
The landscape of the Mario Kart series looks very different today than it did back in 1992 when Super Mario Kart was released for the Super NES. Of course, there is a clear improvement with respect to visuals and we now have new characters, karts, and courses dropping all the time thanks to the Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass releases and Mario Kart Tour on mobile. Yes, there's now an official Mario Kart game on non-Nintendo hardware — what a world we live in! However, at its heart, Nintendo’s top racing franchise is today very much the same game that it was 30 years ago.
Across the titles in the Mario Kart series, each entry has had to work, naturally, within the technical boundaries of its respective console. As with any video game, the development of new ideas is a balancing act between what new hardware can bring to the table — be it two or four-person multiplayer, fully 3D character models, online multiplayer, AR racing, the list goes on — versus the realities and restrictions of that hardware. No more so was this the case than in the franchise-opening SNES title, which managed to spin a positive from a hardware limitation by introducing a mechanic which would go on to define the franchise’s style of racing: the humble drift.
The first entry in the Mario Kart series was originally intended to be a multiplayer F-Zero sequel. "We didn’t at all have the concept of a racing game with Mario, we began with experiments for a multiplayer F-Zero game," Super Mario Kart co-director, Hideki Konno, stated in a SNES anniversary interview coinciding with the launch of the Super NES Classic Mini. Headed up by Konno and co-director Tadashi Sugiyama, with Shigeru Miyamoto producing and assigning the directors their task, this two-player racing project was intended to cash in on the success of the futuristic launch title, making the most of a rapidly booming culture of couch co-op gameplay.
Miyamoto was right, with its two controllers the SNES was surely the rightful home of an F-Zero multiplayer racer; however, running the game’s signature expansive straight-line tracks in the required split-screen mode was too much for the 16-bit hardware. The tracks needed to be smaller and – to provide a greater sense of distance travelled – have more hairpin turns. The team emphasised the need for track cornering in the following exchange between Konno and Sugiyama:
Konno: In F-ZERO, you race at over 400 kilometres per hour along incredibly long straight lines, but we realised that splitting the screen into upper and lower portions for two players to do the same thing was out of the question.
Sugiyama: Due to hardware constraints, it was impossible to display tracks with long straight lines in two windows on the screen.
Konno: If you look back at the Super Mario Kart tracks, you’ll understand. Instead of tracks with long straight lines, the track designs are compact, with lots of twists and turns, so they fit well within a square."
With the exception of some outliers (*cough* 'Excitebike Arena' *cough* 'Baby Park'), long straights aren't typically a feature of most Mario Kart tracks; courses are defined by how you handle the sharp corners without ending up on the grass or flying off into space.
The SNES hardware limitations were not, however, a hindrance for the Super Mario Kart team — at least not once the designers donned their thinking caps. Turning these tricky, necessarily sharp turns into a joyful part of the game experience was something that needed to be addressed, and thus, the drift mechanic was born.
Before the addition of Drift Boost, this 'gliding' function in Super Mario Kart was simply there to maintain momentum and ensure that the tracks’ turns weren't a detriment to your enjoyment. If it wasn’t for the introduction of this cornering assist, the small and winding tracks would have been near-impossible to navigate at the karts’ top speeds.
The introduction of drifting was borne of necessity, then, but this method of combatting hardware restrictions has, as any regular Mario Kart player will tell you, grown to become a key element to driving a successful race. The mechanic was upgraded for Mario Kart 64 to add in the boost function – actively rewarding you for extending your drift – and this has since been implemented in every subsequent entry.
While the later additions to the franchise would have no technical issues with making the courses longer and straighter — and we got a sublime multiplayer F-Zero way back in 1998 — that initial limitation has gone on to define the series’ style of play and how Mario and co. negotiate tight bends. Super Mario Kart is referenced near-obsessively throughout its sequels, from remastered tracks to the return of the Super NES’ balloon-popping battle mode, but the humble drift can perhaps be seen as the biggest callback of all. Drifting, and subsequently drift boosting, is an intrinsic element of what makes a Mario Kart game feel like one of the family.
And here we are 30 years on, with fans and commentators eyeing the ageing Switch and wondering what innovations a potential (and inevitable) 'Mario Kart 9' might bring, while Nintendo serves up nostalgia in DLC circuit form. Perhaps a generational leap is needed before Mario Kart can evolve. Super Mario Kart’s introduction of drifting is a testament to the fact that the best designers work with system limitations, though. Ironically, the hardware issues that initially prevented the creation of an expansive multiplayer racer spawned one of Nintendo’s most enduringly popular franchises.
Ultimately, the team was faced with a problem and, luckily, they let it slide.
What are your fondest memories of Super Mario Kart? Glide on down to the comments and let us know!
