Top Ten Most Obscure Mario Kart Characters

Mario Kart has had a lot of different playable characters throughout its history, some have been good, some have been bad, and some have been..., obscure. Obscurity can mean both good and bad. Let's count down the most obscure Mario Kart characters ever added, shall we?
The Top Ten
1 Pink Gold Peach Pink Gold Peach is a character who debuts in Mario Kart 8, where she appears as an unlockable playable character.

Here are my problems with Pink Gold Peach
1: Making a metallic version of Peach that came out of nowhere was a terrible idea. Even though there are also other metallic characters that appeared in the future Mario Kart games like Metal Mario and Gold Mario, at least they had origins in mainline Mario games which are being power ups in Super Mario 64 and New Super Mario Bros 2.
2: The name "Pink Gold" is not an actual word, it's Rose Gold.
3: Even though Metal Mario and Gold Mario also have metallic voices, Pink Gold Peach's voice is strange to hear. And it makes her sound more like a robot.
4: Instead of getting other characters more requested to appear in Mario Kart 8 like King K. Rool, Nabbit, Paper Mario, Kamek (The character that was scrapped for Mario Kart 64 and 8 Deluxe), Dixie Kong, Pauline (Who appeared in Mario Kart Tour), Hammer Bro (Who also appeared from Mario Kart Tour after being scrapped from Wii), it was a stupid rehashed metal version of peach which nobody ...more

I doubt anyone did ever see something like Pink Gold Peach coming to Mario Kart. It was obvious that clone chararcters were becoming mainstream in the mario kart series, I mean we had Baby Daisy in MKWii, Metal Mario in MK7, but those were somewhat predictable choices. This though? Not at all. Never has Peach ever put on a metal cap, like ever, so this was out of the blue. Normally I'm a fan of obscurity in Mario spin-offs, but when combined with laziness and cloning, it becomes the worst. The fact that Baby Pink Gold Peach makes an appearence in the GCN Baby Park remake in MK8 doesn't help either.

Alright now we are getting into the less obscure characters. Now, while this is the third debuting character in the series and is one of the stars of the series along with mario and luigi, one difference this one bears from those two is the frequency of this character found through out games and series. Yeah she's not nearly as common to find like mario or luigi. Besides she's basically just a peach in modern times as well. She doesn't have the same legacy she used to have, luckily in Tour she's still popular

Yes this one. No, she's not a "pink gold peach", nor an actual "rose gold peach" in mario. She makes a completely different character. This might be why this character is so obscure considering the confusion and unuse mostly of this character. While in mario kart 8 this character is used frequently, hop onto Tour and this is barely used at all really. Heck in Tour this is technically just a peach, no big difference

2 R.O.B.

For the fact that this character isn't even related to anything in the Mario Kart series' puts R.O.B at #2 on my list of most obscure MK characters. I mean, it's the device that could be used for the NES back when it was released, and now it's playable in MKDS? Well I really love this inclusion. It's so random, but so awesome as well. He's my go-to character in MKDS.

Doesn't make a whole lot of sense but it can be cool to see some nearly forgotten nintendo stuff be carried on in other games *cough cough* smash brothers.

3 Donkey Kong Jr.

Another kong? Well this guy made his appearence in the first Mario Kart game ever, but quickly in the next game Kamek temporarily replaced him in development, while Donkey Kong himself replaced Kamek in the final game. Overall, he was an obscure choice, but not too obscure as Mario had appeared in games where both of the two made appearences in the past.

Probably could have just started with the og donkey kong. HE existed at this time and was probably just as if not more iconic at the time anyways. Then again, I guess it would be hard to cram a giant ape into a kart.

Best kong of them all.

4 Green Bronze Luigi
5 Honey Queen Honey Queen (better known in Super Mario Galaxy as Queen Bee) is the queen of all the honeybees who is a very large bee and always talks nosism. She appears in both of the Super Mario Galaxy games, where she rules over all the honeybees in three different galaxies, and in Mario Kart 7 where she appears as a heavyweight unlockable driver.

R.O.B is higher as he isn't even a Mario character, but in terms of actual mario characters, no one saw the queen of bees coming of all characters in a small roster that is in MK7. She was only a minor character in the Super Mario Galaxy games but yet managed to get to Mario Kart 7 along with her own battle course (Honeybee Hive). I love this addition and I frequently play as her because of how unknown she is.

Nintendo could've added other characters yet they chose an irrelevant character from one level of a video game.

6 Stanley the Bugman
7 Funky Kong Originating from the SNES Donkey Kong Country, in which he is the CEO of Funky's Flights, this Kong absolutely tears up the race track with a massive +4 speed and +3 off-road stat, making him the most popular character in Mario Kart Wii online play.

This was the Honey Queen of Mario Kart Wii kinda, in that it was completely obscure for him to arrive, plus it came with a battle stage, in this case, Funky Stadium. I put him below Honey Queen though seeing as we've already had three kongs before him in Mario Kart, so yeah. But still, this character is the least mario-esque of the four kongs we've seen, as he only appeared in DK content before this, so yeah. Definitely a contender for the list.

Not the most iconic dk character, Probably could have added someone else. Plus, he is way to op in mkwii!

8 Kammy Koopa
9 Gold Mario
10 Inkling

I love splatoon and inklings but I can see how this triggers some mk fans. Similar stuff can be said about link and villager from the legend of zelda and animal crossing. Still at least for me and the other splatoon fans. this is one big leap for mario kart. But let's try to keep it within nintendo unlike smash (Splatoon is nintendo property and created my them.)

