Skip to main content
GamesRadar+ GamesRadar+ GamesRadar+ The Games, Movies, TV & Comics You Love
Sign in
  • View Profile
  • Sign out
flag of UK
UK
flag of US
US
flag of Canada
Canada
flag of Australia
Australia
  • Games
  • TV
  • Movies
  • Hardware
  • Video
  • News
  • Reviews
  • Guides
  • Deals
  • More
    • PS5
    • Xbox Series X
    • Nintendo Switch
    • Nintendo Switch 2
    • PC
    • Platforms
    • Tabletop Gaming
    • Comics
    • Toys & Collectibles
    • SFX
    • Newsarama
    • Retro Gamer
    • Newsletters
    • About us
    • Features
Total Film
Gaming Magazines
Gaming Magazines
Why subscribe?
  • Subscribe from just £3
  • Takes you closer to the games, movies and TV you love
  • Try a single issue or save on a subscription
  • Issues delivered straight to your door or device
From$12
View
Trending
  • Summer Game Fest
  • New games for 2025
  • Upcoming Switch 2 games
  • Switch 2 stock

Recommended reading

Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Racing Games 8 years since making the jump from Wii U to Nintendo Switch, Mario Kart 8 is more essential than ever
Several racers battle for the win in official art for Mario Kart: Double Dash
Racing Games Nintendo wasn't sure about Mario Kart: Double Dash's central 2-driver gimmick, so the devs made a single-driver version simultaneously as an "emergency escape hatch"
Mario Kart World screenshot featuring Mario and a P Switch
Super Mario Nintendo proves nothing is too niche for Mario Kart World's massive soundtrack with a remix of a drawing tutorial from a late 2000s DSi app
Switch 2 launch games: a close-up of Mario and Luigi racing each other during Mario Kart World.
Racing Games Mario Kart World review: "A glorious road trip that embraces the open road"
Princess Peach on bike with Mario and Bowser on track in backdrop.
Racing Games Mario Kart World gets my gold medal thanks to the thrilling 24-player Knockout Tour, and I can't wait for another lap
Mario Kart World screenshot
Super Mario A new Mario Kart World track remakes 1981's OG Donkey Kong with parkour that would make Titanfall 2 blush
A screenshot from Super Mario Odyssey showing Mario throwing Cappy in New Donk City.
Super Mario Spend 60 hours in Super Mario Odyssey and you'll see why it's one of the best games Nintendo has ever made
  1. Games
  2. Racing

Mario Kart 20th Anniversary - 20 reasons its lasted

Features
By Tom Goulter published 20 August 2012

Nintendo's series is 20 years old... here's 20 reasons for its staying power

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

20 reasons to love Mario Kart

20 reasons to love Mario Kart

When Nintendo released the original Super Mario Kart, it's easy to forget just how much skepticism greeted the crossover racer. Super Mario? In a kart?? It'll never catch on, said the people of 1992, before returning to proven cultural mainstays like Young MC and Sally Jessy Raphael. 20 years later, the series has become a fan favorite and an obligatory fixture in any Nintendo lineup.

In the intervening years, Pluto ceased to be a planet, Yugoslavia ceased to be a country, and Duke Nukem Forever ceased to be a game people wanted all while Mario Kart kept getting Mario Kartier than ever. How's the series remained evergreen for so long? Here's 20 things Nintendo got and keeps on getting right.

Page 1 of 22
Page 1 of 22
It invented the Mascot Racer

It invented the Mascot Racer

Before Mario Kart, racing titles were serious affairs starring manly men in strap-on sunglasses and leather racing onesies. Every car was a Porsche or Ferrari, and it wasn't uncommon for games to come boxed with a free spanner for all the fine-tuning you'd be expected to perform none of which would be visible in-game, because it was all running on technology less advanced than that found in most modern air-conditioning units. You may think we're exaggerating, but if you lived in a world where Hard Drivin' was considered impressive, you'll know what we mean.

