What was the first game in the Mario Kart series?

The first game in the Mario Kart series was Super Mario Kart.

Nintendo released Super Mario Kart for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1992. It established the series’ core formula: recognizable Mario characters racing on themed tracks while using items to slow opponents, gain speed, or change the outcome of a race. The game included Grand Prix, Time Trial, Match Race, and Battle Mode.

Its design grew from an experiment inspired by F-Zero. Nintendo wanted a racing game that could support two players on one screen, so the team created smaller, more turn-focused tracks than F-Zero’s high-speed courses. Mario characters were added during development after the team saw how well a character-sized kart worked in the prototype.

Super Mario Kart is also remembered for Mode 7 graphics, which rotated and scaled the track plane to create a pseudo-3D effect on the SNES. Later games such as Mario Kart 64, Mario Kart DS, and Mario Kart Arcade GP expanded the series, but they were sequels or spin-offs. They did not precede the original Super Mario Kart.