Super Mario Kart

Super Mario Kart is a kart-racing game developed and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo, released in Japan and North America in 1992. Built by Nintendo's EAD division, it took eight characters from the Mario universe and set them racing go-karts across tracks rendered with the console's Mode 7 scaling and rotation effects, which simulated a three-dimensional road stretching to the horizon. The game effectively created the kart-racing genre, combining tight driving with an arsenal of items, from banana peels and green shells to speed-boosting mushrooms, that let trailing racers disrupt the leaders. Its split-screen design supported two players at once, in either the Grand Prix mode or a dedicated Battle Mode, and its Koopa Beach tracks, all sand, palm trees, and shallow water, are among its most memorable. A major critical and commercial success, it sold millions of copies and launched one of Nintendo's most durable franchises, with sequels appearing on every subsequent console. As an outdoor, competitive, endlessly replayable multiplayer game full of beaches and bright color, it captures the feeling of a summer afternoon spent slightly out of control. Its Battle Mode, in which players chase and pop one another's balloons in enclosed arenas, became a beloved multiplayer staple in its own right.