Toad

History:

Toad is known as Consigliere to Princess Peach Toadstool in the Mushroom Kingdom. As such, he wields immense political power but as a good nature Shroomhead is known for being nigh incorruptible. Still, as one of the few High-Ranking Mushroom People in a Royal Family otherwise full of Minorities he wields considerable influence. Some of his acquisitions include the Kingdom's large Highway System as well as a large Factory that produces Item Boxes for the Races themselves. Toad has thus been able to parlay the success of the Cups into an industry in of itself. Outside of these properties in Transportation and Industry Toad has extended a deep political influence over more of the Road System of the Kingdom, including the byways of Mushroom City from the glamourous Entertainment District to some of the Seedier Underpass Neighborhoods.

Super:

In SMK Toad's stats are radically different than they would be in later games. He's ranked along with Koopa Troopa as The Small Guys and only has an outstanding Handling Stat. His Weight is low and Top Speed and Acceleration Medium. There is no course he is explicitly associated with but in general he's considered a good driver, mostly due to his Handling. With the Rival System opponents will finish in the order Peach, DK Jr, Mario, Yoshi, Luigi, Koopa, then Bowser. This may hint at some antagonism between Servant and Master.

64:

Toad was ridiculous in MK 64. This began his era of being universally the Best Racer in the Game. While he gets knocked around easily by the bigger drivers and handles a bit looser and slipperier, he makes up for all by having the best Acceleration and Top Speed. It's insane. 64 also introduced Toad's Turnpike, which has no real reference to the Shroom himself but provided the template for many more Traffic-addled courses to come, usually all with some Toad reference. His Kart is blue.

Super Circuit:

Super Circuit finally differentiated slightly between the Lightweights. While Toad and Peach still had similar stats, including very high Top Speed and very low weight, Yoshi had a bit less speed in exchange for a bit more weight. Toad is still awesome here though and his acceleration is Top Notch. He has no track explicitly associated with him.

Double Dash:

Toad by himself in Double Dash is nothing special. Every light character in Double Dash is identical save for their Special Items. It's the Toad Kart that really shines though. It has the 4th Fastest Acceleration in the game and at a Top Speed of 56 mph. While plenty of Karts are faster, it also has some of the Best Shocks, which gives it great power against the many hilly courses and big jumps. While its handling is only average and it's the 19th lightest Kart out of 21 total it also has one of the best Offroad Speeds in the game. The positives far outweigh the negatives here.

The major drawback to using Toad in particular though is his item. The Golden Mushroom seems like an excellent one, it provides an infinite amount of Mushroom Boosts in a short span of time. However if you're in a High Position in the Race you'll never see it, so it doesn't offer much help. There are also dangerous courses like Wario Colosseum and Rainbow Road which offer enough tight turns that boosting through will leave you rammed into a wall instead of at the head of the pack. It's excellent for the Mushroom and Flower Cups but not much else.

DS:

DS is the first game since 64 where Toad isn't absolutely awesome. The only major difference between characters in this game is weight and Toad is one of the lightest, adding about 0.2 to the weight of all his Vehicles. All of his Kart Options offer very high Acceleration and decent Handling and Drift but their Speed is awful. His fastest, the Mushmellow tops off at a measly 4.3 in exchange for a paltry 3.3 Item ranking. This is still probably his best Kart, count on using it to get ahead and racing well instead of acquiring the good Items. Here's a chart:

He has Staff Ghosts on Shroom Ridge in 2:05:123 as well as the Double Dash Retro Courses Baby Park in 0:50:920  and Mushroom Bridge in 1:30:600. For all of these he uses the Mushmellow. It's interesting that they had to fit him into Baby Park because he's the most innocent, baby-like character in the game.