Enter Mario Kart, which traded immersive 3D graphics for brightly-colored, high-speed cartoon fantasy. Owing more to the Super Mario series than to any given racing title (with the possible exception of Nintendo's own F-Zero), the game's inclusion of familiar characters and settings was more than a gimmick: it provided continuity for newcomers who might otherwise have passed on another racing game. That gambit would later enable series like Crash Team Racing, Sonic Drift and the upcoming LittleBigPlanet Karting.

Page 2 of 22
Page 2 of 22
It expanded Mario's horizons

It expanded Mario's horizons

You may've bought your Super Nintendo to make Mario run from left to right jumping over obstacles; but after a session or two on SMK, the possibilities seemed considerably greater. The NES era had seen Mario flirt with expanding his career options, but it was post-Kart that players got a feel for the full ambition of this hopelessly underqualified blue-collar everyman.

Suddenly Mario was sporting like nobody's business, as well as experimenting with further twists such as the Square collaboration Super Mario RPG. This newfound open-mindedness didn't always pay off (pity the kids who unwrapped Mario is Missing! expecting a new Mario World), but it readied players for even greater diversification in later eras.

Page 3 of 22
Page 3 of 22
It's what Mode 7 was good for

It's what Mode 7 was good for

The SNES' vaunted Mode 7 a hardware trick allowing backgrounds to stretch and scale in 3D space may be the missing link between old-time 2D gaming and contemporary 3D play. But for every skilful in-house use such as F-Zero or Pilotwings, players were forced to contend with dozens of third-party hit-and-misses with obligatory chunky-pixels interludes. And that's why Nintendo has never released another console based around innovative, easily-misused technology.

But it was Mario Kart that made the strongest yet case for this exclusive innovation, triggering a wave of imitations on Nintendo's and other platforms. The game's signature flattened perspective saw bulking up in later entries, but still gets a look-in via later titles' Retro Cups.

Page 4 of 22
Page 4 of 22
It reshaped the racing genre

It reshaped the racing genre

Hardcore gearheads may bristle at the idea of their game taking cues from anything as unabashedly fun as Mario Kart, but the series' influence extends far beyond primary-colored racing adventures. Mario Kart didn't invent the idea of adding pickups or offensive play to the racing genre, but it's hard to imagine series like Wip3out or Rollcage gaining traction in the PS1 era without a nod toward Nintendo's hit.

Today, even with the series' increasing embrace of party-play, serious racing titles still carry the games' influence. It was Mario Kart that got players expecting ghost data from other games' Time Trial sections, and the series' rambunctious tone has influenced self-confessed fans on the staff of games like Blur and Split/Second.

Page 5 of 22
Page 5 of 22
Not just racing

Not just racing

Sure, if you dry-heave at the mere thought of pressing a button to go fast and another one to go into a power-slide, you'll have a hard time loving Mario Kart because that's what the series is. But assuming your response is at least somewhat less extreme, don't write the games off just yet.

Outside the obvious options of solo/group race and championship play, Mario Kart's best-loved side-attraction is probably the series' Battle Mode, which has long been strong enough to support plenty of good times without even going near the proper game. Later entries have seen Battle Mode expanded with multiple play modes and increasingly imaginative course design, highlighting ideas too weird to fit onto a standard course.

Page 6 of 22
Page 6 of 22
You are your own worst enemy (apart from the dev staff)

You are your own worst enemy (apart from the dev staff)

How do you know you're really starting to feel Mario Kart? Usually it's around the time you stop watching the leader tables and start paying attention to race times. Coming in first is fine, but scraping by in .02 of a second is a heckuva thrill to say nothing of those glowing numbers that indicate you've placed a new record time.

After winning all the championships and driving friends away with your incomparable shell-avoidance techniques, Mario Kart's still packed with many hours' worth of challenge in the form of Time Trials that let the games' exacting course design shine. Later titles include records placed by the games' staff, giving habitual first-placers somewhere to go for a little humbling.

