Super Mario Kart may have been the originator, but the title most cite as the launching point for the modern genre of car combat is Twisted Metal. It has been de-emphasized by publishers and developers alike and it remains to be seen if it can ever become a major genre again. By the time that era came to a close the market was saturated with games of varying quality including licensed games like WWE Crush Hour, which was the breaking point for the genre. It especially exploded during the Playstation era. Other publishers must have taken note, because it wasn’t long until games started showing up that relied almost entirely on this battle mode concept introduced by Super Mario Kart. This mode proved highly addictive and whenever I got together with friends to play Super Mario Kart we pretty much always played battle mode and hardly ever touched the main game. Players used the various power-ups to target their opponents with turtle shells and banana peels in an effort to incapacitate their opponents.

Nintendo, recognizing this, implemented a battle mode in Super Mario Kart that dropped the racers into an arena with the goal of being the last man standing. Either at the arcades with fighting games or on the computer with death match modes in first-person shooters. Around the time it came out, competitive gaming was becoming more and more popular. It was a wacky take on the genre, but it also was more than just a racing game.

Super Mario Kart was primarily a go-kart racing game with characters from Nintendo’s Super Mario series of games. For me, the vehicular combat genre as I know it originated with a surprising title Super Mario Kart. As such, tracing its origins proves quite difficult. They either take the form of a more traditional tank battle or a more outlandish game of chicken with machine guns and rocket launchers. The vehicular combat genre of games has been around for almost as long as video games have.

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