Vehicle of the Week: Mario Kart's Toad

By: 8 Bit Brit
Published: Jul 8, 2011
at 4:02 pm

Toad

The lightweight and fast fungus amungus.

A lot of people don’t give Toad enough credit. He is one amazing little man. He is the protector of the Mushroom Kingdom and attendant to Princess Peach. One of the original characters from Super Mario Bros. this guy has done everything from being a messenger, to racing, sports, dirt biking, a television star to many other things. Famous for his mushroom like features and tiny body, Toad can dish it out on the race track.

Super Mario Kart is a racing title that was released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) in 1992. This became one of the most popular games for the SNES and the beginning of the kart style racing games that have continued to entertain us from Nintendo. This racing game had many characters to choose from. Ranging from playing as Mario to Bowser there was a character for you to choose from to fit your racing style. Toad was a choice by many due to his lightweight and steering capabilities.

Don’t think I forgot to talk about the best part of Super Mario Kart… Wrecking your friends and pissing them off with in-game items. Yup. You all have done it. You know when you heard the star sound coming at you, you knew you were screwed. The items available for in-game carnage “Mario” style included a banana peel, a feather, mushrooms, shells, lightning bolts and more. Each of these items have it’s own purpose in the game. See below for a little description of the items in this game title.

Lightning bolts everyone around you shrunk and you were to pass them with lightning speeds and even squash them into the ground.
Banana peels made another played spin out and slow down on the track… this being very frustrating if there are many placed on the track.
Red shells were aimed at the player in front of you and it would chase them down and spin them out of control.
Green shells were better to use for close combat use. If you missed they would bounce around the track.
Feathers were there to give you the ability to jump.
Mushrooms would speed you up really fast that if used at the proper time could get you ahead of other players.
Star power is the same as it has been in every Mario game. Invincible.
Boo makes you transparent to go through obstacles and items… also been known to steal items from the top racer.

There were times where Toad was just an annoying little character at the end of the castle in Super Mario Bros. always telling us that “Our Princess was in another castle.” Now, Toad has become a star of his own and a favorite character in many Mario game titles.