The Story of Super Mario Kart | Gaming Historian

in 1992 Nintendo released a quirky little racing game for the super famicom and Super Nintendo they called it Super Mario Kart the game began as a failed experiment developed as a small side project with the Nintendo's entertainment analysis and Development Group but the young group of designers saw potential in the game and persevered over time it evolved into an offbeat cart racer featuring twisty race tracks power-ups and familiar characters from the Super Mario universe despite receiving little hype leading up to its release Super Mario Kart was a surprise success it became the best-selling super famicom game in Japan and one of the best-selling games for the system worldwide but more importantly Super Mario Kart brought people together and set a new standard for multiplayer console games it launched a franchise that still exists today and continues to be one of Nintendo's best-selling game series this is the story of Super Mario Kart [Music] foreign [Music] Nintendo entered the Next Generation with their newest console the super famicom but they were late to the party nec's PC engine had been on the market since 1987. Sega had joined the competition with the Mega Drive In 1988. however Nintendo was confident their latest console would dominate the market Hardware wise it was much more powerful than its predecessor the famicom but the true strength of the super famicom lay in the software Nintendo knew that all the hardware power in the world meant nothing if the games weren't good the super famicom launched with two games and they struck a balance between showing off new technology and providing exciting gameplay the first launch title was Super Mario World a continuation of Nintendo's most popular franchise Super Mario World was an evolution of the Beloved series with minor technical features to show off the new bells and whistles of the super famicom things like rotating platforms and transparency effects were cool but didn't affect the gameplay that much the second launch title however was an impressive technological feat f-zero f-zero was a fast-paced futuristic racing game where players zipped through huge sprawling maps with long narrow tracks it was unlike anything ever seen on a console and it was all thanks to a new graphics technology in the super famicom called mode 7. mode 7 was able to scale and rotate a background altering the perspective for a pseudo 3d effect it was impressive critics were blown away by f-zero famitsu magazine gave the game 37 points out of 40. three points higher than Super Mario World One reviewer stated the sense of speed found here is unlike any other racing game we've seen so far it feels like this game clearly shows off the Allure of the super famicom but there was one major problem with f-zero it was a single player game that bothered Nintendo's Chief software producer Shigeru Miyamoto Miyamoto was The Man Behind Some of Nintendo's most popular game series including Super Mario Brothers and The Legend of Zelda he was also heavily involved with developing the super famicom he consulted on the system's design the controllers and even the packaging Miyamoto insisted that the super famicom come with two controllers he wanted to ensure developers would keep multiplayer in mind when they made games but Ironically neither launch title utilized both controllers f-zero was single player only and while Super Mario World was a two-player game players couldn't play simultaneously Miyamoto felt that development teams had only scratched the surface of the potential of the super famicom so he devised a new project make a game like f-zero but for two players he assigned the task to two talented staff members with a Nintendo's entertainment analysis and Development Group Tadashi sugiyama and Hideki Kono both men had experience working with Miyamoto tsugiyama joined Nintendo in 1983 and came up through the creative Department with him tsugiyama initially designed characters such as popo and Nana from ice climber and eventually became a game director his first job was the highly anticipated second game in the Zelda series Zelda 2 The Adventure of Link sugiyama also had experience with the mode 7 technology in the super famicom having just wrapped up director duties on pilot Wings a flight simulation game working alongside sugiyama was Hideki Kono Kono joined Nintendo in 1986 and cut his teeth designing ice hockey a fun arcade-like sports game for the famicom disc system but his most significant work was creating the Overworld maps and levels for both Super Mario Brothers 3 and Super Mario World Miyamoto oversaw both projects Kono recalled he learned a lot about game development and creation by working under Miyamoto now in the fall of 1990 Miyamoto entrusted tsugiyama and Kono to direct a new racing game for two players as for himself Miyamoto would serve as a producer a self-proclaimed pretty relaxed role he remembered I don't know if I can really say I participated in this development it was more like I observed it sugiyama and Kono also recruited additional staff including programmers to help with the project among them was masato Kimura Kimura had helped program f-zero so it made sense for him to help with a potential sequel he was named the director of programming they also brought in Hajime yajima yajima had previously worked on pilot Wings implementing a digital signal processing chip or DSP chip on the cartridge the chip helped the game program run extra calculations behind the scenes sugiyama and Kono knew their two-player racing