Wii:

Each Wii character may choose between six Karts and six Bikes in his or her Size Class, each with widely varying statistics. In addition each Driver adds certain bonuses to each Vehicle. Toad again has acceleration as his staple, adding a whopping 6-pts to any Karts' Acceleration Stat. He also adds 6-pts to Drift speed, which basically means that even if he's driving pretty slowly he'll never really lose speed, and if he does he reclaims it very fast. Here are all the Vehicle Stats specific to Toad:

As you can see, some of these stats get real good. It's hard to resist using either the Cheep Charger or the Quacker, as ridiculous as these vehicles are. He also makes the Blue Falcon and Bullet Bike pretty usable, but let's face it, at this point you haven't chosen a Light Racer for Speed. I think acceleration is much more useful in Grand Prix Mode when you're constantly being assaulted with all kinds of dangerous Items, while in Time Trial Mode it is all about speed. Thus Toad has a single Staff Ghost Track, his eponymous Factory. The Normal Staff time is 02:22.480 in the Bubble Bike and the Expert is 02:05.593 in the Blue Falcon. These are also probably the two vehicles he can be most associated with, if any.

Donut Tracks

History:

The Donut Plains are a wide expanse of grasslands in the Western Tracts of Dinosaur Land. They are some of the Richest Farmlands in the region and provide foodstores for much of Dinosaur Land and the neighboring Mushroom Kingdom. After heavy unseasonal flooding ruined crops in the Summer of 1987 the Purveyors of the Territory started constructing Race Courses in order to attract some attention and tourism to their local economy. Since then it has been a formidable course in Mario Kart History although has not been relevant until the latest incarnation, Mario Kart Wii.

Super:

There are three Donut Plains courses in SMK. They are all dirt tracks surrounded by grassland and all have some lake or water that may be dangerous. The First Circuit comes after the initial Raceway Circuit in the Mushroom Cup, a trend that continued in 64 and Wii. The Second Donut Plains is the third track in the Flower Cup, and the Final Donut Plains is the lead-off for the Special Cup. All three of these tracks reappeared in Super Circuit, which recreated the entire SMK game, tho reorganized the 5-Track/4-Cup into the more standard 4-Track/5-Cup (although admittedly every other game has featured sets of 4-Track/4-Cup). Donut Plains 1 also made an appearance in DS. They are all twisty tracks with Mild Hazards, as any good racer will do. Its DS Staff Ghost is Dry Bones, which doesn't really seem to fit at all. The track is neither dry nor spooky, although it is a relatively simplistic track, perhaps fitting for a simplistic character.

64:

The Spiritual Successor to the Donut Plains courses is Moo Moo Farm. Like the SMK courses, it features a dirty path surrounded by rolling grassland, although this time the Farm Setting is clear and Cows are everywhere. There are also Monty Moles, which featured in Donut Plains 2 and 3. The course itself is a simple loop that is complicated by its vast amount of sloping hills on either side of the track as well as a ton of Monty Moles. Clearly the track designers need to hire someone to deal with the varmint. It also came back in DS. I think this is a course better for middleweights who won't bounce around on the hills, nor lose speed when they drop. Its Staff Ghost in DS is Donkey Kong, possibly due to the clear connection between Apes and Cows.

Wii:

Moo Moo Meadows in the Mushroom Cup of Wii actually combines the natures of the Donut Plains and Moo Moo Farms. It retains the Monty Mole factor that has been present throughout, along with stretches of grassy meridians and a flatter quality reminiscent of Donut Plains, but also the cows, farms and white picket fences of Moo Moo Farms. There are some good Offroad shortcuts although few drifting opportunities. Beyond the obvious Funky Flame Runner I'm digging Toadette in the Tiny Titan for this track. The Staff Ghost here is Baby Daisy in 01:37.856, implying some connection to this track, possibly because of its innocent, idyllic nature.

