Go Karting With Bowser / Video Games

• Super Mario Bros.:
  • The classic example of this trope is King Koopa himself, Bowser. He is a notorious warlord and chronic princess-kidnapper in the main-series and RPG games, but in Mario Kart series and many, many sports game spinoffs Mario and Peach have no problem challenging him to some friendly competition. Bowser Jr., the Koopalings and several Koopa Troop members also join in the fun.
    Cracked: Repeated home invasions and sexual assaults normally lead to restraining orders, not golf invitations.
  • In Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, you can take this trope word for word by pairing them in a single kart.
  • Best exemplified in the intro to Mario Tennis 64. Bowser and Boo barge into the tournament via their sinister battleship and confront Mario and Luigi, before cheerfully requesting a match.
    Mario: Hey, let's-a ALL play!
  • Mario explains his logic in this interview:
    Mario: Well, you know what dey say, keep you friends-a close, and you enemies-a closer. But dey also say, if you enemy is a gigantic spiky creature, who breathes-a da fire, keep him-a super-duper close!
  • Unlike most other Mario Party games where Bowser spends his time bullying the players, in Super Mario Party he and his minions join the games on equal grounds with the other playable characters.
  • Evil Counterpart / The Rival Wario has been go-karting and playing sports since Mario Kart 64 and Waluigi has been by his side since his introduction in Mario Tennis 64.
  • Word of God explains the relationship of Mario characters to be much like "actors" from a cartoon show.
    Shigeru Miyamoto: If you're familiar with things like Popeye and some of the old comic characters, you would oftentimes see this cast of characters that takes on different roles depending on the comic or cartoon. They might be businessman in one [cartoon] or a pirate in another. Depending on the story that was being told, they would change roles. So, to a certain degree, I look at our characters in a similar way and feel that they can take on different roles in different games. It's more like they're one big family, or maybe a troupe of actors.
• Jade Empire has two representatives of the Way of the Open Palm and the Way of the Closed Fist (the game's rough way of saying "Good" and "Evil") meet once a year to play a game vaguely reminiscent of go. Without any pieces. Or a BOARD. Once you've chosen one philosophy for your own and learn the corresponding martial art, the two conclude their game and vow to meet up next year... if something bad doesn't happen in the time in-between.
• Harman and Kun Lan in Killer7. Necessary because they're both immortal; since neither can have ultimate victory, they have to settle for beating each other at chess, international terrorism, the destruction of nations...whichever strikes their fancy.
• In The Sims 2, anyone whom you're furious with or enemies with can be invited to a wedding. And they'll come. And share cake, toast to you and even clap for you when it's over. But next time you see them, they're back to fighting you.
• In Final Fantasy VI, after having spent half the game chasing Terra, having sentenced Celes (a former General in their army) to death, occupied Edgar and Sabin's kingdom, destroyed Doma, killed countless Espers, and basically waging war against the entire world (a war which he was close to winning), Emperor Gestahl invites the heroes to a nice and civilized diplomatic dinner, just to show he's not a bad guy anymore. (He still is. The whole thing was a ruse.)
  
  It's worth noting he blamed Kefka for almost everything, even going as far as asking the party what should they do with said Ax-Crazy/Caligula/Nietzsche Wannabe/Omnicidal Maniac, trope overdose etc. One of the options is to execute him, though the correct choice (in terms of in-game rewards) is to leave him in jail. It's also worth mentioning that the cast didn't fall for the ruse and tried to plan for an eventual betrayal. They just didn't realize the actual evil plan in time for it to be prevented.
• Final Fantasy XV has a short section where you Drive in a Convoy with Ardyn.
• Kirby games do this a lot:
  • Kirby can choose to use his Copy Ability to make a "helper" (for example, Fighter Kirby summons Knuckle Joe), who are friendly versions of the enemies swallowed.
  • The main gist of Gourmet Race in Super Star is that Kirby and King Dedede have a friendly competition to see who can eat the most food.
