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Toad created the Mario Kart tournaments.

Initially, the item boxes were just ? Blocks. However, with the funds from the first tournament, Toad was able to build Toad Factory, where the new item boxes were made specifically for kart races and introduced the next time around. Seeing how profitable these tournaments were, he decided to make two-person karts and double item-boxes, hoping to increase his profits. However, this turned out to be more expensive than it was worth, hardly turning a profit.

Toad goes back to single-person go-karts, and decides to go a different direction with the addition of motorbikes. He also decides to spend some time making his factory into a track for everyone to tour. However, people going through his factory began to worry Toad, as people crashed into boxes and got squished on the conveyor belts. He decides to shut the track down.

When he hears of Captain Toad's adventures across the universe, he gets an idea: anti-gravity. He begins working immediately, adding it to some old tracks in order to revive interest, and using it in new tracks. While he was hesitant, he eventually invited some other Nintendo characters and brought the double item-boxes back.

Also, Mario Party's Mini-game Island ended with a face-off against him in a racing mini-game.

So, what's the deal with Go-Karting with Bowser?

It's all that crazy Mushroom Kingdom Royal Family politics, man. Truth is, Bowser's species came to Mario World millions of years ago on an asteroid named Bunuri, and they were the dominant species on the planet. But Mario World changed from a lizardy, cold-blooded place into the beautiful fungus-covered paradise it is today. The Koopas retreated beneath the surface, except for a few of their leaders, who interbred with humans in order to control the population.

These half-Koopa, half-mushroom people became the Royal Family, and continued to breed with the Koopa leaders until they all died out, because they were all intermarried with the Mushroom people. But something happened with the Koopas beneath the surface, and they became the violent, militaristic people they are today, and Bowser, the son of some nothing noble of a minor Koopa Kolony, overthrew his cousins' family and instated his own Military Junta, and proceeded to try to take the surface world.

The reason Bowser wants to kidnap Peach and Daisy, is because if he marries one of them, his children will be in line for the Mushroom Kingdom throne.

As to why it keeps happening, well, here's the thing... Bowser's got an inside man, who is part mushroom, part reptile. He's immensely trusted by the royals, and is such a deep cover agent that he plays himself as a huge coward and an idiot, in order to hide the fact that his allegiance is purely Koopa. But his name gives it all away: Why do you think he's called "Toad"?

  • Toads are amphibians...
  • And I do believe that the various Mushroom hat wearing people are given variations of the name "Toad". (Toadsworth being one example.) If one person can be considered a inside man because of the name, then what keeps the other people from being the same?
  • I'd always figured it was because Mario is a very poor judge of character and just thinks Bowser is his worst best friend.
  • I've always figured Bowser was only evil because he was under the influence of the power stars (like Wiggler in Super Mario 64). I just figured the Mario Kart games took place before he was corrupted, or after he shook the addiction.
  • Bowser wants to kidnap Peach in the middle of a race. While Mario's distracted by being the best, Bowser will catch up to Peach's car, use some items to slow her down, wait until they've been passed by everybody else (because nobody will suspect anything; it's normal in the races), then leave with her. And nobody will notice a thing until the end of the Grand Prix, when they're too far away for Mario to do anything about it.

  • Actually, there's a theory floating around that the Mario Kart series actually comes after the main Mario series, after the Mushroom Kingdom and the Koopa Kingdom have made a truce for good.

The games are a test to see how far we can go before we lose it.

This explains why the cheating is so bad. Nintendo wants to see how far we can go before we lose our sanity due to cheating bastard AI. The game doesnt even try to hide it that well on some versions of mario kart. On 50 Cheating Capacity, your more likely to make it through the whole game. On 100CC, you're gonna need antidepressants. on 150CC, if you get through this alive, you need a mental hospital. This also explains the rubberband AI and how the CPUs coordinate attacks on only you.

  • Or maybe it's to see how far the player can push themselves to beat the worst opponents out there, almost like a training montage.
Dry Bones in Mario Kart DS is the Koopa from Super Mario Kart and Double Dash.

In between Double Dash and DS, he died and was reanimated as a Dry Bones. However, he still had a passion for kart racing, so he came back. The Koopa in Wii is his relative.