game would need this chip to work so Miyamoto walked over to yajima's desk tapped him on the shoulder and said let's work together with a team in place sugiyama Kono and the rest of the staff got to work but by most accounts the work was somewhat informal there was no master design document and Kono recalled not taking any notes during meetings they were more like chat sessions everyone sat near each other in the office so team members simply went up to each other's desks and talked many team members split their time with other more extensive projects despite this they were a dedicated group Kono recalled that early development was mostly just sitting at one's own desk grinding it out Unfortunately they quickly learned that making a two-player f-zero game was next to Impossible [Music] f-zero's race tracks were massive with long straightaways that gave a sense of speed the tracks were displayed over an area of 100 screens but due to Hardware limitations it was way too complex to do this for two players simultaneously so sacrifices had to be made with two players the racetrack would have to be downsized from 100 screens to only 16. with such a small race course they couldn't add those long straightaways only twists and turns Kono finally admitted with more than one player it would have been impossible to illustrate the high speeds of f-zero f-zero's fast futuristic Vehicles would not work on such a small map but maybe another type of vehicle could so as a last-ditch effort to save the project the team changed things up that was our first idea actually a fun light-hearted game where you zip around unrealistically in cars it wouldn't be the life or death dangerous world of F1 racing but more the atmosphere of screeching Wheels as you zip around an amusement park from those ideas the concept eventually evolved naturally from Cars to carts Shigeru Miyamoto go-karts were a perfect choice they didn't go very fast which suited the smaller winding courses and they were becoming more widespread in Japan thanks to the rising popularity of F1 racing Japanese auto manufacturer Honda was heavily involved in the sport providing engines for winning Racers such as airton Senna and Elaine Prost and many F1 Racers started their careers by training in go-karts there were many F1 racing video games Nintendo had even made a few themselves but there were very few kart racing games the idea had enormous potential co-director Hideki Kono recalled it was lucky timing for us but there was one big problem no one on the staff had ever ridden a go-kart co-director Tadashi sugiyama purchased a book on go-kart racing and watched videos hoping to get more acquainted but a senior illustrator on staff and a veteran of the anime industry yoichi kotabe shared a piece of wisdom with the team no amount of research beats the real thing kotabe suggested the team go to an amusement park and ride around in real go-karts Kono took the idea to Miyamoto who needed to approve the outing Miyamoto rebuked the suggestion thinking it was unnecessary but he eventually relented the team took a trip to the nemu nosato amusement park and drove around on go cards for a day illustrators took sketches of the carts programmers got a feel for physics and handling the development team also got to experience the lower speed and perspective of the vehicle it was an educational experience but more importantly Kono sugiyama and the rest of the staff learned that kart racing was really fun [Music] but that was only the start of their crash course on go-karts back at the office the team built a small remote control cart to learn about its internal construction and to let staff members get more familiar with the vehicle unfortunately a programmer immediately crashed it into the wall ending their research foreign despite a few bumps in the road a new game took shape From the Ashes of the old one by June of 1991 the development team had a prototype featuring two driving modes the first mode used a slower f-zero style hover vehicle second mode used carts at this point there was no racing at all just aimless driving around a generic track but between the two vehicles the team loved the carts the most specifically the experience of zooming past other Racers but visually the game needed some work the racers were generic people with helmets and coveralls in various colors Kono noted that with eight nearly identical guys racing it'd be boring so then we began to focus on design they needed a better way to tell the racers apart so the development team brainstormed possible characters that were easily recognizable from behind and one character immediately came to mind Mario [Music] [Music] adding Mario and friends to Nintendo's two-player racing game was a good idea for multiple reasons for one the Super Mario series was easily Nintendo's most popular franchise Super Mario World was the best-selling game on the super famicom at the time including Mario in this new racing game was a guaranteed way to boost sales it wouldn't be Mario's First racing game either Nintendo threw the plumber in earlier titles such as the famicom Grand Prix series mostly for marketing purposes but more importantly from a design standpoint adding Mario and his friends to this new two-player racing game provided variety and recognizability so as an experiment the team added Mario Luigi and Bowser as playable characters it was a game changer you'd be able to tell immediately whether it was Mario or Luigi by the color red and green they look good visually and we were able to clearly differentiate their characteristics