Carrera First Mario Kart Review

The Carrera First line is intended as an introduction to slot cars for younger kids, age 3 and up. The power source is 4 C batteries (not included), with a lid securely screwed on top, rather than a power cord. The controllers are also smaller, and top speeds are slower.

Inside you’ll get the sky blue track pieces, which once assembled, harkens to the Mario Kart 8 logo. You’ll also get 2 controllers, some card stock cut outs for spinners and barriers, an optional giant cardboard cutout on the back of the box for even more decor, and two karts: one Mario and one Yoshi. The sculpt and paint on these karts are really nice. Both the colors and the molding are very much “on model,” or in other words, accurate to the source material. Building and set up are both simple thanks to the included instructions.

Testing out the cars, they get a good speed going, but as mentioned earlier, their top speed is lower than a standard Carrera track set. This isn’t a bad thing! Thanks to the lower top speed, the cars manage to stay on the track well on their own. It is notable that Yoshi prefers one of the tracks; on the other one he can get stuck. Also, Mario seems to be ever so slightly faster for whatever reason, but in the excitement of carts zipping to and fro in a figure 8, you’ll hardly notice.