Luigi

History:

Luigi has always lived in the Shadow of his Older Brother, Mario. He has continually came in second, an afterthough, the afterbirth slithered out of his mother's filth. He should have been put in a glass jar on the mantlepiece. Instead through adventuring with his portly older brother he amassed an impressive coin collection of his own, eventually allowing him to purchase his own series of Circuits as well as surviving the property tax on the Boo Mansion he won in a rigged contest. He has always been bitter of his more popular brother and yet has always been a loyal partner, if not with a simmering seathy interior.

Super:

Luigi is statistically identical to his brother Mario in SMK. He's ranked as one of The Bros., with medium rankings in handling, acceleration, weight and speed. In the game's admittedly strange Rival System if Luigi finishes first the Rank Order will be Yoshi, Mario, Bowser, Koopa, Peach, DK Jr and Toad. Clearly there's a bit of a fight with Yoshi over Mario's affection. He's prone to getting Stars on the track so watch out for this little dude.

64/Super Circuit:

Characters were basically identical across 64 and Super Circuit with some minor exceptions. Luigi is no different, he's straight in the middle of both of these games, basically identical again to Mario. His Kart is green. That's really the only major difference between him and Mario, to give players a separate but equal choice in the middleweight category. And yet they couldn't make a Mario Game without Luigi right? Right? Oh crap.

Double Dash:

We were starting to wonder, L.

Luigi again ranks in the middle with his brother here and his weapon is only cosmetically different. Luigi wields the Green Fireball, which is actually really only useful if you're very close to an opponent. If you're in the middle of a course with no one around, it's actually a pretty useless item. This differs from something like the Super Mushroom or even a Giant Banana, which can do plenty when used anywhere.

The real highlight of Luigi though is his Kart, the Green Fire which is...pretty terrible. It's actually got one of the best speeds in the game at 58 mph, but loses all this on its turns. It has minimal bounce for a Medium Kart, although it's also one of the lightest Medium Karts. It's most crippling stat though is the acceleration - it's the second worst Accelerating Kart in the game, meaning you'll never see that great Top Speed. So it's basically a Medium Kart with a Light Weight and otherwise typical Heavy Stats, but with good steering. It's a weird combo that really doesn't work that well.

Double Dash had Secret Staff Ghosts for each track. Luigi drives with Mario riding along on the Luigi Circuit in a time of 1:26:277 and they flip-flop for the Mario Circuit in 1:41:384. Since no Secret Characters or Karts are used by the Staff Ghosts he's cruising in the Red Fire for both of these.

DS:

Luigi actually has two of the better Karts in DS, the Streamliner and the Poltergust 4000 (they really can't let that Mansion thing die, can they?). They've both got decent stats in every category except Drift. I might give the edge to the Streamliner, whose great Item stat makes up for its comparatively lower speed. Take a look:

Even his Standard isn't terrible. Luigi adds about 1.8 to the weight of all his Karts, making him tied with Mario as a Middleweight Driver. Luigi's Tracks by Staff Ghost include his eponymous Mansion with the Streamliner in 1:59:357 and two of his Luigi Circuits remade, both in the Poltergust 4000. The Double Dash version is in 1:29:759, the Super Circuit incarnation completes the race in 1:46:581.

Wii:

The Wii statistical categories are crazy. Any size class of the eight Small, Medium or Large Drivers have six Karts and six Bikes to choose from, which presents a staggering amount of possible combinations. Each character also gives each Kart a boost in some particular stats. Luigi, like his brother gives each Medium Vehicle a heavy 6-pt Weight Boost but unlike the added handling, acceleration and drift boosts, Luigi only adds a 2-pt Speed Increase, which again hints that he tends to be the Faster Brother. I wonder if Daisy minds. Anyway, here are Luigi's Stats for Every Vehicle:

Luigi doesn't have any signature vehicles in this game, but his speed and weight bonuses make him great in the Mach Bike or Wild Wing. His only Staff Ghost is for his own Luigi Circuit, the Normal Ghost uses the Bk Dasher Mk. 2 in 01:29.670, the expert uses the Mach Bike in 01:19.419.