Why I'm glad Mario Kart doesn't have characters from other Nintendo series

[CM30]

Surprising reason, but here it is:

Mario Kart being a Mario spinoff means Nintendo ironically have to be somewhat imaginative with the character and track choices.

Confused? Well let me explain a bit better. In Smash Bros, Nintendo have to equally represent many different series. Hence they usually don't take chances with more obscure characters, because said characters don't deserve the place that would otherwise be given to someone more well known like Link, Pikachu, Kirby, etc.

But in Mario Kart (and most series specific spinoffs), they can't just rely on famous ones to be playable characters. Hence they have to get more 'imaginative', for better or worse. Hence while I don't like Queen Bee, or Wiggler, and am neutral about Metal Mario, they're at least willing to look into the Mario series a bit deeper to include almost unknown characters.

And as much as people criticise Nintendo for bad character choices and not including their favourites, you'd have even LESS chance of Fawful/Geno/Funky Kong/Rosalina/K Rool/E Gadd/Kamek getting in if they had to compete with Link, Pikachu, Kirby, Captain Falcon, Fox or one of the many more well known Nintendo stars. I don't like some characters, but if Queen Bee, Dry Bowser and ROB can get into the Mario Kart series, then theoretically so could anyone else from the greater Mario series.

That's also why I kind of like spinoffs, they let you see more of the series world and try out more of the individuals found there as main characters.

Anyone agree with this reasoning?

 

[NintenDan]

I am the same! If we had everybody popping up, then dear ol Shy Guy would never get into the spotlight. I don't mind maybe a cameo of them in the background, but that's all I want (and I even think a cameo is too much for some characters).

The only way we got to see more of Shy Guy was thanks to Mario Tennis for N64, which kind of started his career as a playable character. The same for a wide variety of other spin-off games too, all introducing some neat enemies.

Queen Bee ain't fun, but eh, it's better than Zelda driving around in a kart. *shudders*

 

[Super Leaf]

I agree non-mario characters should'nt be in Mario Kart.Most of my favorite characters in mario are the enemies(like Wiggler,Hammer Bro,Lakitu) and theyd have no schance if they put in every nintendo character

 

[Yoshi64Mario]

I agree. Whilst a generic Nintendo kart racer would be fun (Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing I'm lookin' at you here) it is called MARIO Kart, not 'NINTENDO Kart'. And if Queen Bee can get shoved in there then pretty much anyone from Mario can. It's good having just Mario series characters, because, as has been said, players can expect more characters that would not be even slightly likely if it was 'Nintendo Kart', like Shy Guy, Lakitu (who might not even appear as the race official!) or Metal Mario, or yes, Queen Bee.