Mario Kart
Mario Kart is a series of Nintendo racing games that feature characters from the Mario Bros. video game franchise. Mario Kart differs from many other racing games in that it does not seek to accurately simulate real world cars, driving conditions, or physics, making Mario Kart easy to learn, especially for young children.
The games are particularly popular as multiplayer games. Two-, four-, eight-, and even sixteen-way challenges are possible.
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Gameplay
In Mario Kart, the characters from the Mario Bros. series of video games get together and race go-karts around a variety of tracks. Power-ups are located around the tracks. They can temporarily equip the karts with everything from a Super Mushroom that provides a short burst of speed to koopa shells that are thrown as projectiles. Several of the games have a multiplayer "battle mode", in which the object of the game, rather than completing a set course, is to cause damage to the other player using power-ups and weapons. The courses for these, also known as "arenas", are non-linear.
Installments
"Mario Kart" is used to refer to any of the following popular video games released by Nintendo:
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- Super Mario Kart is the original Mario Kart game, released in 1992 for Super Famicom and Super Nintendo.
- Mario Kart 64 is the sequel to Super Mario Kart; it was released in 1997 for Nintendo 64. It is also probably the most popular version to date.
- Mario Kart Super Circuit was released in 2001 for Game Boy Advance. It was the first portable version of Mario Kart.
- Mario Kart: Double Dash!! was released in November 2003 for GameCube. In it, two players can ride in the same kart, with one player controlling driving and the other controlling weapon usage. This game is LAN-enabled, such that 16 players can play with each other in the same LAN environment.
- Mario Kart DS, which is yet to be released, will feature 3D graphics and wireless internet play.
- Mario Kart: Arcade GP which has just been announced to be released Fall 2005 in Japan, is an arcade version of the popular series, in a joint effort with Namco. Pac-Man and Ms. Pacman are some of the playable characters. It is also rumored that popular characters from developer Sega such as Sonic will be featured in this installment.
Similar games
Due to its success and originality, there are several games patterned off of the Mario Kart series' gameplay. These games include Street Racer (Amiga, PC, PSone), Xtreme Racing (Amiga), Megaman Battle and Chase, Crash Team Racing (PSone), Diddy Kong Racing (N64) and Bomberman Kart (PS2). There is also the up coming Crash Tag Team Racing which should come out for the DS around the same time as Mario Kart DS.