Ten things you should know about Mario Kart

A NEW Mario Kart game is coming soon. While you salivate with anticipation, here are 10 fascinating pieces of trivia from the history of the iconic franchise.

One of the true classics.

MARIO Kart fans, get ready.

The eighth version of the game, Mario Kart 8, is coming. And from what we’ve seen so far, it looks like a polished, gorgeous addition to the franchise. The game introduces new items and tracks, as well as new features, including an anti-gravity option and the ability to record, edit and upload highlight reels of your races to Mario Kart TV or Youtube.

To tide you over until then, we’ve rounded up a few of our favourite pieces of trivia from Mario Kart history.

How well do you think you know the game?

1. Early screenshots of Mario Kart 64 showed a Magikoopa that was possibly Kamek, the main villain of the Yoshi series, as a playable driver.

But the Magikoopa never appeared in the final version of the game. He was at the last minute replaced by Donkey Kong, for unknown reasons. Magikoopas, and Kamek in particular, make a few cameo appearances in other Mario Kart games. For example, Kamek floats near the finish line of Bowser Castle 3.

Driving with Magikoopa ... It could have been a magical experience.

2. Mario Kart Wii is the third-best-selling game of all time, according to the Guinness Book of World Records 2014: Gamer’s Edition.

While there are many different lists out there, Mario Kart Wii always lands in the top 10. It is, after all, the best-selling kart-racing game of all time. Guinness put Mario Kart Wii (33.92 million units sold) behind only Super Mario Bros (40.24 million) and Wii Sports (81.5 million), as of September 2013.

The third-best-selling game ever.

3. The fastest lap around the Kalimari Dessert in Mario Kart 64 took 32.83 seconds.

American user emkarter2014 completed the course in record time, edging out the nearest competition by .55 seconds.

4. The notorious Blue Shell, an unavoidable item (unless you’re playing Mario Kart Wii) used to knock first-placed players off the track, may exist only because of the N64’s processing capabilities, not because the developers felt like playing a sadistic trick.

As Hideki Konno — director of Super Mario Kart (1992) and Mario Kart 64, and producer of Mario Kart DS (2005) and Mario Kart Wii — said in an interview with Kotaku reporter Stephen Totilo:

“With Mario Kart 64, we wanted to have the same thing where everyone was in it until the end, but some of the processing problems occurred that didn’t allow us to do that. And what I mean by that is once you’re in the middle of a race you’ll get that natural separation. What we were trying to do was push them back together with 64, having eight racers on the screen all the time, didn’t work all that well. So, because the processing power didn’t exist, we weren’t able to create the racing environment we wanted,” he said.

Totilo infers from this that the blue shell was “unavoidable” because game developers wanted to keep good players from perpetually having the lead spot and jamming up the N64’s processor, so they used the blue shell to knock them off the track.

No blue shells here. Just blue water.

5. Super Mario Kart had two speeds — fast and way too fast.

At least according to this amazingly ‘90s commercial, that is.

6. There is a Rainbow Road course in every version of the game.

In fact, Mario Kart 8 has two.

Coooooool.

7. Want to get the quickest start out of the gate? You just have to time it right.

The Rocket Start — a short boost that occurs at the beginning of every Mario Kart race in every game — is best activated by hitting the gas when the countdown hits two.

Get the start right.

8. Only six characters have been playable in every game — Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Princess Peach, Toad and Yoshi.

Donkey Kong almost makes this list, but he wasn’t featured in Super Mario Kart. Donkey Kong Jr was.

These are the only characters who have been playable every time.

9. Wario Stadium is the only course from Mario Kart 64 that has not been remade.

The Wario Stadium in Mario Kart DS is not a remake. It’s a completely different course with the same name. There’s a Wario Stadium in Mario Kart 8 as well, but it’s based on the DS version, not the Nintendo 64 version.

Wario Stadium. Classic.

10. Unlike most split-screen games, where watching your opponent’s screen is the greatest kind of sin, in Mario Kart it’s actually encouraged by the handbook.

That’s right. The way you know how to play Mario Kart is totally wrong.

It’s not cheating. Really.

This article originally appeared on The Huffington Post.

Originally published as Ten things you should know about Mario Kart