ULTIMATE GUIDE SUPER MARIO KART

TAKE SOME GO-KARTS AND MODE 7 TRACKS, ADD A HEALTHY HELPING OF COMBAT AND THEN SPRINKLE IN A LITTLE MARIO MAGIC. WHAT DO YOU GET? ONE OF THE FINEST GAMES EVER MADE FOR THE SNES, AND THE FIRST ENTRY IN A LEGENDARY SERIES OF MULTIPLAYER RACING GAMES

- WORDS BY NICK THORPE

Any conversation about the best multiplayer games of all time will, at some point, turn to the Mario Kart series. Once that happens, the conversation will almost inevitably degenerate into a heated debate over illegal shortcuts and dirty tactics, and soon enough you'll be challenging your conversational partner to a race, which will inevitably cause further arguments that can be heard half-way down the street. That's not an exaggeration either, as our neighbours have pointed out.

Of course, all of that multiplayer joy started on the Mode 7 roads of the SNES. It’s really no wonder that Super Mario Kart is far more renowned for its multiplayer racing than its solo experience, because the game was a multiplayer game before it was anything else, a fact that's visible in its unusual use of a permanent split-screen display. Nintendo had initially explored making a multiplayer F-Zero sequel, only to discover that it wouldn't be possible to replicate the huge courses needed for that kind of speed in a split-screen game. Going back to the drawing board, Nintendo chose to replace the futuristic anti-gravity racers with go-karts, and eventually replaced the generic racer sprite with Mario characters.

The story of the game's development is much more substantial than the story of the game itself. Why is Mario having a friendly race with both his friends and foes? The manual doesn’t elaborate, simply introducing Lakitu as the person in charge of the track. The truth is that it doesn’t matter too much, as the genius of using the