Trivia / Mario Kart

• Ascended Fan Nickname: The Spiny Shell's common nickname, the "blue shell", finally gets a shout-out in the official The Super Mario Bros. Movie, featuring a Koopa General wearing a blue, spiked shell yelling the name as an attack before divebombing Mario and Donkey Kong in the same manner the Spiny Shell attacks players in the games proper.
• Ascended Fanon:
  • Baby Rosalina was created by fans after the release of Wii (due to her and Waluigi being the only humans without a baby counterpart at the time) before she was officially introduced for 8.
  • Some fans "explained" Wario replacing Koopa Troopa in 64 by his stealing Koopa's kart, which would be totally in character for him. Nintendo Power joined in on it by printing some fan art of Koopa Troopa phoning the police to report Wario's theft of his kart. Nintendo Power's coverage of 64 also included profiles of the racers, with Wario's entry noting that he was rumored to have "borrowed" his kart from a Koopa Troopa.
• Bad Export for You: The international versions of Mario Kart Arcade GP DX do not have BanaPassport support, leaving players without a large chunk of content playable.
• B-Team Sequel: Mario Kart: Arcade GP and its sequels are not directly developed by Nintendo, but by Bandai Namco.
• Cash-Cow Franchise: While already a massively-selling franchise for Nintendo, this series got even bigger with Mario Kart DS and Mario Kart Wii, the latter actually selling better than Grand Theft Auto IV, which would have been unthinkable the previous generation. Mario Kart 8 managed to be the second best-selling game the weekend of its release (selling 1.2 million units) behind Watch_Dogs. For comparison, Watch Dogs is a Multi-Platform game available to all consoles, while Mario Kart 8 was originally exclusive to the worst selling console of the eighth generation and it itself managed to increase sales of just the Wii U by 666%, with 82% of all copies being in bundles, making it one of the Wii U's few Killer Apps. Between the Wii U original and the Nintendo Switch Updated Re-release, Mario Kart 8 is the highest selling game in the whole franchise.
• Colbert Bump: The presence of Mute City and Big Blue in Mario Kart 8 further increased the demand for a new F-Zero game after the series had been on hiatus since the mid-2000s.
• Crossdressing Voices:
  • in the Japanese version of Mario Kart 64 and all versions of Super Circuit, Toad is voiced by Tomoko Maruno. In later games, Toad is voiced by the same actress as Peach and Toadette (Jen Taylor up to DS, Samantha Kelly from Wii onwards).
  • As in the main series, Lemmy is now being voiced by Carlee McManus. Larry is instead voiced by Michelle Hippe.
  • Just like in the main games, Birdo is voiced by Kazumi Totaka.
  • Honey Queen in 7 is voiced by Katsumi Suzuki, who also voices Diddy Kong.
• Dummied Out:
  • Super Circuit has unused icons for the Triple Banana, Fake Item Box and Golden Dash Mushroom, which are all absent from this installment. They were likely cut for game balancing reasons, given the small size of the tracks in the game and the GBA's small screen.
  • DS had several unused tracks. Some were merely for testing, such as ones that actually have "test" in the filename and one that is simply an early version of Wario Stadium, but others include Double Dash!!'s Mario Circuit, a Koopa Troopa Beach track, a variant of DK Pass without snow, an extremely small circle-shaped track, and an unused pinball track (presumably an early version of Waluigi Pinball).
  • Wii has character icons for Petey Piranha, Koopa Paratroopa, Hammer Brother, and a third Mii outfit. The Chain Chomp was also going to be an item and even has an icon for it, but it eventually became the Bullet Bill instead.
  • 7 has unused icons for Mega Mushrooms and Fake Item Boxes. If you try to access them, the game will crash because of either incomplete functions or missing models.
  • 8 has an unused character emblem for a playable Kamek, found in the game's files. Kamek would later use this icon when he was Promoted to Playable for Mario Kart Tour and the Booster Course Pass.
• Fan Translation: Related to the bad export that cut a lot of content from international releases, a group of modders created a work-in-progress one for Arcade GP DX, intended to be patched to the Japanese version of the game.
