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Best Mario Kart Character Has Been Decided By Statistics

Best Mario Kart Character Has Been Decided By Statistics

A study compared the iconic video game's characters to determine which was the quickest off the mark

Dominic Smithers

Dominic Smithers

The best Mario Kart character has been determined by science.

Yep, if you've ever wondered who would be the quickest off the mark out of Mario, Luigi or Peach, a recent study claims to have worked it out.

Henry Hinnefeld has long been a fan of the hit series, playing with his friends for 'hours' when he was younger.

Writing in the Civis Journal, he said: "One thing that always vexed our little group of would-be speedsters was the question of which character was best.

"Some people swore by zippy Yoshi, others argued that big, heavy Bowser was the best option.

"Back then there were only eight options to choose from; fast forward to the current iteration of the Mario Kart franchise and the question is even more complicated because you can select different karts and tires to go with your character.

Who is the fastest?
Nintendo

"My Mario Kart reflexes aren't what they used to be, but I am better at data science than I was as a fourth grader, so in this post I'll use data to finally answer the question 'Who is the best character in Mario Kart?'"

In the report, Hinnefeld looked into the data and used the concepts of 'Pareto efficiency' and 'Pareto frontier', which were developed in the 19th century by economist Vilfredo Pareto, to guide his analysis.

Speaking of his choice to utilise these ideas, Hinnefeld wrote: "The concept of Pareto efficiency applies to situations where there is a finite pool of resources and multiple competing outcomes that depend on how those resources are allocated.

Bowser.
Nintendo

"The 'Pareto efficient' allocations are those in which it's impossible to improve one outcome without worsening another outcome."

Hinnefeld then collated kart and tyre statistics for each Mario Kart character.

According to the study, there were 149,760 possible combinations of these fields, of which, Hinnefeld says, only 15 create the 'optimal combinations' for speed and acceleration - which are obviously important attributes for characters in a racing game.

When analysing these, Hinnefeld determined that the two characters to choose to give yourself the best chance of winning are Wario and Bowser, which he says is due to their size.

Wario.
Nintendo

While heavier characters may have poor acceleration, they can reach a higher top speed.

Lighter characters, however, are nippy round corners, but can't achieve the same kind of pace.

Hinnefeld said: "Wario's possible configurations can achieve about 77 percent of the max acceleration [whilst] Baby Mario can only get up to 50 percent of the max speed."

Happy racing!

Featured Image Credit: Nintendo

Topics: Science, Study, Entertainment