  • Chef Kawasaki is a mid-boss in Kirby Super Star, but otherwise appears in friendlier roles outside of the spinoffs. In Kirby's Dream Land 3, he challenges Kirby to a friendly game that can earn him a reward. In Kirby: Right Back at Ya!, he gives Kirby a (short-lived) job at his restaurant.
  • In Kirby's Dream Collection, Magolor is back after having atoned for his sins (as seen in the Magolor Epilogue in Kirby's Return to Dream Land Deluxe), and you could even do some friendly races with him.. He continues to be friendly in his shopkeeper role in Team Kirby Clash Deluxe. Looks like not even final bosses stay consistently evil, especially after a trip to Another Dimension and a battle with the very object of their ambition...
  • This is taken to its logical conclusion in Kirby Star Allies, where more villains like Marx, Dark Meta Knight, and even the Mage Sisters find themselves teaming up with Kirby to save the universe.
  • Inverted with King Dedede who tends to team up with Kirby against a greater threat in the main games, but usually plays the Big Bad in the spinoffs like Kirby's Super Star Stacker, and Kirby Tilt 'n' Tumble.
• Judging by the way the original developers handled the franchise, Crash Bandicoot seems to have a bit of this going on with Dr. Neo Cortex and several other villains, specifically in Crash Team Racing where the good guys and bad guys are all just go-karting along even before the plot happens... and then they all go-kart around some more to save the world from an alien who will turn it into a parking lot if they can't beat him in a race.
• Practically every ending of every installment of Touhou Project have the main characters sit down and drink alcohol with the last boss after they save the world from the said last boss. Most of the villains are just Youkai who get it into their head to do something destructive. In fact, Go Karting With Bowser is the entire idea behind Mountain of Faith's Extra stage.
• The NES game 8 Eyes shows your character having tea with a boss after defeating him/her.
• Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball. Characters that would otherwise be at each other's throats just want to relax at the beach. Even characters like Ayane/Kasumi, Helena/Ayane, and Christie/Helena, who all have a kill on sight method of greeting each other in canon have only a small grudge. Justified though, as it's All Just a Dream by Zack.
• There's an old Namco platforming game for the Sega Genesis called Talmit's Adventure, where the leading character, Talmit, had to beat 3 of the Mole King's underlings to save three fairies and their princess trapped in magical orbs, complete with Smooch of Victory. Nothing wrong with that, until you realize that every single boss battle is a Mini-game with lots of The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard. The minigames, themselves prove to be quite entertaining though, even, surprisingly, the Rock Paper Scissors battle with a twist. After beating the last world, you are pitted against the Mole King who plays a variation of Whack-a-Mole against you. The ridiculousness of this is even taken in account by the Big Bad himself, who after losing attacks you and becomes the first and last real boss of the game.
• Done quite literally in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The protagonist, CJ kills his way through rapper Madd Dogg's mansion to steal his rhyme book so a friend, OG Loc, can jumpstart his music career. After saving Madd Dogg from a suicide attempt, CJ chases OG Loc through the streets of Los Santos in go karts, in order to get the rhyme book back to its rightful owner.
• In City of Heroes, the heroes and villains can fight over an island in Bloody Bay or Warburg, protect/invade Paragon City in Siren's Call, or fight over the future in Recluse's Victory. Alternatively, they can have a drink and go on a few missions together in the Pocket D dance club, work to protect the past in Cimerora and the Midnighter's Club, and fight aliens in the Rikti War Zone.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • You can go karting with Eggman in Sonic Drift, and karting (more so airboarding) with Shadow in Sonic Riders
  • In Sonic Drift 2, you can not only kart with Eggman, but you can also choose Knuckles, Metal Sonic, and even Fang/Nack!