  • Better idea: the Koopa of Super Mario Kart loved karting immensely but when Wario stole and redesigned his kart (this part isn't WMG, it actually says in the Mario Kart 64 manual Wario stole the kart), he got depressed and and killed himself after he wasn't allowed to enter the Super Circuit. Unfortunately, he was granted permission for Double Dash since the Pipe-frame Karts were thrown out, so a relative took over for Double Dash. The relative needed a break for a while, and the old Koopa was resurrected and therefore was ready for DS. In Wii, the relative was done taking a break and Dry Bones just had to come back again.
  • The relative could have swapped places with Dry Bones for 7.

Koopa The Quick is the Green Koopa Troopa in all the Mario Kart games

Koopa The Quick clearly likes racing, it simply makes sense with his character. The Super Mario Kart predates his introduction technically, but that's a minor issue.

  • Easily explained, too: In Super Mario 64, his love of racing drove him to try out foot-racing. After seeing how handily Mario beat him, however, he decided to stick to kart racing.

Rainbow Road is the cause of the Kart Races

Every few years, it pops up in the general vicinity of space in a new form. Whether it's a sentient deity or the Mushroom Kingdom people just choose too, a Kart racing tournament is held in its honor, the last race taking place on the road itself.

Neo Bowser/Koopa City takes place in a Bad Future where Bowser succeeds in conquering the Mushroom Kingdom.

It could even be Mushroom City, renamed and rebuilt in Bowser's honor.

  • I always assumed it was the Koopa equivalent of mushroom city.

Mario Kart 7 will get Downloadable Content.
DLC for 3DS games has been confirmed as a feature.

Nintendo is aware of the many cries of "ruined" over the lack of some fan-favorite characters, possibly because they wanted to bring more attention to the four newcomers. DLC in the form of veteran racers remedies this. Don't think Nintendo forgot about those guys, either; they'll be playable in upcoming entries in the spin-off titles (Mario Party 9, Fortune Street).

Are you disappointed with the current roster? Were you clamoring to play as Waluigi, King Boo, and Dry Bones? There's still hope. As an added bonus, DLC for 3DS games will be free of charge. In the end, everyone wins.

After all, why have Waluigi Pinball if the purple guy himself can't race on his own track?

The late November 3DS system update will add the ability for developers to release downloadable content for games in the 3DS eShop, but Nintendo president Satoru Iwata has revealed there'll be no Nintendo DLC until 2012.

Speaking to investors after the semi-annual financial report, Iwata said:

Nintendo will also offer something like this for the titles Nintendo publishes next year, in a way that should be appreciated by our consumers.

That means we most likely won't see any extra cars or courses in Mario Kart 7 for example, but we could see additional stages offered in Luigi's Mansion 2.

No actual quote from Nintendo. Plus the author said "most likely won't". Emphasis on "most".

Metal Mario is Bowser's answer to Metal Sonic.

  • Like Eggman, Bowser decided to make an Evil Knockoff of the main character. Metal Mario in Mario Kart 7 is Bowser's new Dragon.

  • By extension, Metal Mario is an Early-Bird Cameo for his appearance in the next mainline game, as he has never appeared in a Mario game since Dr. Mario 64. It helps he's been depicted in recent spin-offs as Mario's rival.

The entire Mario Kart franchise is an epilogue to the Super Mario series.

  • After the countless conflicts between the Mushroom Kingdom and the Koopa Troop, as chronicled in the plaforming games. the two sides made a treaty that guaranteed the coexistance of the two parties. As a celebration of the peace, a karting tournament, similar to the Olympics, was held. The leaders of the two factions agreed to compete themselves, along with the Mario brothers, two athletes from each faction, and two foreigners, Yoshi and Donkey Kong Jr. The tournament was held throughout both countries as a sign of unity. Even Bowser's mighty fortresses now became a sign of unity and cooperation. The entire affair was a success, and future tournaments would be held every few years.
    • Following tournaments expanded even further, including important dignitaries from a variety of nations. Notable examples include Donkey Kong from Donkey Kong Island, Princess Daisy from Sarasaland, Rosalina from Comet Observatory, and Queen Bee from Honeyhive Kingdom. As this occurred, locations from their kingdoms were also modified into race tracks. Eventually, old tracks were reused as parts of new tournaments.
      • For the record Donkey Kong Jr from Super Mario Kart is the canonically the same character as the Donkey Kong in the current games. So there must have been a LONG time between games.
    • Also, they reinvented the time machine from one of Mario and Luigi`s past adventures, and enhanced it so it could travel in between dimensions, too. Hence Neo Bowser City, another dimension where Bowser rules, and Rainbow Road.
      • Unless Neo Bowser City is just an indication of how much Bowser's rule has thrived in the many years since the races started an era of economic success.
    • Alternatively, Rainbow Road is the love and harmony the treaty brought about given physical form through the will of the Power Stars. It started off as a barebones track of rainbow bricks, but as more and more people joined the races, spreading the harmony across more and more kingdoms, the road grew in size and detail, even incorporating warm memories of the past. (Everyone showing up as neon faces in the stars in 64, and the floating rainbow statues of items in Double Dash) Once Rosalina joined, as a sign of thanks, she combined her cosmic powers with the power of the stars to allow Rainbow Road to grow to epic proportions, incorporating her own star fueled interstellar technology to let racers travel all around the Mushroom Galaxy on a once-in-a-lifetime joyride of companionship. and since more and more people join the races and it reaches out further and further, the Rainbow Road will only become more and more beautiful and epic.
      • And then it will become the highway between the stars.

