instead of spinning and losing control, they lose a coin. Coins are also lost when karts are struck by power-ups or fall off the tracks. The series also features advanced maneuvers such as drifting (also called power sliding), which allows a kart to maintain its speed while turning (though executing this maneuver for too long causes the kart to spin); and hopping, which helps a kart execute tighter turns (the kart makes a short hop and turns in the air, speeding off in the new direction when it lands).

Courses
Many course themes recur throughout the series, including circuit, plains, beach, desert, ice-based, and haunted tracks. Most courses are based on an existing Mario location (such as Bowser's Castle), but there are a number of courses that have not appeared elsewhere, such as Rainbow Road, which WatchMojo.com described as "death-defying and infinitely frustrating." Each game in the series includes at least 16 original courses and up to 6 original battle arenas. Each game's tracks are divided into four "cups," or groups in which the player has to have the highest overall placing to win. Most courses can be done in three laps. Course outlines are marked out by impassable barriers and feature a variety of bends, ranging from sharp hairpins to wide curves which players can drift around. Numerous obstacles appear on the tracks, ranging from generic obstacles to those themed after the Mario games. For example, the Bowser's Castle tracks feature Thwomps and sometimes Fire Bars or Lava Bubbles; beach courses may feature crabs and/or Cheep Cheeps; and the Mario Circuit tracks, depending on the game, may incorporate anything from pipe barriers to franchise-staple enemies like Piranha Plants and Chain Chomps. Another common type of obstacle is off-road sections which slow down the karts, such as shallow water or mud bogs.

The first game to feature courses from previous games was Mario Kart: Super Circuit, which contained all of the tracks from the original SNES game. Starting with Mario Kart DS, each entry in the series has featured 16 "nitro" original courses and 16 "retro" tracks drawn from previous titles, spread across four cups each. The four "nitro" cups ― the Mushroom Cup, Flower Cup, Star Cup, and Special Cup ― have been recurring cups throughout the entire series, while the "retro" cups from the more recent installments are the Shell Cup, Banana Cup, Leaf Cup, and Lightning Cup. As the player progresses through the cups, each is ostensibly more difficult than the one before it. In Mario Kart 8, 16 additional tracks are available across two downloadable packages, eight for each package downloaded, including seven retro courses, four original courses, and five courses based on other Nintendo franchises, namely Excitebike, F-Zero, The Legend of Zelda, and Animal Crossing.

Characters
The Mario Kart series' player-character rosters generally consist of memorable characters from the Mario universe, including the main protagonist Mario; his brother Luigi; his love interest Princess Peach; his sidekick Yoshi; his friends Toad, Princess Daisy, and Rosalina; his antagonists and rivals Donkey Kong, Wario, and Waluigi; and his nemesis Bowser; among others. Each character's kart has different capabilities with differing levels of top speed, acceleration and handling.

Since Mario Kart 64, all player-characters have been grouped into one of three distinct weight classifications. Smaller characters, labeled as "lightweights," have high acceleration but low top speeds, and lose a minimal amount of speed when off-road but are easily knocked aside by heavier opponents. Medium-sized characters, or "middleweights," have an equal balance of weight, top speed, and acceleration, and lose a moderate amount of speed when off-road. The largest characters, labeled as "heavyweights," can easily knock aside most opposing racers, have high top speeds but poor acceleration, and lose great amounts of speed when off-road.

Modes of play
Each installment of the Mario Kart series features a variety of single and multiplayer modes. The four modes that recur most often in the series are Mario Kart GP (which stands for Grand Prix), Time Trial, VS, and Battle Mode.

