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Wednesday, October 7, 2020

Super Mario Kart

John B. Marine | 12:57 PM | |
The Mario Kart series is one of the most successful racing game franchises in gaming history, and it all began with Super Mario Kart in 1992. This game helped pave the way for not only this franchise, but also other Mode 7 racing titles. This blog post will be my look at the game that began the rise of one of the most successful racing game franchises of all time- Super Mario Kart.

The following blog post is NOT a review of Super Mario Kart.






Super Mario Kart


SNES Mario Kart
^ from: (Mobygames - best I could find) - Super Mario Kart is an iconic racing game for a lot of reasons.

"Super Mario Kart" was not the first Mode 7 racing game, but it surely is more popular than its godfather, "F-Zero." "Super Mario Kart" was released two years after F-Zero and delivers a much more different experience than what F-Zero had to offer. The game takes place in the colorful world of Super Mario World. The goal is simple- get out there and win races! The tracks along with the action that takes place on these tracks made Super Mario Kart a very fun racing game. The venues range from proper racing circuits to tracks in totally unreal and dangerous locations. There may be some shortcuts to some tracks should you have a keen eye to find them. You won't be penalized for taking shortcuts or cheating, so you may want to look for any means to win!

You may choose to either run the Grand Prix or compete in Time Trials. The former is the main area of the game, and the latter will take you for solo hot lapping sessions around a track. More powerful engine displacement mean the karts will be faster. Choose any of the game's eight characters for which to race around the game's courses with. Be mindful that each character is of a specific class. Mario and Luigi are the most balanced characters. Light characters, like Toad, can run faster than most other characters, but they can easily be knocked around by heavier characters. Heavy characters, like Bowser/Koopa, are slower than everyone else, but they can not be phased by lighter racers.

You can then select any of the game's three Cups in Grand Prix mode. You have a number of chances to clear each round of each Cup. Be sure not to overrev your engine at the start of the race. Drive over coins for slight boosts in speed, and drive over the question mark boxes to access various items to help you or harm others. You must finish 4th or better to advance. If you fail to finish 4th or better, you can use any of your chances. If you run out of chances and fail to advance, you must retire from the Cup. Try to go for the Gold! If you manage to clear all three Cups, you will get to race the Special Cup with the game's toughest races awaiting you- including the infamous Rainbow Road.


The Importance of Super Mario Kart.

Super Mario Kart is a very fun and engaging racing game. While it does deliver its fair share of amazing racing action, this game basically defined a sub-genre of racing games. It defined the cartoonish kart racing genre. A game like this is completely arcade and fast-paced. Such games do not pride themselves on precision driving or advanced driving dynamics. The tracks were also not as difficult or as detailed. For many people, these are racing games most people can enjoy without being true "racing game fans." Simply put, this is foolish fun.

The fact "Super Mario Kart" features such unrealistic racing means almost any developer can make a racing game offering the same kind of action "Super Mario Kart" provides. In fact, many future racing games in the vein of "Super Mario Kart" were born to try to offer arcade-style kart racing. Lots of other racing games in the future would take advantage of cartoon-style atmospheres in addition to wild and wacky characters and locales.

As for the Mario series itself, "Super Mario Kart" only enhances and expands the appeal of the Mario series by offering a unique category within the Mario series. The Mario series is already known for great platforming. All "Super Mario Kart" does is expand its appeal with a new genre. It does so while also offering a category of racing game that appeals even to those not into racing in general. Future Mario Kart games only enhance what "Super Mario Kart" was capable of and takes things to new levels. Many more tracks and characters would come about along with a handful of new items to increase the frenzied racing action. Some would argue that with future iterations of the Mario Kart series, the future titles would be marred for having rubber band AI that makes playing the game less fun and makes you seem punished for actually being good. The Mario Kart series, however, still remains fun and enjoyable. Even recently (as of October 7, 2020), there was the announcement of "Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit," which basically brings the insanity of Mario Kart to your home or building! This series is still going strong and very much alive and well.

IN CASE YOU'RE INTERESTED: You can learn more about "Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit" here: Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit - Official Size.

Much like how Gran Turismo became the standard for racing games of a simulation nature, the Mario Kart series would be the standard of the kart racing genre. Future series and games in the vein of Super Mario Kart are very varied. There would be future titles such as (but not limited to) Wacky Wheels (PC), Skunny Kart (PC), Motor Toon Grand Prix, Diddy Kong Racing, Crash Team Racing, ModNation Racers, Sonic Racing All-Stars, SuperTuxKart, and more.


With this perspective offered, allow me to offer you some final thoughts on Super Mario Kart.




Super Mario Kart - Final Thoughts


"Super Mario Kart" is a genre-defining racing game that took the Mario series into a new light and provided a new experience in its time. Even today, it remains one of the best-ever racing games along with being part of one of the best racing game franchises in gaming history. Its unique and fun racing action makes it a can't-miss racing game to play. Its appeal would spark its own sub-genre of racing games that still makes it as amazing to play while also giving casual racing game fans something to be a part of the racing game genre without being totally committed to it. "Super Mario Kart" also helped expand the Mario series of games to include a new way to get engaged to the Mario series. Later in its time, it would be one of the many Super Nintendo titles to carry the "Greatest Hits" gold badging as one of the greatest Super Nintendo titles of all time. So this is a once-in-a-generation, genre-defining game. All future Mario Kart titles would only expand and enhance the series to its current highly-successful level.


I tried to find a brief video to showcase "Super Mario Kart," but I couldn't find anything. So I'm afraid I will leave you only with thoughts on Super Mario Kart.





Keep racing on, racing game fans! :) Thank you for reading! Take care and be well.

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