  • And in Sonic R it's not just Robotnik but four of his creations: Metal Sonic, Metal Knuckles, Tails Doll, and Egg Robo. The manual makes an attempt to say its a secret plot to destroy Sonic, but ingame all play fairly, and you can't destroy other racers.
  • This has happened with Shadow in the games a few times too - though Shadow is more of The Rival than a villain, he and Sonic tend to be enemies most of the time (or at least, he really doesn't like Sonic). However, he teams up with Sonic or Tails in various levels in Shadow the Hedgehog, races with the others in the various spin-off racing games, and appears at Sonic's birthday party in the ending to Sonic Generations. He also shows up before the Final Boss to give both Sonics some words of motivation, and gives them advice during the actual battle along with the other characters.
  • In the two-player mode of Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic can have a friendly race with Shadow and Metal Sonic. He can also actually go go-karting with Shadow (but not with Metal Sonic, since he's not selectable in that mode). Even more, Amy can also race against Metal Sonic, despite the fact she should have every reason to hate him given that he's the one who kidnapped her back in Sonic the Hedgehog CD.
  • In Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing, of course, Sonic is seeing karting with Eggman and Shadow. Shadow's profile actually reminds you of his Character Development from revenge-driven maniac to The Lancer.
  • Sega themselves lampshaded this during the second annual Sonic Twitter takeover (itself an example of this trope, with Sonic and Eggman answering fan-tweeted questions together). Sega asked them "Do you guys hang out a lot or are you actually frenemies?" Eggman's response is to loudly and emphatically declare "We're ''enemies''! MORTAL enemies!", then offer to get Sonic a leftover chili dog from the fridge.
  • The third Sonic Twitter had Shadow answering questions along with Sonic and Eggman.
  • It was discussed in Sonic Twitter Takeover 4.
    Shadow: @egoraptor asks: "Sonic, have you and Tails just straight up forgotten how evil Robotnik is? I find it very disturbing to see y'all pal around with this joker!"
    Sonic: Y'know, it's a fair point that Eggman is pretty evil sometimes.
    Tails: And he has tried to ruin our lives on multiple occasions.
    Shadow: AND risked the lives of the entire planet.
    Sonic: But he's more like... a lovable kind of bad guy, y'know? There's just something about him. Well that, and he just shows up univited all the time.
    Eggman: Dear Arin Hanson, interesting question! I see you've chosen poorly when it comes to selecting your allies. I'll be in touch. VERY soon...
    Sonic, Shadow, and Tails: Dun DUN DUUUUUUUN!
• Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games features both Bowser and Robotnik/Eggman (as well as many of their associates such as Bowser Jr., Metal Sonic, and certain members of the Koopalings and Deadly Six) participating fairly in the Olympics. The games themselves are also a Meta example, due to the two franchises' famous rivalry in the 90's.
• Konami Krazy Racers allows you to play as Dracula himself, Castlevania music and race tracks included. The sequel Krazy Kart Racing added Pyramid Head as a new racer.
• In one of the endings of The Bard's Tale, The Bard, rather than side with either the demonic princess or the Druids trying to seal her away, tells them both to "sod off" and heads to the nearest tavern. The ending shows him hanging out in the tavern with the undead mooks he's been fighting throughout the game, who actually aren't that bad once you get to know them.
• The Hoyle: Official Book of Games series, by Sierra Entertainment, is a video game collection of card and later board games. In the first game, you could choose opponents from the heroes of various Sierra games. The Third game (the second was a collection of solitaire games so...) also allowed you to sit down and board games with various Sierra villains, such as Sludge Vohaul and Mordack. They generally made villainous comments, though.
• In Donkey Kong 64, the 100% completion bonus scene shows the characters as actors. Donkey Kong and K. Rool are seen playing patty-cake.
• Rayman M (known as Rayman Arena in the US) has Rayman and his friends and enemies engage in a racing competition, although the canonicity thereof is uncertain. (They can still beat each other up in the battle segments, though.)
