Series · part of Mario

Mario Kart

Nintendo's kart-racing series with Mario's cast, begun on the Super NES in 1992.

Mario Kart is the Mario franchise’s kart-racing series. Mario Kart 64 and Mario Kart: Double Dash!! have pages here so far.

Games

Mechanics

Mechanic	Mario Kart 64 1996	Mario Kart: Double Dash!! 2003
Drift boost	Stick stages
Engine class	Top speed
Item distribution	By placeFlat	By place
Rocket start	Press window
Rubber-band AI	Power boost

A marked cell changed from the game before. “Uses” means the game has the mechanic, with no variant recorded yet.

Every claim, by mechanic and game

Concept	Mario Kart 64 1996	Mario Kart: Double Dash!! 2003
Drift boost	In the US version of Mario Kart 64, while a kart drifts on the ground, holding the stick at least 10 of its 53 steps toward the outside of the turn counts up `driftStateCounter`. Letting the stick back after 18 to 99 counts raises `driftState` by one, up to 3, and sets the count to 10, so each later step takes 8 more counts (computed); letting it back before 10 counts, or at 100 or more, resets both to 0. When a human player's drift ends with `driftState` at 2 or more, the kart gets `MINI_TURBO_EFFECT` for 31 player updates (computed), during which a term in its forward force moves toward 580 by a fifth of the gap each update. Code
Engine class	In the US version of Mario Kart 64, in Grand Prix and Versus the engine class sets each kart's top speed from `gTopSpeedTable` when it spawns: 290 at 50cc, 310 at 100cc, and 320 at 150cc for Mario, Luigi, Donkey Kong, Wario, and Bowser, and 4 more for Yoshi, Toad, and Peach. Extra uses the 100cc numbers, Time Trials always reads the 100cc row, and Battle gives every driver 245. Code
Item distribution	In the US version of Mario Kart 64, `gen_random_item` picks an item as one byte from a 100-byte row of a table, the row for the driver's current place. In Grand Prix, human players read `common_grand_prix_human_item_curve` and CPU drivers `common_grand_prix_cpu_item_curve`, and that branch reads no player count. Versus picks one of three tables by the number of players (two, three, or four), and Battle reads one row whatever the place. The slot is a random number from 0 to 100 (`random_int(100)`) plus the previous slot, a counter that held A, B, and R buttons advance, and the race frame counter, taken mod 100. Code	In the doldecomp decompilation of Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, which builds a USA debug version (`MarioClub_us`) and whose item manager, `Sato/ItemObjMgr.cpp`, does not yet match the game's code, the item pick reads byte weights from a file on the disc, `/Item/ItemSlotList.dat` (or `ItemSlotList1.dat` or `ItemSlotList2.dat`, by the race's item-slot type). The file holds lists, each with a row of weights for every place, and a Grand Prix or Versus pick reads the row for the kart's place less one. Outside LAN play, Grand Prix reads a list by engine class (150cc and Mirror share one) for human players and the next list for CPU drivers, and Versus reads one list for every driver by the number of karts, two to four. The pick adds the row's weights for nine common kinds and for the driver's own special item, draws a whole number below the total (computed), and walks the running sum. The special's weight is multiplied by 1.5 when the two riders are a default pairing (`isDefaultCharCombi`), and the special is left out when the partner holds or stocks a special item, or when it is `ItemHeart` and the kart already has one; four common kinds (`ItemThunder`, `ItemStar`, `ItemKinokoSuc`, and `ItemFlyTurtle`, which the atlas reads as the Spiny Shell) are left out when the partner holds or stocks the same kind. `startShuffle` clears the flag the code calls `_7`, and `startItemShuffleSingle` sets it when its `doShuffle` argument is true; with it set, the pick first draws among the specials alone. `setDynamicRate`, which copies the weights the pick reads, writes 0 for any kind whose `IsAbleToCreateItem` is false (a function the decompilers comment as fabricated), and in Grand Prix multiplies the CPU list's `ItemFlyTurtle` weight by 1.5 while `RivalBodyCtrl::isPlayerFirst()` is true. In Grand Prix, Mario Kart 64 instead reads one byte from a 100-slot row for the place, from a human or a CPU table, with no partner or character in the pick. Code notes In the doldecomp decompilation of Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, which builds a USA debug version (`MarioClub_us`) and whose item manager, `Sato/ItemObjMgr.cpp`, does not yet match the game's code, King Boo and Petey (character IDs 19 and 20) get an `ItemRndSpecialShuffleMgr` for their item picks, as every driver does in Balloon Battle and the battle the code calls `ESCAPE_BATTLE`; other drivers get the plain `ItemShuffleMgr`. Where the plain pick adds one special item, the driver's own, the random-special pick adds all nine specials, each weighted from the row's columns 18 to 26, counting from 0 (`slotTable[1][i + 18]` for i from 0 to 8, computed) and multiplied by 1.5 for a default pairing unless `isMiniGame()` is true, and leaves out the heart when the kart already has one. It leaves all nine out when the partner holds or stocks a special item. In Grand Prix, Mario Kart 64's pick takes only the place and whether the driver is a CPU. Code notes
Rocket start	In the US version of Mario Kart 64, the start boost's window opens when Lakitu's countdown finishes the animation after its second light sound, before the green-light sound. A press of A that begins within 8 counts of the race frame counter from the first update the window is open (20 in Time Trials) sets `START_BOOST_TRIGGER`, and letting go of A before the start clears it. The trigger gives the kart the Mushroom's effect and the same boost timer, 80. Once the window is open, a kart that revs to 90% of its top speed without the trigger gets `START_SPINOUT_TRIGGER`, the spin-out for holding the gas. Code
Rubber-band AI	In the US version of Mario Kart 64, `CPU_FAST_EFFECT`, which the decompilers comment as the "CPU Rubberbanding flag", raises a CPU driver's forward force: while it's set, a term in that force moves toward 380 by half the gap each update, and once it's cleared the term falls toward 0 by a tenth of the gap. `regulate_cpu_speed` sets the flag on a CPU driver below its target speed when the pacing check `func_800088D8` returns true, and clears it otherwise. Code