- Further reading: Best Mario Kart Games Of All Time
Comments 18
I'm literally wearing a Super Mario Kart shirt right now by sheer coincidence.
I used to play this for hours on SNES but when I tried it again on Switch I couldn't get past the first Special Cup track.
Happy 30th birthday Mario Kart!
This game was truly something special. I honestly couldn't master the drift back then, so I resorted to Toad and Koopa with their sorta auto-drift mechanic. Toad's been my go to for the sequels since... Until the advent of Shy Guy that is.
First time seeing Super Mario Kart was at a Toys “R” Us SNES kiosk. I was immediately hooked and played it every time we went there. I used to walk up and down the aisles looking at games with the game tag to take to the register to buy. I ended up getting SMK as a gift a few weeks later. Still a blast to play to this day!
In before this somehow becomes criticism of Miyamoto.
I love this game so much that I have all three versions (PAL, NTSC and J-NTSC). I have it on the SNES mini and I have two online switch accounts (one PAL and one Japanese so that I have both versions).
It is my best game by far.
Such an excellent little game. One of my all time favourites. I didn't grow up with it, not by a long shot, but even when I had 64, Double Dash, DS and Wii to choose from as a kid, I still absolutely loved playing this on the Wii VC way back in the day on my old mini CRT. The gameplay, art direction, visuals, sound design and music are all timeless.
My sisters have always found it way too hard, though, even to this day (most likely because they just refuse to learn how to drift properly)...so I mostly have to play it by myself.
Playing Super Mario Kart at a friend's house in the '90s, I couldn't understand why everyone loved this game. I couldn't turn worth beans! Little did I know that drifting was not only possible but necessary. Nobody told me! So, I hated Mario Kart for years, thinking it was impossible to turn around corners without braking and dropping into last place. Now though I love the series.
The 16Bit generation has so many defining games that's what makes this gen so iconic.
My first exposure to Super Mario Kart was at the 1992 (1991?) Summer CES in Chicago. For those of you that didn’t know, there were two major electronic shows back in the day where game companies previewed their games to the industry, before the gaming industry moved to doing it just once a year at E3. I remember the joy of seeing it, the Mario characters racing each other in this new genre of gaming. And back then the colorful graphics, Mode 7 and music. I couldn’t wait for the release date. Once bought that same year, that led to hours and hours ….and hours! of constant nightly racing with friends. I have many memories of cheese pizzas, critical Battle Mode wins and laughing at the ways we would “drift and shoot a shell” in what was back then massive open playfields (hey those balloon bursts took a long time because of the hiding and wide space). Trust me when I say the frustration of waiting a good handful of years before the 3D(gasp!) sequel on N64.
I don’t know if it’s nostalgia speaking, but I’ve never enjoyed later Mario Kart games more than this one. I really like it’s tight handling and narrower tracks.
Mario Kart tracks these days just feel too wide and long in comparison. It’s less about skilful and tight driving and more about the items. Plus I don’t like all the different vehicles, tyres, kites on the back or whatever.
N64 version I can remember exactly where I was and the time of year it was. What a fun game.
@Magrane
Do you, by some chance, recall what the Vanilla Lake music sounded like?
Did it sound like this:
https://t.co/kYsfw9gOYo
Also, was the character select screen the same as in the final, or did it have an earlier layout?
P.S. It was in 1992.
My friend was so much better than me at this game he could beat me holding the controller upside down. I still loved it though, and still prefer it to any later entry.
Can somebody explain why long straight tracks weren't possible in splitscreen, due to hardware limitations? I don't really understand why that's the case.
Mario Kart and Zelda were my two favorite games on the SNES.
In 1993 I worked part time at a game store in the local mall. There were a few times when customers would ask me for racing game recommendations on the SNES, and I’d always strongly endorse MK. Now, the store had a “show 3” policy we were told to use, so I would always have to pull 2 more racing games from the case to show together with MK. More than once, despite my glowing MK review, customers would buy a title with a less childish-looking cover. I’d be shaking my head (in my heart at least) as they’d walk off with Top Gear or some F1 game.
MK was just the richest, best-playing home video racing game I ever had at that point, and I felt bad for those who might miss out.
@PigmaskFan no. Because I remember they were showing off Mario Circuit and maybe the beach and Choco lake levels. And they had attendants (i.e. hired models) to make sure everyone got a turn.
I had a hard time remembering the year because 1992 was pretty eventful for me. But In gaming, 1992-1993 were very big years.
I’m also remembering how a green shell would ping pong around in Battle Mode. And like, significant minutes later come back to hit you because you had forgotten it. Laying out what seemed like mine field traps and hiding in glee. I even remember being able to look across a field and see a tiny Mode 7 kart get hit. This was a big deal back then!
Battle Modes 2 and 4 were the go-to for fun extended plays.
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