Neo Bowser City is a new version of the City from the Super Mario Bros movie.
To me, both cities always had a style which was a little bit similar. Perhaps, in a future version of the track, the players might even encounter or be able to drive the Police cars http://www.smbmovie.com/SMBArchive/preproduction/artwork/7_art.html from the movie.

Retro courses for Mario Kart 8...
Before the guesses begin, these are the seven retro tracks that have already been confirmed:
  • Mario Circuit (from Super Circuit)
  • Dry Dry Desert (from Double Dash!!)
  • Tick Tock Clock (from DS)
  • Grumble Volcano (from Wii)
  • Music Park (aka Melody Motorway, from 7)
  • Piranha Plant Slide (aka Piranha Plant Pipeway, from 7)
  • DK Jungle (from 7)
In my personal opinion, I think the Rainbow Road from 64 will reappear as the final course of the Lightning Cup, because the Rainbow Road from Super reappeared in 7. Well, it's possible.

  • Confirmed as of April 3, 2014. 64's Rainbow Road appears as the last course of the Lightning Cup.

Double Dash's Rainbow Road will appear in Mario Kart 9.
Well, SNES Rainbow Road appeared in 7, and 64's Rainbow Road is appearing in 8, so it would make sense that GCN Rainbow Road would appear in 9.
  • If they're going in order, then GBA Rainbow Road is next.
    • Assuming Mario Kart 9 will be the next handheld entry in the series, that is. Going off of that, GCN Rainbow Road could be saved for the Mario Kart game that hits the Wii U's successor.

The games are all part of some big off-screen adventure
     Kinda long 
The characters team up using the races as a distraction so that others can get close to whatever villain is threatening the world and act they like rivals to fool the bad guys, or some kind of time warp makes them repeat most sections of the road three times while they try to get to the villain. It would explain why Mario Peach and the rest don't seem to mind going karting with Bowser. The games always have at least one Mario Circuit, Bowser Castle, and Rainbow Road because they always start off actually racing at some stadium until they go to the castle when they first hear of trouble, and the villain sets up base at Bowser's castle, and the racers get sent to some rainbow-colored track in space, which seems to get bigger and more complex each game because the villain's plans do. The cups are long roads that eventually lead to Bowser's castle, and each one is blocked after the game it's in or they don't want to make it obvious by taking the same route each time. The retro tracks are a result of the big bad sending them back in time. The obsticals like Goombas, Chain Chomps, and Piranha Plants are Bowser's troops who defected to the enemy's side. The unlocked racers are captured characters that are rescued and the unlocked karts are built by an unseen engineer who also designed emblems and built R.O.B in DS and built custom karts and Metal Mario in 7. The babies from Double Dash and Wii were also brought to the present via time travel. Rainbow Road is some kind of world-destroying asteroid-like object that the racers send further into space and it gets bigger and stronger each time the bad guys bring it back. The closest it came to destroying everything was in Double Dash, where you could see Mushroom City below it. After Wii, it crashed into the moon but was slow enough to avoid doing much damage, which is why you drive on the moon and a planet similar to Saturn.
Knowing what Mario Kart 8 did with Mario Kart 64's Rainbow Road, there's a chance that if Wario Stadium (N64 Version), the only Mario Kart 64 course so far not to be in a Retro Track, would receive the same "3 Section" treatment
  • It is the second longest track in that game after all ...
Mario Kart 9 will not have Wario Stadium.
That will be saved for the game after that. Instead, Mario Kart 64 will be represented through Double Decker. Honestly, Wario Stadium is a really hard concept to modernize, since it was borne out of the Nintendo 64's limitations and would be pretty boring by today's standards, but it wouldn't make sense without the ultra-compact layout. I think the team will continue to think about how to get Wario Stadium to work (no doubt this is why they've held off on it for so long and why Yoshi Valley took so long) while fulfilling the rule of a Retro Course from every past Mario Kart game through the Battle Mode.
Diffrent colored Toads will be a reward for buying the next Mario Kart 8 DLC bundle.
Think about it we say different colored Shy Guys and Yoshis watching the races from the sidelines before the update. More over Toads have been given the same treatment in the Mario Baseball series where they along with Shy Guys and Yoshis in the second game were given alternate colors that the player could switch. Toad is also between the two one the roster with the only other character in between being Koopa who could also get the same treatment for the same reasons.
The series takes place in the World of Trophies
I mean c'mon, two versions of Mario Together at the same damn time? (Mario Kart from Double Dash onward) I'm sorry, they've all got to be trophies! Toys driving Toy Cars and Motorbikes!

