The fake item box (an obstacle masquerading as an item), banana bunch (a group of three bananas), and golden mushroom (infinite boost for a short period) later appeared in Mario Kart: Double Dash!!. Several pick-ups also failed to make the cut. Character sprites had huge heads and backgrounds had a painterly quality not unlike Skyward Sword. Early screens printed in Nintendo Power promised a very different Mario Kart to the one we got. Indeed, Mario Kart’s never been afraid to alter itself. These discrepancies in the canon were addressed in future Mario Karts, which featured a heavier DK and a lighter Yoshi (let’s face it, it’s a dainty dinosaur that can float). Here, Bowser was said to be heavier than Donkey Kong and Yoshi weightier than Peach. Brilliantly, these simple statistics attracted controversy from Nintendo nuts. Mario, Luigi, Toad, Donkey Kong, Bowser, Peach, Yoshi and Wario each had differing speeds and weights.

There were eight characters, a bare bones roster by today’s standards, but these were the original icons. Coins also unlocked the 20 SNES tracks hidden away and counted towards rankings at the end of each grand prix, making Super Circuit one of the hardest Mario Kart games at which to excel – a reason some gamers still curse its name to this day. If your coin purse was empty, any collision with an obstacle, item or vehicle would send you spinning out in a squeal of rubber.

Each shiny penny made the kart incrementally faster, providing an impromptu, but handy, racing line in the process. There were 55 on each track and grabbing them was key to success. Full speed contact was even more of a gamble in Super Circuit, thanks to golden coins, which only returned in Mario Kart 7. You may only have been able to play as a selection of blue, pink, yellow or green Yoshis over just four tracks, but it was a generous feature to the 12-year-old kid who couldn’t even afford a Chupa Chups.įour-man multiplayer assured more of Mario Kart’s trademark argy-bargy. As long as one person had a cartridge (and a link-up cable), your GBA could download a ‘lite’ version of the game. VS races even managed an early version of DS Download Play.

Multiplayer battles pitted players against each other in an arena with the aim of popping each other’s balloons with shells. The system limitations precluded AI competitors, but the tight, balanced gameplay we’ve come to associate with the series was in full effect. There was also more active competition, thanks to the ability to link with up to three other people in VS mode.

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