Mario Kart

Mario Kart is a series of kart racing games developed and published primarily by Nintendo as a spin-off of its flagship Super Mario franchise.¹³ The series was inaugurated in 1992 with Super Mario Kart for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, a game that was both critically and commercially successful.¹³ By the time of its sixteenth title there had been ten main entries, a home console port, four arcade games, a mobile game, and an RC-based game.¹³ The games have sold a combined total of over 150 million copies worldwide.¹³

Origins

The modern series traces its spiritual origins to the Famicom Grand Prix games, released for the Japan-only Family Computer Disk System add-on, which were the first Nintendo racing games to feature Mario as a player character.¹³ The immediate impetus came after the Japanese launch of F-Zero, a single-player-only SNES racing game, when Nintendo developers decided to create a two-player racing game for the console as a follow-up.¹³²³ They built a prototype featuring a generic “guy in overalls”; the team decided to incorporate Super Mario characters after adding Mario driving a kart out of curiosity about how it would look, and were satisfied with the result.¹³²¹ Development of the first game was overseen by Shigeru Miyamoto, then general manager of Nintendo’s EAD division.¹³ To get the game’s feel right, Miyamoto and his team spent time at go-kart raceways studying how the karts moved through the tracks.⁷

Super Mario Kart was conceived as a lighter alternative to F-Zero, emphasizing casual multiplayer rather than the latter’s faster single-player experience.⁷ Released on the SNES on August 27, 1992, it became the third bestselling title on the system.¹³⁷ Beyond its Grand Prix mode, its most notable feature was a multiplayer Battle Mode in which two players tried to pop balloons attached to each other’s karts by firing shells.⁷ The game’s power-ups, tracks, and characters drew on familiar elements from Super Mario World.⁷

Gameplay

Players compete in go-kart races across single-player and multiplayer modes, controlling one of a selection of Super Mario characters.¹³ Originally eight characters could compete in each race; this was raised to twelve in Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart 8, and to twenty-four in Mario Kart World.¹³ Question-mark item boxes arrayed on courses dispense items such as the Dash Mushroom, which gives a speed boost; Koopa Shells, offensive projectiles that stun targets; Banana Peels, dropped onto the road as obstacles; and the Super Star, which renders the user temporarily invulnerable.¹³ The type of item received is influenced by a player’s position: those lagging behind receive more powerful items while the leader receives small defensive ones, a catch-up mechanic designed to give other players a chance to overtake the leader.¹³ The series also features maneuvers including drifting (or power-sliding) and hopping, and later games introduced new vehicle types such as standard bikes, sport bikes, and ATVs.¹³

Console evolution

Mario Kart 64, first released in Japan on December 14, 1996, and in the United States on February 10, 1997, was the series’ first sequel.⁷⁴ Originally known as Super Mario Kart R, it was shown at the 1995 Shoshinkai Software Exhibition and had been intended for the N64 launch line-up; Miyamoto pulled developers off the project to finish Super Mario 64 in time, delaying it.⁷ The game moved courses into 3D, with hills, ramps, and slopes replacing the flat 2D walls of its predecessor, while characters and items remained 2D sprites.⁴ It introduced four-player racing and added Wario and Donkey Kong to the roster.¹⁵⁴ Its tracks took visual cues from Super Mario 64, including a detour on “Royal Raceway” leading to Princess Peach’s castle.⁷

Subsequent entries appeared on nearly every Nintendo console: Mario Kart: Super Circuit on Game Boy Advance in 2001, the double-manned Mario Kart: Double Dash!! on GameCube in 2003, and Mario Kart DS in 2005.¹⁵³

Mario Kart 8 launched for the Wii U in 2014 and was praised for its presentation and orchestrated soundtrack.² Its enhanced port, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, was released for the Nintendo Switch on April 28, 2017.²⁹ The Deluxe version included 48 courses and 42 characters—the largest roster in the series—added newcomers such as Bowser Jr. and the Inklings from Splatoon, and introduced a 200cc speed class along with a revamped Battle Mode of five objective-based modes including Balloon Battle, Shine Thief, Bob-omb Blast, Coin Runners, and Renegade Roundup.²²⁰ From March 2022 the game received the Booster Course Pass, six waves of eight remastered courses each drawn from earlier Mario Kart games and priced at $24.99.³ Wave 4 added Birdo as the first new DLC character, with five further mystery character slots appearing in the select screen.⁵

A free-to-start mobile entry, Mario Kart Tour, launched in 2019, featuring courses inspired by real-world cities rotating in tours every two weeks alongside classic Mario Kart courses.¹⁴

Mario Kart World and the Switch 2

Mario Kart World launched exclusively for the Nintendo Switch 2 on June 5, 2025, the same day as the console.¹⁶⁶ It supports up to 24 drivers in each race, the most in series history and double the limit of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which allowed up to twelve.¹⁶⁶ The game lets players drive off the racetrack and explore a connected open world, and introduces a Knockout Tour mode in which racers progress through back-to-back courses, eliminating those below a placement threshold at each checkpoint, as well as a Free Roam mode for exploring and taking photos.¹⁶¹⁸

Legacy

Super Mario Kart was credited with inventing its own subgenre of kart racing games, prompting many other franchises—including Sonic the Hedgehog, Crash Bandicoot, and South Park—to put their characters into go-karts.⁷ Its success encouraged Nintendo to experiment with using its characters in other genres beyond platforming.⁷ The series has been referenced in the Paper Mario role-playing games and inspired several stages in the Super Smash Bros. fighting games.¹³ In the Guinness World Records 2009 Gamer’s Edition, a judging panel ranked Super Mario Kart the most influential console game of all time, placing it ahead of Tetris and Grand Theft Auto, citing its standing as the best-selling racer on the SNES, GameCube, and DS.¹¹⁰