Mario Kart is a series of go-kart-style racing vieo games developed by Nintendo as a series of spin-offs from its trademark Mario series of platformer adventure-style video games. To date, there have been four Mario Kart games for home consoles, two portable games, and two arcade games. The eighth and latest installment, Mario Kart Wii, was released in Japan on April 10, 2008, in Europe on 11 April 2008, in Australia on 24 April 2008 and in North America on April 27, 2008.