This Halo-Mario Kart Fan Mod Proves Nintendo & Microsoft Need To Work Together
A fan mod was recently released that combines key elements from "Halo: Combat Evolved" (which finally got fixed) and "Mario Kart 64" into a truly whimsical, all-new game. This mod is aptly named "Halo Kart," and it's already been generating quite a lot of buzz. It allows gamers to pair up into teams of two Spartans, with the one in front driving a tiny, kart-sized Warthog, and the one in back shooting at other players with a variety of the kind of weapons you wouldn't typically be able to get in the item boxes found in a conventional Nintendo game. These players can then race each other across eight different classic "Mario Kart 64" maps, which have each also been modified in order to include the curving space rings that the series was named for as part of the background.
This might initially seem like an odd pairing, but the explosive bombast of the shooting in "Halo" coupled with the sheer chaotic madness found in "Mario Kart" actually makes for a surprisingly cohesive gaming experience. This has led many fans to wonder if there was any way that Nintendo and Microsoft might finally decide to work together to make this fan mod a legit part of the game.
Who made Halo Kart?
The modder responsible for "Halo Kart" goes by the name InferoPlus. This appears to be his first mod involving a Nintendo property, but it's far from his first creation involving Microsoft's favorite space-shooter franchise. Before this, InferoPlus was already fairly prolific in the modding community for his "Cursed Halo" mod that completely changes the game by adding a number of wacky features, like forcing Spartans to do a flip before shooting the sniper rifle, giving them bent weapons that put the crosshair on the far left side of the screen and replacing the Grunts' grenades with potions of blindness that cause the player's screen to go black. While they are all different, most of InferoPlus' designs have similar themes of adding chaotic mechanics that change the way the game is played in various non-traditional ways.
In addition to the mods themselves, InfernoPlus also runs a YouTube channel of the same name where he posts videos breaking down his process for making the mods and explaining their many features. These videos aren't the dry descriptions of nuanced computer coding you might expect either; most of them illustrate the same style of irreverent humor that's apparent in his mods. His video advertising the release of "Halo Kart," for instance, is filmed using a head-bobbing Spartan inside the game, similar to the style of Rooster Teeth's "Red vs. Blue" web series. This channel currently has over 800,000 subscribers
How Halo Kart works
InfernoPlus explains how "Halo Kart" works in his video as well. "When the game starts, everyone spawns in a designated safe zone," he says. This is shown in the video as a sort of lobby that has several of the small warthogs stationed in pits, leading through a wall to the outside. "From there, you all load into Warthogs, and then the race begins. The track is dotted with various power-ups and weapons that you can either use to try and eliminate the other drivers or send them off the nearest cliff. And of course, the first player to complete three laps wins."
This might sound a lot like 'regular "Mario Kart" but with guns, but there's actually a little more to it than that. Players who get knocked free of their Kart-hogs can actually run around the map on foot and some of the aforementioned power-ups and weapons, such as being able to throw sticky-grenades on the track, can add some fun mechanical variations to the typical "Mario Kart" game design. What seems most impressive about the mash-up is the way these different design elements seem to fit so seamlessly into the pre-existing frameworks of both games.
How to play Halo Kart
Even though the majority of the imagery found in the mod makes it look as if "Halo" assets have been ported into "Mario Kart 64," it's actually the other way around. "Halo Kart" is a mod for the PC version of "Halo: Combat Evolved." It isn't enough just to have the vanilla version of the game, however. Players will need to download a special custom edition, which they will then need to activate using a valid Halo CD Key for the PC version of the game.
Once players have the game downloaded and activated, the mod can then be downloaded for free from InfernoPlus' Patreon page. Here, the creator instructs fans to make sure that the game is specifically patched to version 1.10 before implementing the mod. After the mod is all downloaded and properly installed, players can join or host a server using the dedicated "Halo" server application – SAPP. Once that's done, it's a simple matter of diving into the game and enjoying the chaos.
InfernoPlus was the first to admit that his mod can be a bit buggy, however. He says that this is largely a result of the engine limitations associated with modifying a 20-year-old game. This process would, of course, be much simpler and more stable if Nintendo and Microsoft ever managed to find a way to work together and give fans an official version.