The colorful sprites resemble the classic Super Mario World, in the sense that they look more cartoony than pixelated and the colors on each character and track really stand out. Any player looking past that though, will find an extremely fast and fun game that lays the ground work for future titles in the series.įor starters, Super Mario Kart is one of the better looking games on the system.
It only has a few modes, like Mario Kart GP, Time Trial and Battle Mode. The first Mario Kart may seem primitive and even a little too basic when compared to the other games. The demo was soon built upon that, and that random dude became Mario. When creating the demo, Nintendo used a generic guy dressed in overalls as a basic character. Super Mario Kart actually started out as a tech demo for what could have been a two player F-Zero, which was a single player only racing game that was also a launch title for the SNES. Released: Aug(Japan), Septem(United States), (Player’s Choice), J(Wii Virtual Console Japan), Novem(Wii Virtual Console United States), J(Wii U Virtual Console) Systems: Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Wii Virtual Console, Wii U Virtual Console (Japan, Europe, and Australia only) That is not including the three arcade installments that are exceptionally rare to find in the United States.
The series started on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and has had one installment on each major Nintendo console and handheld system since then. 3 and even Funky Kong from Donkey Kong Country! The characters that are included either range from the typical, like Mario himself (shocking, that he would be playable in all of the games), his brother Luigi, Princess Peach and Bowser, to the obscure like the Koopa Kids from Super Mario Bros. It may seem simple and easy, but it does lead to absolute craziness if played well. Everyone has three hits on them, represented by balloons, and has to try and eliminate the other player, or players, before they do. The levels have all kinds of items and weapons strewn about, so there is never a shortage of them. The battle mode has players fighting on either a single plane track or a multi-level one. There is a typical versus mode, where up to four players race each other on a circuit or on one track, or there is the always popular battle mode. The inclusion of items can either result in pure strategy or pure chaos.Īs fun as the circuit mode can be for a single player, it is the amount of multi-player modes are what, arguably, makes Mario Kart as popular as it is. You could be in first place and next thing you know it, and then BOOM, a blue Koopa Troopa shell hits you and ruins your chances of winning. It’s easier said than done though, as you and the other racers have all kinds of weapons and items to help them out. In order to win, the player must obtain the most amount of points possible over the course of the tracks. The player must try to place as high as possible in the race to earn a certain amount of points. Each game contains a circuit, usually called Mario Kart GP/Mario GP/Grand Prix mode, in which the player selects one of the many characters in the Mushroom Kingdom and then race on four to five different tracks. What can be said about Mario Kart games that has not already been said? The easy to learn controls? The always modifying and inventive tracks? The massive amount of kooky fun characters and karts to race in? The ridiculous and hilariously fun multi-player? Or is it the overall great quality of the games, despite the fact that the core concept in each game has not changed entirely? Part of the reason why Mario Kart is such a popular series is its consistency with all of the factors above.Īt their core, the Mario Kart games are very simple arcade style racing games.
One of the original Mario sub-series to take off is the Mario Kart series. The Mario Tennis and Mario Golf series showed that arcade fun can be brought to country club sports. The Mario Party games have been addicting groups of gamers for more than ten years now with their simplistic, yet highly competitive, button mashing mini games.
Nintendo’s biggest name has been in so many games that those games have their own separate series. Much like Superman is with comic books and Bugs Bunny is with cartoons, Mario is synonymous with video games. He is seen nearly everywhere, has starred and appeared over a hundred different games, and is the first thing most people think of when talking about video games. Mario is a character that needs no major introduction.