Mario Kart Super Circuit Review (no fat)

Game Description

Mario Kart is the game that lets players race against Nintendo's all-star cast of mascots on a set of a unique race tracks from familiar levels like Bowser's castle, Boo's haunted house, and more. Mario Kart Super Circuit is the most exciting kart racing game available for Gameboy Advance.

Introduction:

If the sound of a laughing gorilla who just passed you for first place doesn't clue you in, then the sound of revving kart engines and the sight of a lakitu with a traffic light might; a new addition to the Mario Kart series just landed, and this time it's small enough to fit in your hands.

Mario Kart Super Circuit marks a new achievement for the franchise as it's the first attempt at bringing the series to a handheld. The final product is one of the most complete and purest Mario Kart games to date and is something no handheld owner should be without.

Graphics:

While some have deemed Super Circuit to be more akin to the original Super Mario Kart, this could only be true of the game for its mode 7 style graphics. Outside of that, Super Circuit hardly looks anything like Super Mario Kart. I would sooner draw a comparison to Mario Kart 64 for a number of reasons.

A pleasant surprise in Super Circuit is that it borrows the use of Mario Kart 64's sprites. The sprite animation is so detailed that rotating the characters can give the impression that it is a fully rendered 3D object. While this style of sprite rotation has its roots on the Super Nintendo, it was never done better than in Mario Kart 64. Best of all, the sprites feel right at home in a game that doesn't have hardware supported 3D graphics.

Furthermore, Super Circuit has a lively and vibrant color scheme and awesome backgrounds for each track. The first track most people will race on is Peach's circuit, and it's a prime example for the style of graphics the Gameboy Advance can produce. Each track has at least two layers of background that bring the horizon to life. On Peach's circuit, her castle can be seen looming high in the distance. On Mario's circuit, there is a lush forest occupying the horizon and tall mountains even more distant than that. In the sky there are clouds that move on a separate layer to give drivers a better sense of the distance between each layer. An even better example of layer usage would be Cheep-Cheep Island where there are as many as four of five background layers such as the ocean layer, island layer, cloud layers, sky layer, and giant cheep-cheep's leaping out of the ocean. There are more layers than the eye will care to keep track of. It's a nice touch of scenery like this that sets this game apart from the 16-bit era of graphics.

The race tracks certainly boast a lot more detail in Super Circuit than was found in Super Mario Kart. Much of the new ideas from Mario Kart 64 have found a place in this game. While racing around the track at Cheep-Cheep Island, there are numerous crabs running around on the sand. These single-layered sprite-ly critters will no doubt cause an accident during the race. On other tracks, the obstacles range from mousers to plants and other surprises. There are even seagulls that will casually land on the track, but don't worry about running into them because they will fly away.

Overall, Mario Kart Super Circuit is much nicer than the original Mario Kart. The background detail is as captivating as the detail of the objects on the race tracks. The graphical style aspires to look much more like Mario Kart 64 despite that the tracks are all on a level plane. As such, Super Circuit falls into a graphical category of its own.

Sound:

Mario Kart Super Circuit has some catchy beats and most of what gamers expect in a Mario Kart game. As much as I loved the music from Mario Kart 64, I may be one in a small camp who feels Super Mario Kart still has the most impressive soundtrack in the series. That aside, Super Circuit's track of music is a lot like Mario Kart 64's.

Making an appearance in Super Circuit are the character gestures that first showed up in Mario Kart 64. The presence of certain characters in close proximity won't go unnoticed, as they will most certainly have some weird noise to make. This is especially apparent when they pass you to gain rank. The first thing I noticed was Donkey Kong's gesture, which sounds an awful lot like laughter. It's identical to his gesture in Mario Kart 64. Mario and Luigi, however, do have some new dialogue. At least, I miss Luigi's slogan, "I'ma Luigi! Number one!" It's apparently not in the game.

The audio department happens to be one area where the game suffers. Whether it is the speakers or the sound quality, for whatever reason, the sound is not always audible. The sound quality is okay, but it could have been better. In addition to that, the soundtrack is still missing what the original had. Where are the unique themes for each character? The variety that made Super Mario Kart great keeps my verdict on Super Circuit's soundtrack as good. Furthermore, songs from Mario Kart 64's soundtrack are definitely more memorable. It's fair to say the soundtrack could have also been better.

Gameplay and Control:

But what sets Mario Kart apart from other racing games is fun factor. As great as Need for Speed or Project Gotham are, most racing games can't hold a candle to Mario Kart. It has speed. It has tight control. It has intense competition. It has a thrilling feeling that isn't present in most racing games. Sure, no one in NASCAR is going to expect a turtle shell or banana peel, but ten minutes with Mario Kart will explain why these items are pivotal elements of a good race.

In comparison to the console games, Super Circuit's controls will only take a few minutes of racing to get used to. On Gameboy Advance, Mario Kart has simpler controls than even that of the Super Nintendo controller. The reason for this is because there are only four buttons. One thing to get used to is using the left shoulder button to use items. The right shoulder button allows for hopping and power sliding. The a and b buttons accelerate and break. It's much of what we've come to expect in Mario Kart but using a shoulder button to launch an item takes getting used to.

Gameplay in Super Circuit revolves around the Mario GP mode, which consists of different difficulty levels such as 50cc, 100cc, and 150cc. Within Mario GP mode, players can choose from one of eight characters. Super Circuit features the more recent cast of characters, which is Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Princess Peach, Toad, Donkey Kong, Wario, and Bowser. Players then choose from the list of cups to begin racing.

Super Circuit features four cups that players can immediately choose from. Each cup features a unique set of race tracks, so choosing the Mushroom cup will feature a set of four race tracks: Peach's circuit, Shy Guy Beach, Riverside Park, and Bowser Castle 1. The other cups to choose from are the Flower cup, Lightning cup, and Star Cup. As experienced Mario Kart racers should know, winning all four cups will open yet another cup that promises to be even more challenging than the others.

The core of Mario Kart's fun, though, has been in multiplayer races. What could be more fun than pounding your friends with turtle shells while they're trying to race? The short answer is nothing. Super Circuit offers both multiplayer modes that made its predecessors immensely popular: vs. race and battle mode.

In the multiplayer racing mode, up to four players can connect Gameboy Advances and race against each other. They can race head-to-head or in Mario GP mode against computer racers in an attempt to earn a trophy. But if racing is not what your friends are in the mood for (maybe they're tired of eating your dust), then the ever-so-popular battle mode is available where up to four players drive around a battle arena full of walls and obstacles trying to take each other out. In battle mode, there are only the racers, the course, and loads of items to hurl at each other—it's survival of the fittest.

A significant addition to Mario Kart Super Circuit is multiplayer play with only one game cartridge. Although multiplayer play is quite limited with only one game cartridge, people without the game can race against you as Yoshi. Also, this method of play is limited to four tracks. Still, it is a significant addition since finding players with the game can sometimes be a problem.

Value:

With a racing game like Mario Kart, there isn't much to say except that gamers won't be bored anytime soon. Super Circuit offers more than sixteen tracks to race on for the single player, and the multiplayer modes make this endless fun. Even after earning gold and top rank in each cup, Mario Kart is the kind of game players will revisit often.

Final Verdict:

Mario Kart Super Circuit is the most complete package of kart racing on a handheld. With rich colors and loads of sprites and background layers, Super Circuit is really in a graphical category by itself in the kart-racing series. The audio could have been a notch better, but it doesn't detract from the overall game experience. The bottom line is Super Circuit is one of the truest Mario Kart games ever made.

Written by Donny Simpson