This Halo 1 Mario Kart mod is as ludicrous as it is impressive

The Master Chief uses a grenade to pinwheel his mongoose and win a round of Mario Kart. — (Image credit: InfernoPlus)

Ever since Bungie added Forge to Halo 3, Halo Karts has been a thing. The inspiration of Nintendo's all-conquering Mario Kart was obvious, but the various Halo Karts were built from Halo elements and played on Halo maps. Now the prophecy is upon us. A Halo Mario Kart mod as ludicrous as it is amazing.

Cursed Halo Kart, to give it the proper title, is a part of a much larger mod called Cursed Halo Again, which is a campaign sequel to the multiplayer map pack Cursed Halo. The Mario Kart 'campaign' here is based on that prior mod,Halo Karts, and tasks players with winning Mario Kart races in Warthogs against various comedy Halo duos to progress (this is, after all, a 'cursed' campaign). Everything mentioned here was created by modder InfernoPlus and the whole overarching project is equal parts bizarre and impressive.

The mod's shown off below by Youtuber Mint Blitz, and it's where I took the above absurd gif from.

Like, it almost seems one of those things that started as a joke, then got legs of its own, and became some sort of labour of love. The Cursed Halo Again mod specifically alters Halo 1 in the Master Chief Collection and, when you step back from the humour and silliness of what's going on in the mod, there's a certain grandeur to what this old warhorse is being gee-d up to deliver.

Which in this case, of course, is classic Mario Kart tracks, but now with stickies instead of blue shells, a vague Double Dash quality in the paired-up Warthog riders, and some bonkers grenade physics that send the karts careening across the tracks. Which, it turns out, can be a useful shortcut.

InfernoPlus has a patreon where you can keep up with their work, but Cursed Halo Again (as well as much of their older work) is most easily available through the Steam Workshop.

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."