so we thought it was a good choice Hideki Kono made the decision this was now a Mario game Super Mario Kart the two directors split up responsibilities for the project as a veteran of the Super Mario series Kono oversaw the game's overall presentation Tadashi sugiyama was responsible for course design backgrounds and characters with the Mario theme in place Shigeru miyamoto's vision for the game evolved Super Mario Kart wasn't just a two-player racing game anymore it was about the thrill of competition the fun of driving in go-karts and the joy of playing video games with friends but before they could figure out the gameplay the team had to fill out the roster of playable characters Mario and Luigi were obvious choices Princess Peach and her loyal servant toad also made the cut they also added the newest character of the Super Mario series Yoshi the cute dinosaur made his debut in Super Mario World and quickly became one of Nintendo's most likable characters he particularly appealed to women and children rounding out the roster were villains including the big Koopa himself Bowser it was the first time players could control Bowser in a Mario game the team also added Donkey Kong Jr a somewhat surprising addition according to Miyamoto it was to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Donkey Kong Jr arcade game tsugiyama also noted that Donkey Kong Jr was more recognizable from behind than his father Donkey Kong because he wore a shirt the development team now had seven characters but needed one more to complete the roster so they threw in the most common enemy of the Super Mario series a Koopa Troopa after a few experiments with character design the roster was complete but the Super Mario Kart team didn't stop there to help differentiate the racers further they applied attributes such as acceleration top speed weight and handling ability Mario and Luigi were balanced Racers with mostly even stats each and Yoshi had excellent acceleration but poor handling Toad and Koopa Troopa could easily turn corners but weren't very fast and their lightweight made them easy to knock around Bowser and Donkey Kong Jr were the fastest and heaviest characters but their acceleration was slow with the racers in place the Super Mario Kart team had to design race tracks They got plenty of inspiration from Super Mario World the team created many courses based on Dinosaur Land World 2 of Super Mario World donut planes got a corresponding race track the grassy landscape contained a dirt track and narrow Bridges to Traverse the ghost houses scattered throughout Dinosaur Land known for their hidden exits became Ghost Valley a track made of wooden planks and filled with hidden shortcuts world six of Super Mario World chocolate island also got a race track with plenty of dirt and mud to slow players down and of course there was Bowser's Castle full of lava pits and dangerous jumps other tracks weren't necessarily based on Super Mario World levels but fit perfectly into the Mario Universe for example Koopa Beach had soft Sands and shallow water that cart skimmed across vanilla Lake was a track filled with ice snow and chilly Waters and finally there was the ultimate Challenge Rainbow Road a bright colorful race track with no guard rails to keep Racers on the course at first these courses were simple raceways with twists and turns but the designers added enemies characters and objects from the Mario Universe Monty moles popped out of the ground in Donut Plains ice blocks on vanilla Lake made navigating the course even more difficult thwomps and Bowser's Castle could block a player's path or smash a cart the designers also changed how carts drove on different terrain types an asphalt track was a relatively smooth ride ice courses made driving a little more slippery stone blocks made the carts bounce up and down slightly to help streamline the creative process the Super Mario Kart team created a track editing software suite that allowed them to manipulate the courses directly on the game cartridge designers could place objects like speed zippers and jump bars on the racetrack add walls or obstacles and even configure the driving path for computer-controlled players it was a huge Time Saver the new obstacles and terrains made the racing even more Dynamic and getting the cart controls right was more important than ever head programmer masato Kimura spent most of his time tinkering with card physics struggled to find a balance the more realistic the controls got the less it felt like a video game Miyamoto got involved too to the detriment of Kimura Miyamoto constantly changed his opinion on how he thought the carts should control which worried and annoyed Kimura but luckily Kimura remembered one of the game's core ideas to capture the fun of driving go-karts he said I had to go back and Tinker with the controls over and over until I approximated something that felt right the team also added new elements to the Driving Experience Racers could jump something not typically found in a racing game but Miyamoto insisted on it claiming it was a feature that couldn't be missing from a Mario game but one new technique would become a core element in the Mario Kart series drifting drifting was a driving technique made popular in Japan it was thrilling but somewhat tricky to perform cars drift by counter steering in the opposite direction of the turn initially the Mario Kart team tried this idea but most playtesters couldn't complete the move the team wanted to ensure that any player could pull off the maneuver so they simplified the concept all