Today, I watched a YouTube video of Super Mario Kart 150CC Special Cup, as I've thought of attempting it again. There, I discovered that the 20th anniversary of Super Mario Kart, and therefore the anniversary of the birth of the whole legendary series, is coming at month's end. It was released August 27th, 1992 in Japan (Sept. 1st in USA, Jan. 21st in Europe)! Any other SMK fans who'll be celebrating?

Myself, I'm already doing a SMB marathon, with NSMB 2 coming, and I may add the Mario Kart series to that. Plus at long last try to win the gold in 150CC Special Cup that has eluded me since I got it for Christmas in 1992. Such happy memories from that, and my rivalry with my high school best friend Chris (we battled like Ryu & Ken in Street Fighter II also)!

Maybe not the most realistic racer, but Mario Kart games are the funnest racers ever, IMHO.

Oh cool. Wonder if Nintendo plans to acknowledge it! I think I'll play some rounds of SMK with my brother to celebrate the date when it comes.

I wish they would create some sort of compilation disc. If Kirby can get a 20th anniversary disc of his own, Mario Kart definitely should.

I would like for some dlc for mario kart 7 which contains the top 10 tracks from all games.

That's awesome! I might play one of my Mario Kart's this month in celebration.

Cool. I'd hate it if Nintendo celebrated this anniversery though. Why? Metroid got nothing. If a spin-off game got more then a Nintendo mainstray, I'd be very sad.

I know mario kart arcade gp 1 & 2 are generally hated but have you seen THIS article? I found it from @wiiuonly It is unlikey yes, but it is a interesting article in wiiuonly's comment box thank you for that great article @wiiuonly & thank you for mentioning mario kart's 20th anniversary! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARIO KART!

@WiiUOnly or two WiiU shop titles. And hopefully more people connect their wiiu's to the internet, because that held the wii back.-_-

Indeed! And I love MK!

20 years and 9 games, such a great series

I only know of 7 MK titles. Are the others arcade games?

Yes they are. Mario Kart 7 is technically the 9th game.

@Brando
Glad you liked the article.

I've been playing allot of Mario Kart with my bros lately.So in a way it's like I've been celebrating this whole time lol

I don't really know what they would do. I hope they do the following, announce Mario Kart Wii U ( longshot since 7 isn't even a year old yet), maybe a compilation disk for the Wii U launch? Super Mario Kart, Mario Kart 64, Mario Kart Double Dash ( don't know if they're ready for GameCube games in their compilations yet), Mario Kart Super Circuit and the two arcade ones ( Those would be really nice) all on one disk. Maybe with a soundtrack cd as well, the songs are amazing. I'd love a CD of them. Heck, I'd be happy if all they did was release a CD on Club Nintendo or release it in stores.

Wow has it really been 20 years?

I remember it coming out and we didn't actually buy a copy until a good few years later. Me and my step brother used to rent it from the local video store every Friday night and then return it Sunday evening (had to be back before 6pm if my memory serves me correctly). We spent many a happy weekend playing it as our parents would allow us to set the snes up on the big tv downstairs for the weekend........ Good times!!

Actually thinking about it, the amount we spent on renting it each week we must have paid for it 3 or 4 times over 😃

7 console games (Super, 64, Super Circuit, Double Dash, DS, Wii, 7) plus the two Arcade GP games.

I'm a sucker for enhanced remakes of old games (Super Mario All-Stars, Ninja Gaiden Trilogy, etc.) to begin with, but I'd love to see Super Mario Kart modernized. Redo the tracks with better graphics, hills (something there was none of on SMK), and new obstacles. I don't see it happening, but it'd be nice.

As for the Mario Kart GP arcade games, man that's something I'd like to see (I didn't even know they EXISTED until discovering them by accident once). Regrettably, I'm not sure if we will. For some mind-blowing reason, Nintendo doesn't even want to release their own arcade games. It's something I find very odd. They made the Virtual Console Arcade (VCA) addition to Wii VC and then didn't release even ONE first-party arcade game. Here are some of the arcade games aside from the MKs that Nintendo could've released, but hasn't: Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., Donkey Kong 3, Excitebike, Punch-Out, and Super Punch-Out (would love to see The Goonies & Popeye, but they're doubtful being licensed). I'm not sure if Nintendo is afraid people would go into shock realizing that they were making games before the NES came out, or what. They didn't make a ton of arcade games, but releasing some of them could highlight Nintendo's pedigree (along with Sony & Microsoft's lack thereof).

I think on Wii U, Nintendo's commitment to releasing arcade games made by themselves and third parties will be one indicator of how serious they are about improving their online experience. Xbox Live Arcade, followed by PlayStation Store, have really trumped Nintendo in terms of classic arcade releases. VCA was off to a good start, but releases have been non-existent for a couple of years now.

I've strayed from the subject, but I do so to point out that Nintendo is going to have to show some sign of increased support for VC arcade games in general before the release of these Mario Kart GP games is forseeable.

It would be really great if Nintendo gave a FREE Mario Kart game for the Dsi and 3ds folks out there like they did for The ZELDA anniversary !!!!!!! wouldn't that be nice ??

Blah, Mario the most overused character in video game history. F-Zero is a much better racer than Mario Kart in my opinion. Nintendo suckered me in with Mario Kart Wii but never again will I get another game in the series.

The only MK i ever liked in the series was the SNES original which was just magical during the day. Flash forward to the nasty looking barren 3D N64 sequal that completely lacks the charm of the original and in no way was as memorable or as fun imo. Ever since then i haven't really cared for the franchise. Even Mario Kart DS was a bit of a snore imo. MK7 looks pretty solid though, i had to get that one.

For me, SMK and MK: Grand Prix were the best in the franchise. The Wii sequal i found was quite the snoozy.

@Ryno
Ya Mario has been reused quite a bit and not in a good way(ahem the NSMB franchise) i'd love to see that series die, with nintendo taking a completely fresh approach visually speaking, the works for the 2D series and pouring every ounce of nintendo magic and imagination into it. Hell, even the first galaxy i found a little boring in spots. Must of been the slower less zippity gameplay/controls. The worlds/planets were pretty great though!