Super Mario Kart

Super Mario Kart is a wacky racing game featuring Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, and many other characters from the Mario universe. It more or less started the whole trend of "Mascot Racers".

Debug Mode


A number of debug commands can be accessed with Pro Action Replay code, where "??" is one of the following:
 * - Pushing L puts you on the last lap
 * - Game crashes at race start
 * - Item Debugger. Pushing certain buttons lets you use an item instantly.
 * L - Green Shell
 * R - Red Shell
 * A - Mushroom
 * X - Star
 * Y - Feather
 * Select - Banana
 * Y + Up - Lightning
 * Y + Down - Ghost
 * - Race starts instantly
 * - CPU usage meter

More than one debug command can be used at a time by adding the bytes above together (e.g. entering in place of "??" will enable both pressing L to skip to the last lap and the item debugger).

Regional Differences
In the Japanese version, Bowser's and Toadstool's victory animations depict them drinking champagne. Nintendo of America's policies at the time did not allow depictions of drinking in games, so the animations had to be changed accordingly. These changes were maintained for the European release.

Bowser's victory pose originally showed him chugging the champagne. He just poses happily with it in the international versions.

In the Japanese version, Toadstool daintily sips her champagne, although the shading on her face says she might already be drunk. In the international versions, she tosses it in the air.

In the Japanese version, the title screen graphics have a smaller letter "O", and the letters overlap each other substantially more than in the international version. The Japanese title screen lettering is very similar to that of Super Mario Bros. 3, while the international version aimed for a slightly more refined look. Additionally, the "TM" is in a different position.

The background used on the title screen in the Japanese version has what appears to be an Ai-Ai Gasa (相合傘; translated as sharing an umbrella) saying "Mario" and "Peach", and "Mario Kart" written in Japanese. These were removed in the international version, and the mushroom was moved to fill some of the resulting dead space.

Several of Yoshi's sprites are slightly different in the Japanese version, having a thinner head. Interestingly, the Yoshi graphics used in the international versions more closely resemble those in the undumped prototype than the Japanese version's, though the latter was released first.