players had to do was hold the L or R button and steer in the direction of the turn although Hideki Kono knew the compromise wasn't perfect he thought the technique was really cool and fun to perform he wanted to reward players who could pull it off so the team made the carts go faster around turns during adrift driving the carts was a blast and easy to learn but it rewarded players who could perform the more Advanced Techniques there was also no speedometer in the game the development team felt it would clutter The View the sound of the go-kart's engine would signify how fast the player was going and naturally everyone would want to drive a go-kart as fast as possible still at that point Super Mario Kart was just a racing game set in the Mario universe that is until the team added a feature that would define the series items Super Mario Kart was not the first racing game to use items for example RC Pro-Am on the Nintendo Entertainment System had various weapons and power-ups scattered along the tracks missiles could take out other Racers turbos gave the player a speed boost and the tire power-up increased the player's turning ability but Super Mario Kart took items in racing to another level the idea was there right from the beginning before the development team added Mario to the game co-director Hideki Kono felt the racing was lacking it wasn't exhilarating just driving around a track at slow speeds so as an experiment the designers added oil cans that players could throw onto the asphalt and create oil spills which caused the carts to spin out it added a new thrill to the race but with the game now set in the Mario Universe potential items were endless the development team experimented with a few ideas that didn't make the cut including a placeable piranha plant in the end they settled on eight items that players could use in the Grand Prix races green shells fired Straight Ahead or could be placed behind the player as an obstacle red shells acted like a homing missile targeting the nearest racer ahead of the player banana peels which replaced the earlier oil cans spun out racers mushrooms gave players a speed boost a feather based on the item from Super Mario World gave Racers a super jump which allowed them to take shortcuts on certain tracks the star power up increased the player's speed and made them temporarily Invincible allowing them to spin out other Racers and blow through obstacles on the track there were also coins an idea from Miyamoto after all what was a Mario game without coins coins served multiple purposes and added a layer of depth to the race collecting coins increased the max speed of the cart but they also served as a currency if the player got hit with an item or spun out by another racer they lost coins and if a player fell off the track lakitu took a few coins away and finally there was the lightning bolt arguably the most powerful item in the game it shrunk all the other Racers on the track slowing them down and making them vulnerable to being run over play testers loved how the lightning bolt created sudden upsets the Super Mario Kart team tested items incessantly to refine the balance and thanks to the track editing software designers could place item question blocks on courses to quickly test them however they ran into a problem the play testers found that items sometimes led to chaotic and unfair Racing for example players in first could get powerful items like lightning bolts or Stars giving them an extraordinary Advantage but co-director tarashi sugiyama had a simple solution the chances of getting certain items depended on the player's position lap and race course if a player was in last they had a much better chance of getting powerful items but if they were in first they would likely get less useful items it worked perfectly thanks to the item balancing there was no guarantee a skilled player could come out on top it allowed for even more thrilling upsets and Tighter races DSP chip programmer Hajime yajima implemented the change but he couldn't get it working perfectly the super famicom wasn't powerful enough to calculate data mods for both human and computer-controlled players to compromise the design team scrapped the idea of computer-controlled players acquiring items instead they got unique weapons based on their personality Mario and Luigi essentially got a star power up making them Invincible temporarily and dangerous to Racers who got too close Toad and Princess Peach through poisonous mushrooms which shrunk Racers Yoshi Bowser Koopa Troopa and Donkey Kong Jr launched projectiles that could spin out Racers including an egg a fireball a green shell and a banana while items added a new dimension to the racing some development team members worried that hardcore racing fans would scoff at the idea it introduced too much Randomness to the races so as a compromise the designers added an option to disable items but Miyamoto thought the option would remove tension from The Experience he said I think that indeterminacy knowing that something might happen is the most fun co-director Tadashi sugiyama agreed Mario Kart is not Mario Kart without the items the opportunities that come from using the items means that both skilled and unskilled players can play the game together a key characteristic of Mario Kart is how it's often the case that you can't win just with your driving skills alone with the races being very close as everyone does everything they can to get over the Finish Line first Tadashi sugiyama in the end the team removed the no item option from the game with items in the