Mario Kart Arcade GP

Mario Kart Arcade GP is an arcade sub-series of Nintendo’s Mario Kart series, developed and published by Namco under license from Nintendo. Mario Kart Arcade GP is the initial installment in the series.

There are a total of six cups, with four tracks in each, totalling twenty-four. The cups are Mario Cup, Wario Cup, Pac-Man Cup, DK Cup, Bowser Cup, and the unlockable Rainbow Cup. After a track is completed, the player must insert additional credits to continue the game, even if first place is achieved. After finishing all four races from each stage, a “challenge game” comes up, in which the player is required to complete a certain task; each of them requires the player to drive to a goal under a certain amount of time while under a certain condition, such as driving backwards through a field of banana peels.

When a player hits one of the item boxes scattered throughout the tracks, the player is given one of the three selected items chosen at the start of a race. Mario Kart Arcade GP features items new and old. Unique to this game is a lock-on feature for the items.

Also unique to this game is a temporary shield that is produced while powersliding which protects players from items thrown at them by the other racers.

The game features all eight playable characters from Mario Kart 64, as well as guest characters Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, and Blinky for a total of eleven. Most of the game’s sound effects came from Mario Kart: Double Dash!! including the pre-race countdown timer to commence racing.