Page 7 of 22
Page 7 of 22
The world's least realistic driving sim

The world's least realistic driving sim

It's not enough that Mario Kart offers by far the most accurate simulation of what it's like to be an undead turtle driving a superpowered banana over fields of liquid magma, though let's acknowledge that accomplishment in and of itself. No, the series' real bait-and-switch is to take the controls, strategies and challenges of an exacting racing sim, then boil them down until they're brightly-colored and fit for polite public consumption.

This painstaking depth is an element not many competitors picked up on, which is why you're not playing Street Racer 7 today. If Super Mario Kart had been a moderately engaging speed-run around courses with the same color palette as Super Mario World, it would have sold comfortably and we'd all have moved on with our lives. But long-term play reveals a deceptive depth in the game's design, which set a high bar right from the series' first entry.

Page 8 of 22
Page 8 of 22
The learning curve

The learning curve

Everyone likes when a game's easy to play, hard to master but really, how difficult is that to pull off? Start with a tutorial, introduce superpowered mutants halfway through, put lots of spikes and fire in the last level boom, instant difficulty curve.

Titles that truly fulfill the promise of easing players in and gradually ramping up the challenge are a little harder to list. But if your game lets first-time racers scrape by with a placement on their premiere race, even while continuing to pose higher-level challenges for veteran players, then it's probably doing something right.

Page 9 of 22
Page 9 of 22
The hidden bits

The hidden bits

It wouldn't be a proper racing game if players could just sneak past half the obstacles but it wouldn't be a proper Mario game if there weren't at least a few opportunities to show off your course-smarts. Accordingly, all the way back to the SNES original, the series has rewarded observant players (ahem, and those able to read an FAQ) with the odd well-placed secret.

Sometimes it's the alternate route for skilled players only; other times it's a shortcut that can only be accessed with the right item, such as SMK's abandoned (and otherwise useless) Feather. The series' tricks and shortcuts aren't liable to turn a dunce into a winner but they can make placing first feel that much more hard-earned.

Page 10 of 22
Page 10 of 22
Backwards and forwards, all at once

Backwards and forwards, all at once

Nintendo's often accused of coasting on past glories, usually by people who've never even had the option of just selling A Link to the Past to everyone on Earth three times over then putting their feet up, so who's to say they'd do any better? But anyway, Nintendo has had that option, and yet the company keeps on getting the balance between novelty and nostalgia just right at least within the Mario Kart series.

The series' accumulated roster of courses mean new titles will typically feature a game's worth of new tracks, plus just as many reimagined arenas from previous titles. It's a great way of getting veterans and newcomers quickly onside that, and...

Page 11 of 22
Page 11 of 22
The pickup you love to hate

The pickup you love to hate

Because Nintendo's a responsible provider of entertainment media, it has to give you a reason to turn the game off sooner or later. The first Mario Kart lacked such an element, which is why nothing of any consequence happened for several months in 1992; fearing crisis, the world's leaders had Nintendo invent the Blue Shell, arguably the single most recognizable piece of crummy game design ever not to be a crate.

Everyone hates the Blue Shell, whose function is to zoom from the rear to the front of the pack and handicap the racers furthest ahead of the pack. An element only rewarded to losers, and designed to target only winners? Why, it's the closest thing videogames have to Socialism! (With the possible exception of Civ V's Socialism perk). Some of us don't actually have a big problem with the item... but then some of us are just really good at maintaining a decent lead, apparently.

Page 12 of 22
Page 12 of 22
It gets online play right

It gets online play right

Oh Nintendo, with your maverick Internet strategy, and your continued insistence that online play ain't all that, and your goldurn gosh-falutin' Friend Codes. There are probably children on the Internet who've been saved from pervert-abduction specifically because their console uses Friend Codes, and even those kids hate Nintendo's online policies. You know, except for Mario Kart.

Yep, playing Nintendo games without a simple XBLA/PSN-style meetup service is a bitch... except for Mario Kart. And entering Friend Codes to prove (somehow) that you didn't just meet someone on a forum is a trial... except for Mario Kart. It's not that Nintendo's bad at online play; it's just that the company's set up a perfect network for playing Mario Kart on, and then made the mistake of trying to add some other games.