game the racing portion of Super Mario Kart was ready to go the game featured a Grand Prix mode where players competed against computer-controlled opponents and each other to win a trophy there was also a match race featuring one-on-one racing and finally there is a time trial mode a must-have feature for a racing game but as Miyamoto envisioned Super Mario Kart really was more than just a racing game and there was one more gameplay mode that would set the game apart from other racing titles a battle mode as development began the Super Mario Kart team knew they wanted a game mode that had nothing to do with racing so they tried several experiments but ultimately the one that stood out was a game where players hurled a ball at each other they collected points if they scored a hit but the game needed some work there were very few walls or obstacles on the course this allowed players to drive around freely and it made the play testers dizzy not only that but the Super Mario Kart team was running out of memory on the cartridge as they added more and more features to the racing modes they had less and less space to work with so the team shelved the battle mode but as the racing modes neared completion the team decided to revisit the idea to fix the dizziness problem they added more walls and obstacles to the courses they also replaced the generic ball attack with items the designers also added a new item exclusive to the battle mode and match races The Ghost power-up which turned a player invisible and stole the opposing player's item to keep track of hits each player had three balloons if they got hit they lost a balloon for Miyamoto the battle mode was another defining feature of the game the very fact that battle mode had nothing to do with racing is what made us want to add it and give it special attention it helped strengthen the image of the game it is not you become a world-class racer but rather you get to race around and play in this Go-Kart with your friends [Music] with racing time trials and now a battle mode Super Mario Kart was almost ready for prime time but it wouldn't be complete without music for that co-director Hideki Kono brought on a composer he had worked with in the past soyo Oka Oka seemed destined for the job she had been at Nintendo since 1987 and had composed music for earlier famicom racing titles including famicom Grand Prix II 3D hot rally and versus excitebike she had also previously worked with Hideki Kono on ice hockey her music had a distinct sound oka's work was known internally at Nintendo as soyoism Oka enjoyed the challenge of composing music under the restrictions of the famicom where music still had to sound good if a track disappeared due to Hardware limitations she called it a sound puzzle but with the super famicom those restrictions were gone it allowed her more freedom in her compositions she called the new system Beyond wonderful oka's first works on the super famicom were pilot Wings in SimCity both game's soundtracks at a mellow relaxed sound [Music] Super Mario Kart Oka had to come up with more upbeat music that fit in a racing game but also had a Mario flavor Hideki Kono who was in charge of the game's overall presentation gave her the freedom to unleash her soilism on the soundtrack while a few music tracks were based on previous Mario compositions most of oka's work was brand new and the new compositions sounded like they had been in the Mario Universe the whole time there was the upbeat hard driving theme of the Mario circuit the relaxing Coastal Vibes of Cooper Beach [Music] and oka's personal favorite the Epic synth heavy music of Rainbow Road foreign [Music] experiment to make a two-player f-zero game was now a unique fun go-karting Adventure Super Mario Kart expanded the idea of what a racing game could be power-up items allowed for thrilling upset victories distinct race tracks made navigating the courses an integral part of the gameplay in the new battle mode made games with friends even more intense for co-director Hideki Kono the thrill of competition made Super Mario Kart a memorable game I really played the game a lot during the adjustment and debug phases of the development because of the strong competitive gameplay once I started test playing I would get excited and start shouting out while I played I just couldn't help it because of the randomness and potential for making huge comebacks I may have been a bit distracting for other development teams working on other projects [Music] by the summer of 1992 Nintendo was ready to reveal Super Mario Kart to the world but surprisingly despite being a Mario game Super Mario Kart did not generate much hype leading up to its release early previews in video game magazines were short lost in a sea of other games many of the write-ups compared the game heavily to f-zero Nintendo tagged Super Mario Kart for an August 27 1992 release in Japan leading up to the launch date co-director Tadashi sugiyama remembered feeling unsure about the game's success he said I knew it was fun but I didn't imagine users would actually like it that much tsugiyama was in for a huge surprise [Music] Thursday August 27 1992 was a big day for Nintendo Super Mario Kart was on store shelves and Nintendo was hosting their annual famicom space World exhibit at the fourth shoshinkai trade show in Tokyo the event allowed Nintendo and third-party developers to show off their latest titles for the famicom super famicom and Game Boy systems out of the 240 games exhibited Super Mario Kart was one of the few playable titles at the show people waited