In Mario Kart GP, one player is required to race against eleven (formerly seven) computer-controlled characters in a "cup," a series of four races (five in Super Mario Kart). Mario Kart games typically have four recurring difficulty levels: 50cc, 100cc, 150cc, and an extra "Mirror" mode (where tracks are inverted left-to-right); starting in Mario Kart 8, a fifth difficulty level, 200cc, was added. As the player progresses through the cups, the courses become more difficult, and as the difficulty level increases, the vehicles go faster. Players earn points according to their finishing position in each race. In older games, if a player finishes in a lower position, they must replay the race and may not proceed until a higher placing is achieved. The racer with the highest number of points after all races have been completed wins a trophy: bronze for third place, silver for second, and gold for first. Mario Kart GP is also playable in two-player mode, with a second player-controlled character, though this does not affect the rest of the gameplay rules.

In Time Trial mode, players race against the clock through the same tracks that are present in Mario Kart GP mode, attempting to set the fastest time possible. There are no opponent racers or item boxes, though the player will always begin each race with three Super Mushrooms in reserve. For any given course the shortest total times are saved, and the shortest single lap time of any race is also saved. The fastest time is saved as a ghost, a copy of the player's performance, which the player can race against later.

The VS mode involves two or more human players going head to head on a track of their choice without any computer-controlled opposition, and also feature customized rules such as team racing and item frequency.

In Battle Mode, players go head to head on one of a number of dedicated Battle Mode courses, usually designed as closed arenas. Each player starts with three balloons and loses a balloon with every hit sustained; the last player possessing at least one balloon wins. In addition to the classic battle game, different variants of this mode were added as the series progressed, including one that involves capturing a Shine Sprite and maintaining possession of it for a certain period of time; and one that involves throwing Bob-ombs at other players to earn points. Starting with Mario Kart Wii, there is a time limit for each battle. For Mario Kart 8, the battles take place on race courses.

Canceled games
At one point, there was also a game in the series planned for the Virtual Boy in 1995. Tentatively entitled VB Mario Kart, it was likely to be the first sequel to Super Mario Kart. The game was canceled due to the Virtual Boy's failure, and was never reported in the media until revealed in the August 2000 issue of German gaming magazine The Big N, along with other shelved projects for that system.

Future
A Mario Kart game for the Nintendo Switch was showcased in the console's reveal trailer, but it is currently unknown if this title will be another entry in the series or simply an enhanced port of Mario Kart 8.

Playable characters
The series has spawned a total of 44 playable drivers in the main console/handheld installments, including five third-party characters in the Arcade GP series and Miis from Mario Kart Wii and onward. If one includes the palette swaps and downloadable characters, there are 74 playable drivers in total. Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Yoshi, Toad, and Bowser are the only characters to have been playable in all titles. Also, Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Bowser are the only characters to be classified as the same weight class in every Mario Kart title, and this means Princess Peach and Yoshi are the only ones to appear in all games to switch between the weight classes in the games (they are a middleweight in all console games, excluding Mario Kart 64, and a lightweight in the handheld games and Mario Kart 64). Out of all these characters, Toad is the only one to be both a default and unlockable driver, being available from the start in all games except Mario Kart: Double Dash!!. Wario and Donkey Kong have been playable in every title since Mario Kart 64, and since then other characters have been playable in all main games after their respective Mario Kart debut, namely Princess Daisy, Rosalina, and Miis. Waluigi is the only playable character in the series to have been classified in all three weight classes (he is a middleweight in Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and Mario Kart DS, a heavyweight in Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart 8, and a lightweight in Mario Kart Arcade GP DX).

In addition, some playable characters, in addition to making their Mario Kart debut, also made their video game debut in general in some Mario Kart games. Namely, these characters are Toadette (introduced in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!), Baby Daisy (introduced in Mario Kart Wii), Baby Rosalina, and Pink Gold Peach (both introduced in Mario Kart 8).

Also, despite the name of the series, it does not exclusively feature Mario series characters as playable characters, as Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Blinky, Mametchi, R.O.B., Miis, Link, Villager, Isabelle, and Don-chan have all been playable throughout the course of the series.

Awards

 * Longest Running Kart Game Franchise - Guinness Book of World Records Gamer's Edition 2009 - 2017