• Feelies:
  • Mario Kart Wii comes with one of the many plastic Wii Remote accessories, the Wii Wheel. Of course, the game can be played just fine without it attached, and the game is compatible with other controllers such as the GameCube controller.
  • Mario Kart 8 came with a red Wii Wheel and a Mario themed Wii Remote controller if you pre-ordered the Mario Kart Wii U bundle.
• Follow the Leader: Being the Trope Codifier for the Mascot Racer, it was inevitable that numerous other games would copy the formula to varying degrees of success. Some of the more memorable games to come from this include Nickelodeon Kart Racers, Diddy Kong Racing, Donkey Kong Barrel Blast, Banjo-Pilot, Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing, Crash Team Racing, and Disney Speedstorm.
• In Memoriam: Mario Kart Arcade GP DX is dedicated to the memory of Shin-ichi Odake, the producer of the previous GP titles who sadly passed away in the interim.
• International Coproduction: 7 was developed jointly by Kyoto-based Nintendo EAD and Texas-based Retro Studios. The built-in staff ghosts include a mix of records of both divisions of Nintendo.
• Kids' Meal Toy: In March 2022, it got McDonald's toys in time for March 10th.
• Killer App: The entire Mario Kart series is one for every console it's been on. 64, DS, Wii and 8 Deluxe particularly stand out, but every game from Double Dash!! onward counts as well.
• Late Export for You:
  • Like Nintendo Labo, Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit was not available in Latin America when it first launched worldwide, despite the packaging having information for the market's distributor on it. It would take until February 2021 for retailers to start selling it.
  • Overlapping with No Export for You, the initial version of Mario Kart 8 was not released in South Korea due to the Wii U as a whole not being released there. It would take until the release of Deluxe in 2017 for the game to reach Korean consumers.
• Meme Acknowledgment:
  • Nintendo's Digital Event video during E3 2014 had a clip of Luigi giving his memetic death stare while pulling out a green Koopa shell when Reggie Fils-Amie mentioned Mario Kart 8 at one point. This is particularly impressive given that the meme was less than a week old at the time that Nintendo referenced it.
  • When amiibo kiosks were still a thing, Luigi's showcase video featured the death stare.
• Older Than They Think:
  • The game mechanic of getting a speed boost by hopping off of a ramp actually originated in Crash Team Racing, and that game and Pac-Man World Rally used it before before Mario Kart did. Similarly, Crash Nitro Kart had antigravity courses before Mario Kart 8 began to use them. Likewise, the ability to fuse two players' karts together to form a single vehicle that shoots items in Arcade GP DX was originally seen in Crash Tag Team Racing.
  • Within the series, driving in first-person did not originate within Mario Kart 7: it was originally a Bragging Rights Reward within Mario Kart Arcade GP 2 for collecting 4000 Mario Coins.
  • Luigi's infamous "death stare" didn't actually make its debut in 8. It originally appeared in one of Luigi's animations (particularly when the soccer ball is scored against him) in Mario Strikers Charged.
• The Other Darrin:
  • In the Japanese version of Mario Kart 64 and Mario Kart: Super Circuit Luigi is voiced by French localizer Julien Bardakoff and Wario is voiced by German localizer Thomas Spindler. The English version of Mario Kart 64 and the rest of the games from Double Dash!! onwards have them voiced by Charles Martinet.
  • Peach is voiced by Asako Kozuki in the Japanese version of Mario Kart 64 (a portrayal which would be repurposed for all versions of Super Circuit), and Leslie Swan in the international versions. In Double Dash!! and DS she is voiced by Jen Taylor and from Wii onwards she is voiced by Samantha Kelly, who also voices Toad and Toadette.
  • Toad is voiced by Isaac Marshall in the international version of Mario Kart 64, whereas the Japanese version and Mario Kart: Super Circuit have him voiced by Tomoko Maruno. Similarly to Peach above, Double Dash!! and DS have him voiced by Jen Taylor, and from Wii onwards he is voiced by Samantha Kelly (the same applies to Toadette).