up to one hour in line to play the game for only five minutes word about Nintendo's funky new racing game spread quickly children and adults rushed to stores to pick up a copy some including how laboratory's head of software development satoru Iwata snuck out of work to buy the game in just two days Super Mario Kart was sold out across Japan according to electronic gaming monthly many stores wouldn't even accept deposits to hold the game and it only got more popular reviews poured in from the Japanese video game press game steps simulate reality can never actually be reality and while catching up to reality is very difficult fiction can draw near to it or even surpass it in some ways while Super Mario cut is absolutely a work of fiction it's more faithful to reality than any simulation it simulates the excitement of race and the joy of driving foreign magazine gave Super Mario Kart a 32 out of 40. calling it exhilarating challenging and much more polished than f-zero family computer magazine scored the game 24 and a half out of 30. noting that the multiplayer modes were very appealing however the game wasn't perfect One reviewer felt that doing well in the game depended on getting lucky with items and a 16 year old from Tokyo wrote to femitsu claiming people were barfing while playing the battle mode but that didn't stop Super Mario Kart from flying off store shelves it entrenched itself in the famitsu top 30 list for more than a year the yomi URI shimbun one of Japan's largest newspapers nominated Super Mario Kart as one of their top games of 1992. competitions were held throughout Japan where people competed for the fastest times around tracks there were even rumors Nintendo was working on an updated special edition cartridge for a 1993 release Super Mario Kart made its way into other mediums as well the Super Mario Club show a weekly video game program on Japanese television regularly featured Super Mario Kart competitions there was also a rush of merchandise the combination of Mario and go-karts lent itself well to toys there were plushies battery-powered RC cars small go-kart figures model kits children's toys and more Super Mario Kart would become the best-selling super famicom game of all time selling 3.82 million units in Japan but would it be popular elsewhere in the world 1992 was an important year for Nintendo of America it was the 16-bit Super Nintendo's First full year in stores a Nintendo faced stiff competition from Sega and their 16-bit console the Genesis the Genesis had been out since 1989 and made quite a dent in Nintendo's market share the Genesis was also cheaper than the Super Nintendo and had more games in addition Sega had recently launched their Flagship mascot to compete with Mario Sonic the Hedgehog Nintendo had to change things up to stay competitive they lowered the price of the Super Nintendo from two hundred dollars to one hundred and fifty dollars they also released a standalone console without a bundled game and only one controller for 100 as a response Sega lowered the price of their sonic bundle Genesis to 130 dollars and started offering a standalone console for one hundred dollars Sega was also showing off their newest Hardware creation the Sega CD due in the fall of 1992. the peripheral beefed up the hardware power of the Genesis and the CD medium provided more storage space Better Sound and full motion video games Nintendo also had plans for a CD-ROM attachment but it never came to fruition Nintendo's best Hope For Success was with its software the name of the game in this business is games when the consumer pulls out his wallet he wants Top Value for his entertainment dollar and that's what we've always delivered but this new lineup represents the best group of games we've ever introduced Peter Maine Nintendo of America Nintendo showed off their new game lineup at the 1992 summer Consumer Electronics Show in Chicago during the show Nintendo announced more than 175 new games for the second half of 1992. 75 of them were for the Super Nintendo it was the largest rollout of new software in Nintendo's history there was Mario Paint an educational art program that came with a mouse Street Fighter 2 a port of the popular arcade fighting game finally Super Mario Kart CES attendees got to try all the latest titles and Super Mario Kart was the surprise star of the show luckily Gamers wouldn't have to wait very long to own a copy for themselves with little text in the game the localization process was relatively quick however there were minor changes between the Japanese and international versions of the game most notably the animations during the Trophy presentation screens in Japan Bowser and Peach drank champagne when they won a Grand Prix race but for the international releases they simply celebrate with the bottles Nintendo of America was adamant about maintaining a squeaky clean image with parents on September 1st 1992 just four days after its Japanese launch Nintendo released Super Mario Kart in North America and just like in Japan the response was incredible gamepro magazine gave the game a near perfect score praising the multiplayer modes and accessibility for people of all skills electronic gaming monthly gave the game its editor's Choice Award and called Super Mario Kart the best driving game to come along for some time Nintendo backed up Super Mario Kart with a fourth quarter 30 million dollar advertising campaign you and make them eat tough battle mode too fast two-player Pawn on the split screen only for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System now you're