Mario Kart: Super Circuit

The Good
Looking back at Mario Kart, I have to admit that the GBA version worked well compared to so many other titles that tried so hard to emulate the success of the franchise after the SNES original, and failed so easily.

What is it that makes Mario Kart such a great title? Part of it is the charm. It may be colourful and kiddy friendly, but there's no doubting how effective that is, even for an older gamer. That's mainly because it's so addictive, the other prime element. You just keep coming back for more, even after years of playing. You can say the same for every other title in the series so far.

It still works after all this time, and it's arguably the one and only reason you should own a GBA ... well besides Advance Wars, perhaps.

The Bad
Originally I mentioned here that the game still has the same collection of characters to race as. That can still be considered a downer, really. Especially if you compared this to its original release. I just find it interesting that no-one has considered 'Hey, what if we throw Kirby into a Kart?'

Editing the review now, it's hard not to compare Super Circuit to the two latest versions, Double Dash and Mario Kart DS. Especially DS, when it comes to multiplayer modes. The stock standard options are within this cartridge, so upon reflection it's a shame that it took so long for a handheld version of the game to really get multiplayer spot on. Still, what's here isn't anything to be frowned upon. It's still alot of fun.

The Bottom Line
Super Circuit was a sign of things to come. More tracks, remakes of classics, more colour. With the DS addition tearing up the tracks, especially online, I'd suggest hunting around for a copy of this little GBA gem, if only for some extra tracks and a battle mode more like the SNES original.

The Good

• Great gameplay like we've come to expect from the Mario Kart series after Super Mario Kart & Mario Kart 64. Short races (never more than 3 minutes per race) with plenty of action, improbable comebacks, short-cuts and power-ups (on some tracks you can get up to 3 power-ups per lap). Races are exciting till the end as racers in the bottom half of the pack get better power-ups than those in the top half. The race-leader is especially vulnerable with all the red & purple shells fired by the other racers and the boo power-up also slows down the race-leader. If you play against the CPU the 50 cc & 100 cc classes are rather easy, but the 150 cc class is pretty hectic and you'll need quite a bit of knowledge of the track (know the shortcuts etc.) to win. During the race you must collect coins to increase the speed of your kart while other racers try to bump into you, which makes you lose coins. I definitely had a lot of fun while playing this game.
• Mario Kart Super Circuit has a lot to offer and you won't get bored with it very fast. I spent a huge amount of time playing this game. There are 20 new tracks divided into five cups. To unlock the special cup you need to finish first in each of the four regular cups, You must do this for each of the three engine classes. When you've also won the special cup you can unlock all the 20 tracks of the SNES original by collecting 100 coins in each of the Super Circuit cups. If you want to challenge yourself some more you can then try to score a triple-star rating for each of the 30 cup/engine class combinations. Your rating is determined by the amount of points scored, your lap times, the amount of coins collected, the amount of power-ups used (less is better) and the amount of continues used. You can also try to beat the computer's times in the time-trial mode and play against another player (via the link cable) in a single race or in the classic battle mode.
• Graphics are bright & colourful, which works fine with the GBA screen, and are a vast improvement over those of Mario Kart for the SNES. The action is smooth and the 150 cc class gives you a good sense of speed. The new tracks are longer, more complex and look better as well. There are several new unique themes, see for instance Sky Garden, Ribbon Road and Yoshi's Desert, which all have their own set of graphics and music. On some of the tracks the scenery changes during the race, for example the sun sets while you complete your laps or a volcano erupts and darkens the sky
• Of course the handling of the karts is not realistic, however this doesn't mean that it is shallow. It takes a bit of practice to make the most of your time-trial attempts. Besides knowledge of the track, you also need to get used to the handling of the various karts and how they respond to the different surfaces of the various tracks. Your choice for a particular character really influences the handling of your kart. I enjoyed the fact that you can now powerslide through corners by holding down left (or right) on the d-pad & the right shoulder button. A good powerslide (either a couple of seconds or 180 degrees or more) gives you small speed boost so it's worthwhile to practice this. Another change to the gameplay is the ability to block incoming shells by holding down the left shoulder button after you've collected a shell or banana. However you can't look behind you anymore.

The Bad

• Sounds & Music are up-tempo and upbeat which fits a Mario game. I think the sound-effects are well done and like the majority of the songs but after a while some the tunes start to get on my nerves as they are rather intense and hard to ignore (and can't be turned off). I can imagine it's really annoying to sit next to someone who's playing this game. Sometimes the music makes it hard to hear an incoming shell.
• Mario Kart games are excellent multiplayer titles, but the nature of the GBA hardware makes it likely you'll mostly play this game on your own. You can play this game with up to four people but if you want the full range of options you'll need 4 GBA's, 4 game cartridges and a matching number of link-cables. Of course that's not going to happen very often. Anyway since most people will probably play this game on their own it's a bit disappointing that you can't play the battle mode against the computer.
• One aspect of the original Super Mario Kart that annoyed me was that the A.I. drivers would somehow magically receive multiple power-ups per race (like Luigi getting 3 star power-ups in one race). I always felt that the A.I. was cheating. In this version the A.I. drivers need to hit item-blocks to get power-ups just like you (at least I think they have to). If you're not too far ahead I think you can prevent them from getting a power-up by driving through multiple item-blocks at once (the item-blocks will return after a little while). However some parts of the race still feel scripted; I've played some races in which a red shell came after me in exactly the same corner on every lap or in which one the race-leaders gets two star power-ups in a row, which never happens to you when you're in front of the pack.
• There's only room for ten ghosts from the time-trail mode on the cartridge. So after a while you have to delete your old achievements to save your latest accomplishment.
• While it's not extremely hard to win a golden cup in the 150 cc class, playing on this difficulty level can be frustrating if you're a perfectionist and aiming for those double / triple star ratings.

The Bottom Line
Mario Kart Super Circuit is another strong entry in the Mario Kart series. It offers a ton of gameplay and the short action-packed races work well on a handheld. It's a game with lots of replay value and one of the better GBA titles.

The Good
FUN!!! Really. I thought that hooning around endlessly in a little kart would get monotonous, but I never tired of blasting the opposition!!!

The Bad
The lightning powerup that I only got once and the computer karts kept blasting me with! I showed them though. ^^ And, in 150cc, you really start to wonder who granted Bowser his driver's licence, the maniac. Other than that, some tracks were insanely hard (especially secret ones) and others almost impossible. But really, all that adds to the thrill of the race!

The Bottom Line
You'll have so much fun playing this you'll never want to stop!! Seriously addictive. I even had my little brothers cheering for me at one stage!! ^^

This game absolutely rocks!!!