  • Bowser is voiced by Scott Burns in Double Dash!! and DS, and by Kenny James from Wii onwards.
  • Double Dash!! has Grant Kirkhope and Chris Sutherland voicing Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong using recycled voice clips from Donkey Kong 64, but in later games, they are voiced by Takashi Nagasako and Katsumi Suzuki respectively.
  • In Double Dash!!, Bowser Jr. is voiced by Dolores Rogers. From Wii onwards he is instead voiced by Caety Sagoian.
  • In Mario Kart 7, instead of Mercedes Rose reprising her role, Rosalina is instead voiced by Kerri Kane, who made Rosalina sound somewhat younger and more cheerful than before (though retaining some of her solemnity), and would also voice her in the later Super Smash Bros. titles. However, in 8, she is voiced by Laura Faye Smith, her actress from Super Mario 3D World, who made her sound even younger. This spawned complaints from fans that Nintendo was trying to turn her into a space version of Peach.
  • Ludwig and Iggy were previously voiced by Mike Vaughn, but they're now voiced by David J. Goldfarb and Ryan Higgins in Mario Kart 8. The change is very noticable. Additionally, Wendy, Morton, Lemmy, and Larry are now voiced by Ashley Flannegan, David Cooke, Carlee McManus, and Michelle Hippe respectively as opposed to Lani Minella, leaving Dan Falcone as Roy as the only voice actor for the Koopalings who wasn't replaced from New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Super Mario Kart, and by extension the entire series, was born from an attempt to make a multiplayer sequel to F-Zero, meant solely to provide a 2-player counterpart. When the SNES couldn't handle this they decided to make a kart racing game with generic characters. During production someone, after seeing the generic character in overalls, suggested seeing what it would look like to put Mario in a go-kart, and the rest is history.
  • Vanilla Lake had different music in the beta version of Super Mario Kart.
  • Mario Kart 64 was called Super Mario Kart R during early development, and featured a Magikoopa (possibly Kamek) as a playable character instead of Donkey Kong. The feather from Super Mario Kart was also planned to be in the game, but was removed for unknown reasons.
  • The Golden Mushroom and Fake Item Box were supposed to be in Super Circuit. Their unfinished forms can be accessed by hacking. The game was also called Mario Kart Advance, but that name only stuck for the Japanese release.
  • A fifth cup, called the Reverse Cup, was planned for Double Dash!! which makes racers race the track the other way around. Interestingly, several official Tournaments and missions for DS and Wii, all of the courses in Tour and the final laps of Tour Paris Promenade, Tour Sydney Sprint, and DS Peach Gardens in 8 Deluxe revisit this unused concept of backwards tracks. A fan-made mod for Wii also gives all courses in that game backwards variants.
    • Also from Double Dash!!, unused icons show that Donkey Kong Jr. was originally Donkey Kong's partner. He was promptly replaced by Diddy Kong in the final game.
  • Mario Kart DS initially had Professor E. Gadd as a playable character, with the Poltergust 4000 being one of his signature karts. Later in development, his spot on the roster was given to Dry Bones, and the Poltergust 4000 became one of Luigi's karts.
    • The presence of a pink version of the Egg 1 in beta versions of DS suggests that Birdo may have also returned.
  • During early development, Mario Kart Wii was called Mario Kart X. However, the name was changed probably so Japanese consumers wouldn't get confused over the Japanese name of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, which is known as Smash Bros. X there.
  • Waluigi was meant to be playable in Mario Kart 7, but got cut due to time restraints.
  • Mario Kart 8 originally had drills installed to the karts and bikes, so the player could tunnel through the ground. However, this idea was scrapped, because the dev team thought anti-gravity would be more interesting.
  • At one point, Nintendo actually attempted to make a Mario Kart game without the Spiny Shell due to everyone's negative reception towards it. Nintendo scrapped the idea, stating that the game felt like it was missing something without it and that the Spiny Shell should be treated like life (as in life is not fair).

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