Page 13 of 22
Page 13 of 22
The B-list

The B-list

As the series grows, Nintendo's kept adding larger rosters and increasing the emphasis on lesser-known characters. Which is great if you're pursuing a doctorate in Mushroom Kingdom Geopolitics, but also a bonus for players who get a kick out of winning championships with gaming's first confirmed transsexual.

Besides these debatable gains, the series' emphasis on bit-characters allows for an ever-growing list of character-themed stages. You may be lukewarm on Wario and Waluigi, but if it weren't for those lovable crypto-fascists, we wouldn't have Waluigi Stadium. Fair trade! Maybe.

Page 14 of 22
Page 14 of 22
It's always a flagship title

It's always a flagship title

Statistically speaking, if you had a SNES, you most likely bought it for Street Fighter 2 or Mario World. And statistically speaking, if you had an N64, you probably bought it for Mario 64. But practically speaking, if you had any Nintendo console, you probably bought it because sooner or later it would have Mario Kart and you knew that deal was going to blow up large.

Mario Kart 7's arguably the hardest Nintendo's pushed a Kart title yet, positioning the game as the 3DS' first must-have original. That'll be why our Mario Kart 7 review said the game was single-handedly worth the asking price of the console itself. Many would say the same of the DS, Wii and Gamecube iterations. Hell, if you find a SNES in a thrift store with SMK super-glued into the slot, that deal's still going to blow up large.

Page 15 of 22
Page 15 of 22
Charles Martinet gots bills to pay

Charles Martinet gots bills to pay

You know Charles Martinet: he's the squeaky-voiced Nash Bridges bit-player who's been voicing Mario since the N64. But whereas Chruzu-San's debut contribution was limited to a few well-placed yips and cheers, it's the Kart series that's allowed the voice of Mario to really flesh out his assigned characters.

While platforming doesn't tend to offer much in the way of opportunities for self-expression, put Nintendo's creations into go-karts and watch them become quite the little gang of gasbags. Suddenly it's number-a one this and next tiiime! that, and all manner of cutesy little vocal grabs that've become catchphrases among fans and presumably a new wing on Casa de Martinet.

Page 16 of 22
Page 16 of 22
Consistent variety

Consistent variety

The Mario Kart series began in the Super Mario World era, and has continued to take cues from 20 years' worth of new titles. Racing on courses from and inspired by Mario 64, Sunshine and the like has provided narrative continuity for players who (for whatever reason) demand internal consistency from their games about talking fungi and evil croco-dino-turtle-things.

It's also worth noting, though, just how well the series has managed to retain the feel of specific course families. Later entries in the series have plenty of elements that couldn't be dreamed of on the SNES or GBA and yet the new additions to existing locations manage to feel true to the 1992 originals. Bowser's Castle's still lined with infuriating stone walls, Mario Circuit's still tight but fair, and...

Page 17 of 22
Page 17 of 22
Rainbow Road's still madness-inducing-tastic

Rainbow Road's still madness-inducing-tastic

The first time you unlocked Rainbow Road, you were probably pleasantly surprised, followed quickly by daunted, followed soon afterward by disappointed at spending most of your time falling off the track and placing last.

And whatever MK game you played most recently, unlocking Rainbow Road probably came as less of a surprise but once that's out of the way, odds are you still spent most of the race falling off the track and marveling at how far you'd overestimated your own expertise. No matter how welcoming and party-friendly Mario Kart gets, by the time you're racing the game's final track, you'll be hard-pressed to deny the series' consistent challenge.

Page 18 of 22
Page 18 of 22
Party play

Party play

If we had a dollar for every time someone complained about MK's "rubberband AI" and rigged matches, we'd have... considerably less money than the company that gets $40 every time someone decides those things really aren't deal-breakers. Sure, it's galling for a veteran player to lose the pole position to a first-timer on a run of good pickups. And yet, for every guilty leg-up or frustrating, transparently rigged match, somehow the true talent finds a way of rising to the top over time. Just like America.