• The Nickelodeon party game Nickelodeon Party Blast features several iconic Nicktoons heroes in its playable lineup, such as Tommy Pickles, SpongeBob SquarePants and Jimmy Neutron. While most of these characters are straight-up heroes, the roster also includes Angelica Pickles, a selfish brat who often comes into conflict with the other main babies in her home series, and Invader Zim, who happens to be a Villain Protagonist who wants to take over Earth in his home series.
• In Nicktoons MLB, you can play baseball with Zim and The Flying Dutchman!
• Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2, in addition to Angelica and Zim above, also has Oroku Saki, aka the Shredder, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' Arch-Enemy who is usually portrayed as one of the Turtles' more dangerous antagonists (taken further since the turtles use their 2012 designs, and 2012 Shredder is second only to Utrom Shredder in terms of evil).
• Heavy Rain has this with a golf match between Scott Shelby and Charles Kramer.
• Played straight in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, with the Rumble Racing minigame, as well as some of the Command Boards. You play against Gantu, Captain Hook, Maleficent...
• Pokémon Black 2 and White 2 has Giovanni, the Big Bad of the first two games and the main villain of the anime, in the Pokémon World Tournament, due to his old position as Viridian City Gym Leader.
• During a Space Route scenario in Shin Super Robot Wars, Hathaway Noa is chatting with Quess Pariya, who wants to know what Amuro is like. Hathaway, confused, says that Amuro is totally normal. Quess says that she's studying yoga, hoping to gain the ability to know what people are like even without talking to them - much like the fabled Newtypes can.
• Angry Birds Go!: The only time the birds and pigs aren't feuding with each other. Case in point, they're racing for a cake.
• Crow, the supervillain main character of Nefarious, frequently gets invited over to go-kart races by Princess Mayapple, despite routinely kidnapping her and trying to take over her kingdom.
• Invoked in Mortal Kombat X with Cassie Cage's "Selfie" Fatality, where she breaks off her victim's jaw, snaps a selfie, and uploads it to her social media account. The other kombatants may post comments about her pic, including characters like Mileena or Quan Chi. This is lampshaded whenever Kano makes a comment and Sonya will ask "Cassie, why is Kano on your friends list?"
  • Mortal Kombat 11 has this in Kitana's Friendship, where Mileena, her evil cannibal clone who wants her dead more than anything, shows up so both can play patty-cake like actual sisters.
  • For a more literal of the trope, Mortal Kombat: Armageddon has the Racing Minigame "Motor Kombat".
• In the Pokémon universe, it's said that the Zangoose and Seviper species are mortal enemies so vicious, their hatred is hardwired into their genetics. You can make a Zangoose and a Seviper breed.
• In Puyo Puyo, everyone can play a match with the likes of Satan and Ecolo, just for fun.
• In Asura's Wrath, Augus is sent by the Seven Deities to kill Asura, his former pupil. When he finds him, he insists that the two bathe together in a hot spring, and enjoy drinks and the company of several beautiful women, before their epic duel to the death.
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild allows Link to hang out with various monsters by wearing disguises.
• Shrek Smash N'Crash Racing features Prince Charming and Thelonious as playable racers alongside Shrek regulars like Shrek himself, Donkey and Fiona.
• In The Secret World, the mission "Dead Man's Hand" features an occasional poker game between bigwigs from the three main opposing factions: Templar administrator Richard Sonnac, Illuminati handler Kirsten Geary and Dragon majordomo Daimon Kiyota all meet up in order to exchange banter and gamble for information on relatively peaceful terms. For good measure, the mission involves Saïd of the Kingdom getting involved as well...
• Super Smash Bros. Ultimate: In the trailer in which Banjo and Kazooie are revealed, King K. Rool, the Big Bad of the Donkey Kong franchise, is shown casually hanging out with Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong.
• The Story Mode of Cars has a few events where Lightning McQueen casually races against Chick Hicks, the Delinquent Road Hazards and the Queens Gang outside of any racing series. Justified, as their rivalry involves only racing for the most part.
