Super Mario Kart

Moby ID: 6590
SNES Specs
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Description official descriptions

A collection of Super Mario characters, including Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Peach, Bowser and Donkey Kong Jr., are out to win the Super Mario Kart championship. Using Mode 7 scaling, the first true kart game on the SNES has you collecting coins to boost your speed while using shells and bananas to stop others on the track.

There are 4 cups in all to race for, Mushroom Cup, Flower Cup, Star Cup and Special Cup, each with a selection of tracks to race on (based in Bowser's Castle, Super Mario World and more). Plus, a 2 player battle mode is on offer, where the first to pop the three balloons wins.

Spellings

  • スーパーマリオカート - Japanese spelling
  • 슈퍼 마리오 카트 - Korean spelling

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Credits (SNES version)

14 People

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 90% (based on 37 ratings)

Players

Average score: 4.1 out of 5 (based on 206 ratings with 3 reviews)

Who could help but love this game?

The Good
This is a great game to sit down and challenge yourself or challenge a friend. Such a great game to get your adreneline going. It has alot of good tracks and all characters are different, each having there own pro's and con's. It is really cool how you can get power-ups and weapons. It's a lot of fun to launch shells into the 1st place racer and then take the lead.

The Bad
This game really should have been 1-4 players. I mean 2 is great and all but 4 would have really made this game better.

The Bottom Line
Really fun game that almost everybody can appreciate.

SNES · by DudeOfMonson (97) · 2007

This game is all about fun...

The Good
Just plain fun to play with. All modes are extremely enjoyable and make for weeks, even months of fresh gameplay. Hot-seat battle mode is highly recommended.

The Bad
The AI is very limited and on higher difficulty settings it becomes obvious that it's cheating. Race results appear to be preset, which is absurd and often very frustating. Graphics and sound are only average, but they're secondary issues.

The Bottom Line
One of the best titles for the SNES, and still today one of the most funny hot-seat videogames around.

SNES · by tbuteler (3021) · 2003

Classic,truly classic!

The Good
The fun element,for example, the battle mode where you take on a friend is great fun. The courses are all excellent, and quite challenging too, and of course fun. Its a game you cant put down, and is still fun today, one of the main reasons in having a SNES still is to play this.

The Bad
Sometimes the AI of the game gets annoying, it seemed like whenever Luigi was behind me, he'd get a star so be able to over take me, but apart from that, I can find little to fault this excellent game

The Bottom Line
cute karting classic that has stood the test of time

SNES · by Big C (56) · 2003

Trivia

1001 Video Games

The SNES version of Super Mario Kart appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Innovation

Super Mario Kart is often credited with inventing the kart racing genre.

Japanese version

In the original Japanese version, Bowser and the Princess drink champagne during the award ceremony after they won the race. In the Western versions they only wave with the bottle.

Awards

  • EGM
    • November 1997 (Issue 100) - ranked #15 (Best 100 Games of All Time)
    • Issue #200 - #19 out of 200 "Greatest Games of Their Time"
  • Game Informer
    • August 2001 (Issue #100) - #35 in the "Top 100 Games of All Time" poll
  • Power Play
    • Issue 02/1993 – Best SNES Game in 1992
  • Retro Gamer
    • October 2004 (Issue #9) – #13 Best Game Of All Time (Readers' Vote)
  • The Strong National Museum of Play
    • 2019 – Introduced into the World Video Game Hall of Fame

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Super Mario World
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Kartanym.

Wii added by Charly2.0. Wii U, New Nintendo 3DS added by Michael Cassidy. Nintendo Switch added by Kam1Kaz3NL77.

Additional contributors: PCGamer77, Alaka, gamewarrior, Cantillon, Patrick Bregger, Michael Cassidy, Rik Hideto, FatherJack, SoMuchChaotix.

Game added June 6, 2002. Last modified August 30, 2023.