Besides, if you're playing a game where a talking mushroom shoots fireballs at a monkey driving a turbo-powered baby carriage, you're probably open to the idea that videogames should be fun. Mario Kart with a roomful of mixed-skill players might not be the most exacting of competitive challenges, but it's certainly fun, provided we've roughly the same definition of that word.

Page 19 of 22
Page 19 of 22
It's still what Nintendo does well

It's still what Nintendo does well

Nintendo's gone through a lot in the 20 years since Mario Kart's release - including successes, missteps, infuriating mishandlings and deft reinventions of its considerable backlog of properties. But throughout it all, the company's kept on making machines you can play Mario Kart on, and it's kept on making Mario Kart games to play on them.

Naysayers may argue that you're always going to be doing the same thing: driving around colored courses picking things up and swearing at talking monkeys. But besides trying new tricks every time, we're also talking about a series that invented a new genre in its first iteration; you can forgive subsequent games for sticking to the formula somewhat.

Page 20 of 22
Page 20 of 22
We just can't quit

We just can't quit

By this point in our lives, it's just a bit late not to be loving Mario Kart. The series has had ample opportunity to disappoint and it's never done so, incorporating even the silliest of innovations with skill and panache. You'd be hard-pressed to find a series that's been running this long without the occasional notorious misstep. Witness Hotel Mario, Zelda: The Wand of Gamelan or Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest.

But the simple fact is that in 20 years, no one's ever made a crap game with Mario Kart in the title, and no one's done Mario Kart like Mario Kart does. Here's to another 20 years of selling systems, challenging players, and refusing time after time to finally just man up and take that damn Blue Shell off the items list...

Page 21 of 22
Page 21 of 22
Not to mention...

Not to mention...

So that's 20 of the things we love about Mario Kart - but if we were the only ones playing for these last two decades, it'd be a pretty lonely fan club. Have you, by chance, enjoyed the series for reasons not covered in our far-from-exhaustive love letter?

Or maybe you're one of those readers, and you think we've been a little too effusive? Or, ahem, let certain powerups off the hook a little easy? Alternatively, maybe you just have a really good lap-time you'd like to share with us. In any case, let's hear from you.

We're-a Gamesradar! We're-a gonna win! At, um, reading your comments.

