Super Mario Kart

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Template:Infobox Super Mario Kart is a racing game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System released in 1992 and re-released in 1996 as the Player's Choice. It is also released in Japan on June 9, 2009 as a Virtual Console, but as of yet it has'nt been released on VC in the United States, Europe or Australia. It was the first game in the Mario Kart series, and the game that popularized the kart racing style of video game. It spawned many imitators that tried to emulate the Mario Kart formula of simple, fast-paced racing with a focus on traps and items, such as Sonic Riders or Crash Tag Team Racing, but none have been as successful as the Mario Kart series.

Characters

As well as the eight playable drivers, various other Mario series characters appear in Super Mario Kart. Thwomps, Piranha Plants, Monty Moles and Cheep-cheeps are enemies that serve as obstacles in certain tracks, and Boos appear in the background of other tracks, as well as serving as a usable item.

As stated in the Super Mario Kart manual, Lakitu is the owner of the Super Mario Kart Race Track, and as such, he oversees all races. He holds up the starting signal and various other signs, and for the price of two Coins, he uses his fishing rod to lift any fallen drivers back onto the racetrack.

Drivers

Super Mario Kart has eight available drivers, divided into statistically identical pairs of two. These four categories have no official name, but are referred in the manual as different classes. Later Mario Kart titles categorize characters into weight classes to organize their stats.

The Drivers
The Small Guys These characters have very good steering, but only average acceleration and average top speed. They also get bumped around a lot, because of their low weight.	File:MKTroopa.PNG The Koopa Troopa is one of the basic enemies introduced in Super Mario Bros.. When the computer uses him, he will sometimes throw Green Shells towards the player. Super Mario Kart is, apart from Mario Kart: Double Dash!! and Mario Kart Wii, the only game where the player or the CPU can drive with a Koopa Troopa.	File:MKToad.PNG Toad is also another character introduced in Super Mario Bros, and one of few friendly characters from those events. When the computer uses Toad, he will sometimes throw mushrooms in front of the player that will make him or her shrink if he or she collides into them.
The Dragon and the Lady These characters have excellent acceleration, average handling, and medium weight, but suffer from poor top speed.	File:MKToadstool.PNG Princess Toadstool was also introduced in Super Mario Brothers. She is the princess of the Mushroom Kingdom. When the computer uses her, she will sometimes throw mushrooms at that player to make him or her shrink.	File:MKYoshi.PNG Yoshi is a friendly green dinosaur-like creature, first introduced in Super Mario World. When the computer uses him, he will sometimes throw eggs at the player.
The Bros. These characters are average in all areas.	File:MKMario.PNG Mario is the main hero of the Mario series, first introduced in Donkey Kong. When the computer uses him, he will sometimes use Star power (invincibility).	File:MKLuigi.PNG Mario's much less famous brother, who first appeared in the game Mario Brothers as a pallete swap for use as a second player in multiplayer games. When the computer uses him, he will sometimes use Star power (invincibility).
The Showdown These characters have the highest top speed and heaviest weight, but suffer from poor acceleration and poor control.	File:MKBowser.PNG Bowser is another character introduced in Super Mario Brothers, and the game's main villain, as well as the villain of most games in the Mario series. When the computer uses him, he will sometimes throw lava balls at the player.	File:DKJRMK.PNG Donkey Kong Jr. is the son of Donkey Kong and one of the more obscure characters in the series. He made his debut in his self-titled game. When the computer uses him, he will sometimes throw bananas at the player.

Character attributes

Drivers		Acceleration	Top Speed	Weight	Handling
Koopa Troopa	Toad	Medium	Medium	Low	High
Princess Toadstool	Yoshi	High	Low	Medium	Medium
Mario	Luigi	Medium	Medium	Medium	Medium
Bowser	Donkey Kong Jr.	Low	High	High	Low

Courses

• * Represents a course that reappeared in Mario Kart DS's retro cups.
• ** Represents a course that reappeared in Mario Kart Wii's retro cups.

File:MarioCircuit1SMK.png

Yoshi in the very first Mario Kart track in the series, Mario Circuit 1.

Mushroom Cup

• Mario Circuit 1*
• Donut Plains 1*
• Ghost Valley 1
• Bowser Castle 1
• Mario Circuit 2

Flower Cup

• Choco Island 1
• Ghost Valley 2**
• Donut Plains 2
• Bowser Castle 2
• Mario Circuit 3**

Star Cup

• Koopa Beach 1
• Choco Island 2*
• Vanilla Lake 1
• Bowser Castle 3
• Mario Circuit 4

Special Cup

Only available in 100cc and 150cc

• Donut Plains 3
• Koopa Beach 2*
• Ghost Valley 3
• Vanilla Lake 2
• Rainbow Road

Rivals

Mario, after winning a race.

Super Mario Kart has a different rival system from the rest of the series; the rivals contain one very fast driver, one fast driver, one medium driver, one slower driver and three very slow drivers. It is notable that when one of the three slower drivers gets hit, that kart will keep its place while when one of the faster cars gets shot, it will usually resume its previous place very quickly unless unable to catch up fast enough before the race ends. For this reason, the drivers (except the human racer) will (if uneffected) always finish in the exact same order.

The rivals for each driver is always the same, the list will be in the order the line up for the first race. It is possible to change the order if the rivals can't recover their place at the end, (Eg. If someone is playing as Luigi and Yoshi finishes last, Yoshi will then become one of the three slower drivers while everybody takes the next position up)

The rivals are determined by the current points standing, meaning that if Yoshi was still only second to the player, he will boost back to first position from the start.

Character	Rival Order
Mario	DK Jr, Toadstool, Yoshi, Luigi, Toad, Bowser, Koopa
Luigi	Yoshi, Mario, Bowser, Koopa, Toadstool, DK Jr, Toad
Toadstool	Bowser, Toad, Mario, DK Jr, Luigi, Yoshi, Koopa
Yoshi	Koopa, DK Jr, Toadstool, Bowser, Mario, Toad, Luigi
Bowser	Mario, Luigi, Toadstool, Yoshi, DK Jr, Toad, Koopa
DK Jr	Toad, Bowser, Koopa, Luigi, Toadstool, Mario, Yoshi
Koopa	Luigi, Yoshi, Toadstool, Mario, Bowser, DK Jr, Toad
Toad	Toadstool, DK Jr, Mario, Yoshi, Luigi, Koopa, Bowser

Trivia

• In the manual, the picture for Mario Circuit 1 is upside down.
• All 20 of the courses appeared in Mario Kart: Super Circuit, but all of their track hazards have been removed, Item Boxes are at different places than where ? Panels laid, and some tracks changed a little. The music for all tracks were remixed to make the music sound exactly the same.
• The game was placed 32nd in the 100th issue of Nintendo Power's "100 best Nintendo games of all time" in 1997.

References

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