playing with power super power Super Mario Kart graced the cover of the October 1992 issue of Nintendo Power which contained tips and tricks maps and strategies for various courses Nintendo also teamed up with Domino's Pizza which had a Super Mario Kart scratch and win game with 25 million dollars in prizes in December of 1992 Super Mario Kart crossed the Atlantic and hit store shelves in the UK British video game magazine control scored the game been 86 out of 100 calling it the best racing game on the Super Nintendo the following year Super Mario Kart reached the rest of Europe German magazine video games had High Praise calling Super Mario Kart the best racing game of all time not bad for a small side project at Nintendo Super Mario Kart was a surprise hit Nintendo sold more than 1 million copies globally in less than a year it was so popular that Nintendo bundled the game with the Super Nintendo in several regions further increasing sales by the end of the console's lifetime Super Mario Kart had sold more than eight and a half million units worldwide making it the fourth best-selling Super Nintendo game of all time while Super Mario Kart sold incredibly well it impacted the living room even more whether it be the natural competitiveness of racing or the friendly Aesthetics of the Mario Universe Super Mario Kart brought people together like no other game before it so innocently Super Mario Kart crept into the house it looked at first about as interesting as tribe but I soon discovered that this game crossed barriers both in gameplay and generations and what's even sweeter the kids didn't always win my teenage years as a Hunan Wheels were finally beginning to pay off I knew how to drive like a fool they didn't mark can the Sydney Morning Herald friends teamed up to unlock all the races in Grand Prix mode siblings duped it out in battle mode or raced each other one-on-one parents competed with their kids for the fastest time around the courses so it was no surprise that Super Mario Kart won A Parent's Choice Award in 1992 given to quote entertaining products that introduce skills reinforce them and glamorize courage and Common Sense other game developers took notice of the popularity of Super Mario Kart and soon a flood of clones hit the market on both PC and consoles hoping to cash in on the cart racing craze Sega put out Sonic drift on their handheld game gear system Atari released Atari cards for the ill-fated Jaguar console there were also clones on the Super Nintendo such as Street racer A Part racing part fighting game but nothing came close to the success of Super Mario Kart the game stayed on the Nintendo Power charts for an astonishing 68 months until the magazine stopped tracking Super Nintendo games it was the beginning of a popular new franchise for Nintendo their next console the Nintendo 64 would feature the first follow-up to the original game Mario Kart 64. and soon Mario Kart games would come out for every new Nintendo console and handheld and today its popularity is bigger than ever the best-selling game on the Nintendo switch is Mario Kart 8 Deluxe many of the staff members who were involved with the original game still work at Nintendo Shigeru Miyamoto is still Nintendo's Chief software producer he is widely considered the greatest video game designer of all time remained involved in every future Mario Kart game today he is in charge of Nintendo's mobile game division Tadashi sugiyama would go on to work on several Mario Kart games including Mario Kart 64 and Mario Kart Double Dash for the GameCube tsukiyama also directed f-zero X released in 1998 and thanks to the power of the Nintendo 64 it was finally able to implement multiplayer in the fast-paced racing game today tsugiyama is still with Nintendo working as a designer programmer masato Kimura who worked tirelessly to perfect the cart controls continue to program various Nintendo games including the Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker and Super Mario Galaxy most recently he worked on the latest Mario Kart game Mario Kart 8 Hajime yajima who implemented the DSP chip into Super Mario Kart continued to put his technical knowledge to use he provided assistance with new graphically intense games like Star Fox and Super Mario 64. today he is still working within the technology department at Nintendo but not everyone stayed composer soyo Oka left the company in 1995 to become a freelancer working in radio television and video games but Super Mario Kart stayed with her even today people come up to Oka and talk about the game she said I am truly moved to think that I have inspired children and young people more than I had ever imagined at these times I again come to understand how much of an amazing hit the game was and how many people played it in total the Mario Kart franchise has sold more than 150 million copies worldwide making it one of Nintendo's best-selling series and it all started with Super Mario Kart a game that began as a failed experiment became one of the most influential games of all time in 2019 the strong Museum in Rochester New York acknowledged the game's impact by inducting it into the world video game Hall of Fame Super Mario Kart's unique combination of familiar characters and exhilarating social gameplay produced a powerful franchise that invited friends family and gaming fans of all ages to the Mushroom Kingdom for an unforgettable ride the strong Museum [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] funding for gaming historian is provided in part by supporters on patreon thank you [Music]