Page 22 of 22
Page 22 of 22
CATEGORIES
Wii-u Nintendo Platforms
PRODUCTS
Mario Kart 7 Mario Kart DS Mario Kart Wii Super Mario Kart Mario Kart: Double Dash!! Mario Kart 64 Mario Kart Super Circuit (Advance)
Tom Goulter
See more Nintendo Features
Read more
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
8 years since making the jump from Wii U to Nintendo Switch, Mario Kart 8 is more essential than ever
Several racers battle for the win in official art for Mario Kart: Double Dash
Nintendo wasn't sure about Mario Kart: Double Dash's central 2-driver gimmick, so the devs made a single-driver version simultaneously as an "emergency escape hatch"
Mario Kart World screenshot featuring Mario and a P Switch
Nintendo proves nothing is too niche for Mario Kart World's massive soundtrack with a remix of a drawing tutorial from a late 2000s DSi app
Switch 2 launch games: a close-up of Mario and Luigi racing each other during Mario Kart World.
Mario Kart World review: "A glorious road trip that embraces the open road"
Princess Peach on bike with Mario and Bowser on track in backdrop.
Mario Kart World gets my gold medal thanks to the thrilling 24-player Knockout Tour, and I can't wait for another lap
Mario Kart World screenshot
A new Mario Kart World track remakes 1981's OG Donkey Kong with parkour that would make Titanfall 2 blush
Latest in Racing
Bee Wario pops a trick off Crown City Bridge in Mario Kart World
Nintendo has made my biggest problem with Mario Kart World even worse
Jet The Hawk, Shadow The Hedgehog, Sonic The Hedgehog, Knuckles The Echidna, Eggman, and Tails The Fox race towards us on a variety of vehicles in Sonic Racing CrossWorlds, emerging from ring portals depicting various levels from Sonic history
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds is getting Minecraft characters and Hatsune Miku to make sure people are "not just playing it when it comes out, having fun, and that being it"
Mario Kart 64
Not stopping with WipeOut or Doom 64, this prolific Dreamcast modder is bringing Mario Kart 64 to Sega's long-forgotten console
Mario Kart World P Switch
All P-Switch locations and missions in Mario Kart World
Sonic Racing CrossWorlds
"It looks like Nintendo did a good job" – Sonic boss Takashi Iizuka says Mario Kart World looks more like an action game, whereas Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds "really" focuses on racing and competitive play
Mario Kart World Switch 2 screenshot showing Princess Peach taking the lead on a bike
Best Mario Kart world setup to win at any cc
Latest in Features
Sean Gunn as Maxwell Lord in Peacemaker season 2 trailer
Maxwell Lord - The comic history of the villain who mind-controlled Superman and almost destroyed the Justice League
Hades 2 announcement trailer
70 hours later and with a full launch imminent, I already miss Hades 2 being in Early Access
Toothless, Miles Morales' Mask, Battle Droid with STAP, and Nike Dunk sets divided from each other by white lines, with a 'GamesRadar+ New Lego' badge in the middle
New Lego sets for July 2025, including the perfect gift I think fans will go nuts for
Jan sadly presses a hand on a screen that says 'deceased' in The Alters
The Alters has changed the way I play games for the better, and after 18 years I can finally finish Mass Effect
Sam balances across a ladder high up in the mountains in Death Stranding 2
Death Stranding 2 is my favorite online game this year, even though you never directly see any other players
Lee Jung-jae as Gi-hun in Squid Game season 3
The Squid Game season 3 finale is a crushing but ultimately hopeful conclusion – and I wouldn't have it any other way
  1. Sam fires at the ghost mech squid boss in Death Stranding 2: On the Beach
    1
    Death Stranding 2: On the Beach review: "This tarpunk delivery epic is more Metal Gear Solid than ever, for better and worse"
  2. 2
    Rematch review: "As with Rocket League, the just-one-more-game pull is magnetic"
  3. 3
    Tron: Catalyst review: "Disc slinging is a thrill in this gorgeous rendition of the series, but I'm let down by a time-loop story that falls flat"
  4. 4
    FBC: Firebreak review: "A disappointingly bland multiplayer FPS that's missing far too much of what made Control special"
  5. 5
    Dune: Awakening review: "Both extremely compelling and extraordinarily boring, sometimes at the same time – yet still a true Dune love letter"
  1. A T-rex in Jurassic World Rebirth
    1
    Jurassic World Rebirth Review: "An unscary sequel that needed a little more time in amber"
  2. 2
    M3GAN 2.0 review: "A bold sequel with a slightly underwhelming conclusion"
  3. 3
    28 Years Later Review: "Enough terror, splatter and suspense to satisfy”
  4. 4
    Predator: Killer of Killers review: "Great characters, thrilling action, and gorgeous Arcane-esque animation"
  5. 5
    From the World of John Wick: Ballerina review: "Brilliant action, even if the plot gives you a sense of déjà vu"
  1. Lee Jung-jae as Gi-hun in Squid Game season 3
    1
    Squid Game season 3 review: "A staggeringly excellent final season wraps up one of the greatest Netflix shows ever"
  2. 2
    Ironheart review: "A relic of Marvel's content-at-all-costs era"
  3. 3
    Star Trek: Strange New Worlds season 3 review: "The show's most assured run of episodes to date"
  4. 4
    Doctor Who season 2, episode 8 spoiler review: 'The Reality War' is "a mix of the good, the bad, and the truly baffling"
  5. 5
    Doctor Who season 2, episode 7 spoiler review: 'Wish World' is "an exciting and ambitious" start to the season finale, with hints of WandaVision

GamesRadar+ is part of Future US Inc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Advertise with us
  • Review guidelines
  • Write for us
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future US, Inc. Full 7th Floor, 130 West 42nd Street, New York, NY 10036.

Please login or signup to comment

Please wait...