Let's look at it this way, Master Hand is bored, so he creates toys out of Mario Characters and put them in Toy Go-Karts they find in their cosmic Toy Chest. Master Hand and Crazy Hand go and construct tracks for each racer to race through and fun is had by all, but this still bores the Hands... So they create a board game! But when even that fails to amuse them for too long they go beyond Mario and pick one toy from nine other assorted toy chests while Crazy Hand picking another from the 151 Toys in the Pokemon Chest: Jigglypuff.

Fast Forward to Melee and they've added picked up more toys to pit against one another, even three who dont even have a chest to call their own. But the Hands still took time to create new Tracks for Mario Kart, and New Boards for Mario Party, Twas a Labor of Love for the two. For the more creative powers they use, the more powerful the core of the world they built would become.

By the time Brawl had come into being, The Hands have brought a society of stuffed animals to life as well as going out of their way to refurbish whatever old tracks they deem worthy of a makeover and the sheer power they've showcased has attracted the Subspace Army and we all know how they turned out. Although the hectic invasion proved to be quite a handful, they lived to play another day.

Once an urge for a fourth installment of their Smash Battlery! was starting to emerge, The Hands had by then created a race of sentient dolls and created a new way to play their usual board game with their Mario toys to the disgruntlement of a silent majority. They were even contracted to set up new Go-Kart Tracks on three separate occasions! But the multitude of magic the hands have worked over the two decades they've been at this would put a strain on the core of this world where Toys come to life.

It was getting too strong.

Collecting Toys-to-Life figures like Skylanders, Disney Infinity and a soon-to-be-announced LEGO Dimensions obviously did not help, especially since the latter can tap into their powers themselves. As a last resort, the hands turned a few pokemon into human beings for a unique swarm of Unown to control with the goal of shifting the Pokemon they catch in the same way by becoming Pokemon Champions. Although The Nine Vessels and their companions were brave heroes in and of themselves, the cause of their existance ultimately proved to be the last straw. The Core emmitted a Jetlike Swarm which melded itself over the core to create Master Shadow, Master Edges, Master Beast, Master Giant and over a month later in the Wii U version: Master Fortress! Needless to say, the hands were afraid at first, but in time, they worked around this problem and intend to use this swarm to their advantage. The Hands have even made peace with the Toys-to-Life genre and loosened up the boundaries of their segregation of realms.

Which brings us to the here and now, What's next for these two? Only time will tell.

Two retro tracks in the ninth Mario Kart will explicitly take place in the Paper Mario universe
First will be the return of GBA Peach Circuit, and it will end with GBA Rainbow Road, especially because the latter includes Bowser's Castle from the N64 game in the background.

The reason Daisy constantly says "Hi, I'm Daisy!" in Double Dash!!
For many, this was their first time seeing Daisy, so she was constantly introducing herself in hopes of ingraining her name in the psyche of players.

The workings of a two-person kart.
The person in front is not actually driving. All he/she is doing is steering and charging mini-turbos. The person on the back actually has the gas and brake pedals, and leans to initiate drifts.

The Koopa Clown Castle will not be in the retro GBA Rainbow Road.
Paper Mario's been struggling a lot with originality/familiarity, and it seems unlikely that something from an earlier Mario RPG would show up.

Double Dash was originally going to be a Mario Kart game for the Nintendo 64DD.
  • Note that the initials of the words "Double Dash" are "DD".