Channel: Gaming Historian

Views: 1,700,408

Keywords: super mario kart, mario kart, mario cart, the story of super mario, nintendo, super famicom, super nintendo, shigeru miyamoto, hideki konno, tadashi sugiyama, masato kimura, soyo oka, hajime yajima, snes, sfc, f1 racing, super mario, 16 bit, console wars, super mario world, f-zero, mario kart prototype, f-zero x, mario kart 64, mario kart 8, mario kart double dash, nintendo ead, nintendo history, mario history, video game history, gaming historian, documentary

Id: NDHZKYETDyU

Length: 50min 54sec (3054 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 02 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/StampCollectorBill]

Another excellent video from one of the highest quality content creators on YouTube.

[u/NES_Classical_Music]

Never played this as a kid. Always wanted to. Always felt like I was missing out.

Played it decades later and I can appreciate it for setting the standard for the Mario Kart franchise... but I feel like you had to play it in the 90s to appreciate the gameplay.

[u/joshuralize]

TGH and Defunctland are the only things keeping me alive

[u/THE_GR8_MIKE]

Perfect timing for the weekend. Going to fry my mind and watch this.

[u/SophiaPetrillo_]

Gaming Historian’s content reminds me of the fantastic shit the History Channel was putting out in the 90s. Incredibly entertaining, informative, and narrated well.

[u/Videoboysayscube]

The production value on his videos is amazing. Where does he even get video footage of the crew working in the office??? That kind of thing wasn't even common back then.

[u/trainercatlady]

Bless Norm. His work is always so good

[u/RIPSlurmsMckenzie]

Love his videos

[u/QuarterSwede]

One doesn’t just watch Gaming Historian. One schedules time to watch his documentaries.