Vehicles in a Nintendo racing game / SAT 5-6-23 / Extremely hot peppers named for their scythelike tails / Much-viewed showdown of 1975 / Mathematician Weierstrass dubbed the father of modern analysis / Hybrid video game genre

The Carolina Reaper is a cultivar of the Capsicum chinense plant. The crossbreed is between a "really nastily hot" La Soufriere pepper from Saint Vincent and a Naga pepper from India, and was named "Reaper" due to the shape of its tail. It has been described as having a fruity taste, with the initial bite being sweet and then immediately turning to "molten lava" Developed by American breeder Ed Currie, the pepper is red and gnarled, with a bumpy texture and small pointed tail. In 2017, Guinness World Records declared it the hottest chili pepper in the world. (wikipedia)

This is a beautiful grid so let's talk about the one feature that is inexcusably bad. Inexplicably bad. Mind-shakingly bad. "Why would you?!" bad. I'm talking, of course, about the KARL / KARTS kross. I mean cross. No, kross. Wait ... cross? Is it? Who Can Tell? It's true that in retrospect, you can see they were *trying* to nudge you toward the "K" choice—the mystery "mathematician" has a last name that sounds German (23A: Mathematician Weierstrass dubbed the "father of modern analysis"), and video games seem like an arena where you'd find wacky spelling (23D: Vehicles in a Nintendo racing game) ... OK. But sitting right here, right now, I can tell you that some non-zero number of solvers are going to come to that exact crossing and throw up their hands. That's certainly what happened to me, and I've been at this solving thing ... a while. Now, I made the right guess, and for the right reasons, but let's be very clear: It Was A *Guess*. And that is not the situation you want *any* solver to be in on a single square. Ever. And it's such a stupid, avoidable issue. Make the KARL Benz or Marx, someone who is much better known and thus much more obviously a "K"-KARL. Or, better yet (much much much better yet), make that damn letter a "C." Why in the world do you want/need that "K"? Its high wackiness factor? Higher Scrabble value? In *that* situation, it is Not better. [Shopping icons] crossing [Weathers who played Apollo Creed in the first four "Rocky" films] gets you a clean and clear "C" in that space. Make the clues harder or weirder, I don't care, but in the end, when the solver is down to one square, that square should ultimately be indisputable. This square was not. I've *heard* of Mario Kart a lot. A lot. Not unfamiliar to me. But the spelling? Shrug. I would say "well, that's on me," but that's what crosses are for: for when you blank out or aren't sure or are generally ignorant. But today, the cross did Nothing to help. This was me trying to get -ARL: "D'oh, not sure, better check the ... d'oh!" Just horrendous editing there. And for what? It's not like KARL and KARTS are good, or have clever clues. I would argue KARTS, on its own, is actually suboptimal, whatever the clue. You could've done something harder *and* more interesting with a "C"—*and* avoided any C/K confusions. But no. No. You did this. 

OK, so, if you ignore that stupid "K," this puzzle is something close to ideal. Precisely what I predicted would happen yesterday, when we got yet another sloggy soggy disappointing Friday. This should've been the Friday. Breezy, zippy, colorful, dynamic ... in a word, fun. Only that one CLUNK (KLUNK?). Those stacks look daunting, but they were like most pitbulls I've known—scary to look at, snuggly babies when you get to know them. All you gotta do is just start working the short Down crosses. Me, I went STACEY to YAY (wrong) to YES (after I noticed 3D was a plural)  to CANES PRONGS EGGS OHMAGE (kind of a guess?) and then boom!

Lower half, very similar if you come at it from the west. LOAMS ORLEAN and SPATTED went in easy from their last letters, and then I had the front of all the Downs there in the SW, and none of them put up much of a fight. I will say that SPATTED and especially APCS (?!)* are ... not good. But they're so small, such minor flaws, and since they help to prop up a truly gleaming grid, I'm happy to tolerate them here. I love that the puzzle doesn't just dazzle in the long, showy answers; you get some very nice stuff in the connective areas, like "WE'RE OK!" over "THAT'S ME!" crossing "THE NERVE!" Just aces. Again, as above, so below with the easy 15s. Even CAROLINA REAPERS, which I've never heard of, was easy to get from the clue. I had a little trouble initially bringing CRUSADE into view (34D: Intense movement), but everything around it was so easy that I didn't struggle long. I wish this had run yesterday and I wish that C/K thing had been handled more professionally. Otherwise, perfect, no notes, really really like this one. Will definitely be a contender for Themeless Puzzle of the Month. See you tomorrow.