The Contenders
11 Villager (Animal Crossing)
12 Wiggler Wigglers are a species of caterpillar in the Mario franchise. They have a segmented body and comically large nose and are yellow slowly moving when happy, but turn red and run angrily very quickly if they get jumped on

This is another MK7 character who nobody predicted. I mean he's a caterpillar so how does he drive? Oh that's right they added arms to him. Nevertheless I love this guy. It's so strange to see him but that's what makes him cool. He's lower than Funky or Honey Queen as he's a more relevant thing in the Mario series' though.

13 Link Link refers to several different incarnations of the same protagonist of Nintendo's The Legend of Zelda series.
14 Lakitu Lakitu, known in Japan as Jugem, is a fictional flying character in the Mario franchise. Created by Shigeru Miyamoto, it first appeared in the Nintendo Entertainment System video game Super Mario Bros., where it dropped enemies called Spinies on the stage.

This is the same guy who holds the startup sign at the start of each race and who picks you back on track while you fall down a pit. Since Mario Kart 7, a lakitu with a red shell (instead of green) is playable in the series and it's kinda odd seeing Laktu rescuing Lakitu. But it's a pass as Lakitu is a species and it's obvious it's two different lakitus from the shell colour.

15 Metal Mario Metal Mario is a character that appears in both the Mario series and the Super Smash Bros, where he made his first appearance in the Nintendo 64 version. He's pretty similar to Mario when using a Metal Cap, but instead of being a transformation, Metal Mario is his own character.
16 Baby Rosalina Baby Rosalina is an infant version of the major character from the Mario Bros . Franchise, Rosalina . She first appeared in Mario Kart 8 as a playable character and is now one of 5 baby characters in the roster, alongside infant versions of Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, and Princess Daisy .

Another clone makes it to the list, now it's baby Rosalina. One of my least favourite characters ever as it contradicts Rosalina's backstory (she actually had red hair as a child) and it makes it look like Rosalina is another princess when she isn't even close. She's a god! My god I hate this clone (no pun intended)! Althoughi it was a bit predictable to see her so eh.

I wish we could trade these out-of-the-blue clones for Kamek.

17 Koopa Paratroopa
18 Baby Daisy Baby Daisy is the infant version of the major character in the Mario Bros . franchise, Princess Daisy . She is known for her appearances as a playable character in Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart 8 . She is also found as a playable character in Super Mario Sluggers for the Wii .
19 Baby Peach Baby Peach is the infant version of the major character from the Mario Series, Princess Peach. She is mostly known for her appearances in the Mario Kart Franchise in Mario Kart Wii and Mario Kart 8 as a playable character, but she also appears in other Mario games, including Yoshi's Island DS, in which she is not a playable character.

My least favorite baby character. makes no sense and clashes with mario galaxy cannon. Probably weren't paying attention when they made this one. Nonetheless, please delete this character.

20 Petey Piranha Petey Piranha is a large mutant of the Piranha Plant in the Super Mario franchise and debuted in Super Mario Sunshine. Since then, he has been a recurring boss in games such as New Super Mario Bros. and has also made appearances in sports and spin-off games.

He made an appearence in MKDD and was going to be in MKWii but was scrapped. He was one of my favourite MK characters ever due to his originality in a Mario Kart game. It's sad we haven't seen more of him.

21 Rosalina Rosalina, known as Rosetta in Japan, is a major character in the Mario Franchise created by Nintendo. She first appeared in the 2007 Mario Game, Super Mario Galaxy for the Nintendo Wii and later returned for the game's sequel in 2010. Since then, she has been featured in many main-series Mario Games and many spinoffs. She has appeared as a playable character in Super Mario 3D World for the Nintendo Wii U in 2013 and is a playable character in the Mario Kart series and Mario Party series. She also has come into Super Smash Bros. for Wii U/3DS as a part of the large character roster.
22 Birdo Birdo is a dinosaur that is well known for her (or his) confused Gender. It was originally stated that Birdo was a male who believed he was a female, but this was changed in later games. Birdo is commonly referred to as a girl, however, they are in a relationship with Yoshi. Birdo first appeared in Super Mario Bros. 2 as an enemy towards the player. She is now included in many spinoff titles of the Mario franchise as a playable character, including the Mario Kart series and the Mario Party series.

Overall Birdo has been one of the more obscure characters in the mario franchise as whole. Not many appearences, originally a villain but was then shoehorned into Yoshi's love interest. The only LGBT character of the bunch as well. It's also my favourite mario character due to all of this. Unfortunately while she's mostly in spin-off's she still is rare in that case as in Mario Kart she only appeared in MKDD and MKWii. We can only hope she makes more appearences.

23 Dry Bones Dry Bones is a common enemy species in the Super Mario series of video games since „Super Mario Bros. 3“ (1988). After his first debut as a playable character in „Mario Superstar Baseball“ (2005), he became a fan-favorite and also got playable in other spin-offs of the Mario series.
24 Pac-Man Pac-Man is the protagonist fictional character of the franchise of the same name by Namco, who was first introduced in the Japanese arcade game Pac-Man on May 22, 1980 in Japan, later released in the United States in October the same year.

He needs to appear in more Mario Kart games.

25 Cat Peach
8Load More
PSearch List