BONUS! This Date in Game History: Super Mario Kart

Imagine a gaming world without any form of cart racing. That would be a sad world, indeed. For without Super Mario Kart, there might not be a Toons' This Date in Game History today!

On September 1st, 1992, Nintendo released Super Mario Kart for the Super Nintendo and Super Famicom. By the end of the SNES's life cycle, the character-driven....(Get it? Driven?)...racing game would be the 3rd highest selling game on that system, selling over 8 million copies. The Guinness Book of World Records also lists this as the "First Console Kart Racing Game."

With two single-player (Mario Kart GP and Time Trials) and three splitscreen multiplayer (Mario Kart GP, Match Race and Battle Mode) modes, there was plenty of racing fun to be had.

Much of the game's variety came into play at the character select screen. The game allowed you to pick from 8 different characters from the Mario universe, many of them playable for the first time ever. The original 8 were Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Yoshi, Toad, Bowser, Koopa Troopa, and Donkey Kong, Jr.. Whether you chose to fling banana peels with DK, Jr. or flinging Koopa Shells with Bowser, you were sure to have a blast playing this game.

That's why the series has endured for 11 total games. It's accessible. Its unique tracks offer variety and replayability. And it's just plain fun.

And now, the series is 23 years old.