Coleiosis wrote on 10/25/18 at 23:59:35:
Can the Mario Kart series count?
yes and no
Kart Racing is kind of its own genre ...a sub-genre of Racing games, that has elements of Vehicular Combat.
However since Mario Kart does have Battle Mode it does qualify as a vehicular combat game too. It's really not too different from say Cel Damage, a game that draws comparison to Twisted Metal.
There aren't too many pure car combat titles... it's really only like Twisted Metal, Rogue Trip, Vigilante 8, Motor Mayhem, and Interstate '76... I guess WWE Crush Hour too although there was nothing to those maps, they were too demolition derby styled... and then you have the car combat genre spinoffs... Critical Depth (submarine-combat), Dead in the Water (boat combat), Star Wars Demolition (varied combat), Hardware: Rivals (car & tank combat)... then you got the half-racing half-car combat games like Full Auto 1 & 2 and Carmageddon... then you got the kart racers w/ battle mode... then you got games like Mad Max and Grand Theft Auto and Arkham Knight which are action/adventure games with car combat elements... then there's the recent Crossout (PS4) which is a MMO car combat game that requires you to craft out and customize your vehicle with frequency...
But pure car combat games are rare. That's what is kind of amazing about Twisted Metal. It pioneered a sub-genre that never really went anywhere post-2001, so it'll always be the King of the genre (which makes Vigilante 8 the Queen I guess).