#86: Super Mario Kart

TIC-TAC-TOE!

Super Mario Kart and then its sequel Mario Kart 64 were played a _LOT_ in the Page household when I was a teenager. Racing alone. Racing against each other. BATTLE MODE! This game was everything one could want in a non-realistic racing game. I know there are people who like hyper realistic stuff like Gran Turismo but just driving a car never excited me. Drive a car, as a princess, while wielding turtle shells and lightning bolts? Sign me up!

Rust? What's that?

Shortly after the game came out Nintendo of Canada put on a competition of sorts where they drove to malls and had people play a time trial mode of Bowser Castle 3 trying to set the top time. I won one of the days at the Riverview Mall. I have the t-shirt to prove it! Apparently the 'Atlantic Super Mario Kart Challenge' was put on by the IWK Children's Hospital, the Janeway Children's Hospital Foundation, and the Super Nintendo Entertainment System if the logos on the front of the shirt are any indication. There were some other things in the prize package like tickets to a WWF show. I went with my mother and she was impressed by the size of Yokozuna's butt. I remember being really bitter that Papa Shango came to the ring spewing smoke/incense because the Moncton Colisseum was a no-smoking arena and he was breaking the rules and that's just wrong.

Ok, that's what rust is...

I looked the game up on Wikipedia and the claim is that this game was ground breaking and created the whole cart racing genre. It also created the whole concept of having Mario star in games completely unrelated to platforming. And it's not hard to see why... Even 22 years later it was still a fun game. Guinness even listed it as their top console game of all time. But then they also had FFXII at #8 and FFVII at #20 so I don't know what they're really talking about. Although... I can't really think of any flaws in this game, especially since it really did create a new genre. I don't think it's the best ever, but it definitely deserves a really good rating.

Rating: S