Mario Kart

Mario Kart is a series of driving Nintendo video games emphasising play losely along the lines of the Super Mario Brothers video game.

Mario Kart is different than many of the other driving games of its time period in that it does not attempt to accurately simulate real world cars, real world driving conditions, and real world physics.

This makes Mario Kart easier to learn, especially for young children.

People use the name "Mario Kart" when referring to either of three popular video games released by Nintendo:

• Super Mario Kart is the "original" game, released in 1992 for the Super Famicom and Super Nintendo game systems.
• Mario Kart 64 is the sequel to Super Mario Kart; it was released in 1997 for the Nintendo 64 game system. Several characters were added and removed.
• Mario Kart Super Circuit was released in 2001 for the Game Boy Advance system. No new characters were added, but several power-ups were changed
• Mario Kart: Double Dash was released in November 2003 for the Gamecube system. Two players can ride in the same kart and team up in a drive/sabotage style of play. New characters were added and each player has the choice of which kart to drive. This game is LAN enabled such that 8 players can play against each other in the same LAN environment.

The basic idea of all four games is that the characters from the Super Mario Brothers series of video games get together and race go-karts around a variety of tracks. Powerups that temporarily equip the karts with everything from a "turbo boost mushroom" to Koopa shells thrown as projectiles are located around the tracks, and can be used to speed oneself up or hamper an opponent.

The games are particularly popular as multiplayer games - two, four, and even eight-way challenges are possible.