  • In Cars: Mater-National Championship Snot Rod, the Queens Gang and the Monster Trucks return for a friendly competition.
  • Exploited by Chick Hicks in Cars Race-O-Rama. If he wins the Race-O-Rama series, Radiator Springs will be under his control, Lightning and Mater will get kicked out, and Doc Hudson's Racing Academy will get shut down.
  • In Cars 2, however, you can have a friendly no-weapons race with some of the Lemons, plus Delinquent Road Hazards if you have DLC installed. Justified yet again, since the entire game is just a simulation.
  • The story mode of Cars 3: Driven to Win yet again takes place in a simulation, however, it's all part of a "Lightning Storm Cruise" event, so Miss Fritter, Chick Hicks and Jackson Storm aren't here for a friendly race. However, Chick invites Lightning McQueen and some of his friends to his talk show, and in the end the two rivals share a laugh watching Storm get chased by Fritter.
• In Yakuza Kiwami, a remake of the first Yakuza game, the at-the-time-minor-villain Goro Majima is given a vastly expanded role in which he constantly stalks Kiryu and tries to goad him into a fight. While most of the time this just means physically fighting him, in some situations you'll end up bowling, throwing darts, playing pool, racing slot-cars, or even dating him instead. This would only be out-of-the-ordinary (for Majima) if this wasn't a remake of the one game in which he's actually a villain and does things like kidnap a little girl and drive a truck into a building.
• Mario Super Sluggers features Bowser, King Boo and King K. Rool all competing with their nemeses in the friendly pastime of baseball. Although Bowser does try to take over the Baseball Kingdom via his son Junior, in the story mode.
• The Neverhood: The Japan-only Gaiden Game Klaymen Gun Hockey involves the Big Bad Klogg returning to the Neverhood to challenge the cast to a game of air hockey played with guns.
• Gruntilda appears in Banjo-Pilot, an airplane racing game based on Banjo-Kazooie as one of the game's playable racers, but she poses no real threat to Banjo, Kazooie, and the rest of their friends.
• Deltarune: While on the lookout for the missing Noelle, the Big Bad of the chapter, Queen, decides to call "trucies" with Kris and later begins to feel particularly exhausted with Berdly and her own issues and conflicts. To let out some steam, she offers to play the arcade game she previously used to attempt to destroy their confidence with them just for fun. It all seems to be going well until Berdly appears with a giant buffed up statue of himself, crushing the arcade machine in the process.
• Romacing Sa Ga Re Universe. During the New Year event, the Final Emperor from Romancing SaGa 2 is rather mystified by the fact he's assisting to a party along with his sworn enemies the Seven Heroes. In the end though, he comes around as he realizes they are not the same fallen heroes bent on destroying mankind from his original world. Then the Emperor graciously accepts to share a drink with Subier and Rocbouquet.
• Madagascar: The Shuffleboarding minigame allows Alex, Marty, Gloria and Melman to play with Big Louie, Crocky and the Foosa King, all of whom are enemies fought throughout the game.
• Littlewood has this in a purely technical sense, between an Amnesiac Hero and an Amnesiac Villain Joins the Heroes who don't even remember ever being enemies.
• The game Power Rangers Zeo: Battle Racers has King Mondo and a Cog casually racing with the Rangers.
• Looney Tunes B-Ball has Bugs Bunny playing a game of basketball against several members of his Rogues Gallery; Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Wile E. Coyote, Taz, and Marvin the Martian. Sylvester is the notable exception, since while he is still often portrayed as an antagonist in the Looney Tunes universe, Bugs isn't one of his targets.
• Disney Speedstorm: Disney villains Randall, Pete, Jafar, Hades, Gaston, Captain Gantu, Hans, Ursula, and King Candy are among the cast. Notably, the villains also drive for the same teams as their heroic adversaries.