Trying to Rank the Mario Kart Games

If you couldn’t tell, I am so excited for Mario Kart World on the Nintendo Switch 2. Damn, it’s one of the reasons I had to make sure to preorder the console with the game packed in. I have been playing the series ever since it was released in 1992 for the Super Nintendo. My brother had picked it up at Toys “R” Us while we were on summer vacation, and we played an insane amount of it. Most of the time, it was my dad, brother, and I taking turns facing off against each other in battle mode, trying to pop the other's balloons.

Over the years, and as newer consoles were released, we kept up with the series; the Mario Kart games were always must-own titles for us. Now that I have my own kids, I’ve made sure to keep up with the games and introduce them to one of my favourite game series. Since I have all the Mario Kart titles released on consoles, I figured it would be fun to try and rank them and figure out which entries I enjoyed the most, along with my reasoning. At least, I said it would be fun, but it was actually extremely hard to do.

Mario Kart: Super Circuit

Game Boy Advance

This title is at the bottom of my list. It was a great Game Boy Advance game, but because of the cartridge size restrictions, the tracks are quite short compared to other entries in the series. It’s still a fun title, but it ranks at the bottom for me.

Mario Kart 7

Nintendo 3DS

Being able to play Mario Kart on the handheld was great, but I wasn't a huge fan of the 3D setting on the 3DS, and I rarely turned it on. There are lots of fun tracks to play, and you could now switch to a first-person perspective, with lots of kart customisations available. It introduced four new characters to play as: Metal Mario, Wiggler, Lakitu, and Honey Queen, but they needed to be unlocked first. The problem is, to do that, you need to win gold in all eight cups at the 150cc level, which I found to be incredibly challenging. No wonder I had a bunch of mystery characters that I never got a chance to try out.

Mario Kart

SNES

As I had stated above, this is one of my most-played games on the system. It was so different from all the other racing games out there, you could throw silly items like shells and banana peels at your opponents to slow them down. There were a variety of fun tracks, and Rainbow Road was gorgeous when you played it, so many colours! Besides racing, you could face another player in Battle Mode, where you tried to pop your opponent’s three balloons. Who knew this title would be the first of an awesome franchise?

Mario Kart Wii

Nintendo Wii

This game has an impressive 32 tracks to race on: 16 new and 16 returning classics from previous titles. It also came with the Wii Wheel accessory to put your Wiimote into so that you could steer like you were really driving. If this type of controller wasn’t of interest to you, there was the option to use a GameCube controller or the Wii Classic Controller. There were bikes and karts available to drive; the motorcycles were faster, but they were harder to handle. You could now perform aerial tricks by shaking the Wiimote, which would give you a speed boost when you landed.

This title also has six new playable characters: Rosalina, Baby Peach, Baby Daisy, Dry Bowser, Funky Kong, and two different Mii outfits. This version was fun to play with my kids when they were younger since they would use motion controls to see instead of trying to deal with thumbsticks. Plus, it worked well for people who don’t usually play games!

Mario Kart DS

Nintendo DS

This is one of the first games in the franchise to introduce retro tracks, so you were able to play courses from earlier titles in the series. The single-player mode is great, and if you were playing with others, only one of the players needed a copy of the game. This would allow up to eight players to play together using DS Download Play, though the racers who didn’t have the main game would race as Shy Guy and couldn’t customise their karts. They were also restricted to playing on only eight tracks, but this is quite reasonable considering they didn’t own the game. Blooper and Bullet Bill make their first appearances as items in this title. Damn ink all over my screen, obscuring my view!

Mario Kart 64

Nintendo 64

This game introduces four-player split-screen races and a balloon battle mode — though you could do some screen-watching to figure out where your opponents were hiding. The most annoying part was having to use the Nintendo 64 controller and the inclusion of the dreaded Blue Shell if you were usually near the front of the pack. Rainbow Road was intense here, but if you timed it right, you could jump off the side of the track right near the beginning and land on the track near the finish line. I’ve only seen it work once, but it works great if you can pull it off.

Mario Kart: Double Dash!!

Nintendo GameCube

This title was released on the GameCube and features a mechanic that no other Mario Kart title had before or since: instead of selecting one racer, you picked two who would race together in one kart. One character was driving while the other handled throwing your attack items. Your combination affected the types of items you could receive. My husband would always take Donkey Kong and Diddy, and the combo of the two would create huge bananas that, when hit, exploded into many little ones — causing sheer chaos on tracks like Baby Park. It was always a race to select the Kongs before he had a chance to, but he’s so fast we were always at the mercy of that tropical fruit all over the track. There was no online play, but that’s okay because local multiplayer was a blast.

Mario Kart 8 and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Nintendo Wii-U and Nintendo Switch

I’m going to lump these titles together, as they are fundamentally the same game, with the Deluxe edition featuring a revamped battle mode, double item boxes, and extra characters. Mario Kart 8 introduced the 200cc engine class, ATVs, and anti-gravity racing. There are fifteen new characters, with an additional six in the Deluxe game. This version also has the Booster Course Pass DLC expansion available (if you pay for the online expansion pass on the Switch), with a ton of additional tracks, including a few returning characters. In the original game, there are 48 courses to race on, but if you got the Booster Pack, the number jumps to 96 tracks! That’s insane, there are so many here!

For the Wii U version, you had 36 different racers to play as. With the Deluxe version and DLC, that number jumps to 53. The character you select and your kart choices can make a huge difference in how you race. It’s worth experimenting with characters you haven’t used before; it can turn the tide of the race! The game looks and sounds beautiful, and all the retro tracks you know from previous versions look better than ever. Plus, there’s an awesome highlight reel when you finish a race, showing the crazy moments that occurred. Along with this and the sheer number of choices, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is my favourite.

As I go through all the titles, I realise that all my favourite memories of this series involve playing multiplayer locally with my friends and family. Sure, it’s nice to play on your own, but there is something special about playing with others — even when it feels like you’re continually getting left in the dust. I can’t wait to see all the new things that Mario Kart World will bring to the table, and if it will become my new favourite, or if it will try to do too much and fall lower on my list.