Hopefully in the future, there will be Sonic the Hedgehog DLC
Many of y'all know the Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games series, which is why it's possible for Sonic the Hedgehog to spread to the Mario Kart series. There would be Sonic the Hedgehog as a playable character and a Sonic-themed course (probably with various famous Sonic stages and time portals).

The next Mario Kart will re-introduce the double drivers mechanic from Double Dash.
It will be called "Mario Kart Switch": Not only is it Super Title 64 Advance, but it's also a pun related to Double Dash's mechanic of switching the driver. Besides, double item boxes were re-introduced in 8 Deluxe, and they wouldn't put that in for no reason, would they?

Mario Kart 9 (or whatever the next game is) will, hopefully, finally introduce Super Smash Bros.-style per-item frequency settings and an online mode that disables items (similar to "For Glory" mode in Smash 3DS/WiiU).
Because let's face it, who actually likes Spiny Shells and lightning bolts? Or hell, 1st place in general being a consistent source of Paranoia Fuel?
  • Anyone not in 1st place would love to put the lead racer through a living hell. It's payback.

Retro Tracks for Mario Kart 9/Switch
Since Retro Tracks have been a staple in the franchise since Mario Kart DS, it's all but confirmed that we will have another set of 16 retro tracks for the next Mario Kart game. Predictions can be posted here:

Time Lord Victorious' predictions

Firstly, let's see how many tracks from each game will be brought back. To be safe, we'll use a total of 16 tracks, and we'll assume they are bringing back tracks that haven't been remade yet:

  • SNES - 1
  • N64 - 1 (considering there's only one track that hasn't been remade yet...)
  • GBA - 2
  • GCN - 2
  • DS - 1
  • Wii - 3
  • 3DS - 3
  • Wii U - 3

Now for the arrangement of the tracks and the tracks themselves:

  • Shell Cup
    • DS Figure-8 Circuit
    • GBA Riverside Park
    • Wii U Sweet Sweet Canyon
    • Wii Toad's Factory
  • Banana Cup
    • 3DS Cheep Cheep Lagoon
    • SNES Ghost Valley 3
    • GCN Mushroom City
    • Wii U Electrodrome
  • Leaf Cup
    • 3DS Mario Circuit
    • N64 Wario Stadium
    • Wii DK Summit
    • GCN Bowser's Castle
  • Lightning Cup
    • Wii U Sunshine Airport
    • Wii Dry Dry Ruins
    • 3DS Maka Wuhu
    • GBA Rainbow Road

Melecie's Predictions

This... is gonna be fun. Assuming all "obligatory theme" tracks like desert and snow are filled by retro tracks, I think we've got...

  • shell cup
    • DS Figure-8 Circuit note 
    • 3DS Cheep Cheep Lagoon note 
    • U Thwomp Ruins note 
    • Wii Toad's Factory note 

  • banana cup
    • SNES Koopa Beach 1 note 
    • Wii Mario Circuit note 
    • GBA Boo Lake note 
    • U Sunshine Airport note 

  • leaf cup
    • GBA Sunset Wilds note 
    • SNES Vanilla Lake 2 note 
    • N64 Wario Stadium note 
    • GCN Mushroom City note 

  • lightning cup
    • U Cloudtop Cruise note 
    • DS Bowser's Castle note 
    • 3DS Maka Wuhu note 
    • GBA Rainbow Road note 

...giving us a total of:

  • 2 tracks from SNES
  • 1 track from N64
  • 3 tracks from GBA
  • 1 track from GCN
  • 2 tracks from DS
  • 2 tracks from Wii
  • 2 tracks from 3DS
  • 3 tracks from Wii U

The next Mario kart game will go the route of Super Smash Bros Ultimate and bring back all the characters, karts/bikes and tracks from all previous games
Because lets face it, how else is Nintendo going to top Mario kart 8 and get people interested in buying the new mario kart, when the switch already has a different Mario kart on it.

The origin of Pink Gold Peach is from Wario Land
At the end of Super Mario Land 3: Wario Land, the castle Captain Syrup was in blows up to reveal a giant statue of Princess Peach. We don't quite know what colour it actually is, due to the Gameboy only being able to produce whites and greys for colours. It does seemingly sparkle however. So what we see in Mario Kart as Pink Gold Peach is actually a miniature version of the statue at the end of Wario Land. How she came to be a miniature version of said statue I couldn't begin to fathom, but it seems like the perfect explanation for a character who appeared seemingly out of nowhere.


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