I never realized how dangerous a kart can be!

Did you ever have such a good day that the day is constantly floating inside your head. Well I had many of those types of days and of those days is well-remembered. But one stands out from all of rest; the day when I got my Super-Nintendo. When I got my Super-Nintendo I received 3 games with it: Q-Bert 3 [which was very good], Super Mario World [which is being released for the GBA as Mario Advance 2], and one game that I’ll never forget, Super Mario Kart. Super Mario Kart did something that no racing game before it has ever done; take a lot of cool and very well known characters [Mario, anyone?] and plop them on supped up karts with the ability to shoot turtle shells, drop bananas, and many other cool and unique things. But the fun doesn’t stop there; besides just racing on tracks you have the option to play multiplayer battle modes. Which pits you against a friend in a wide-open arena littered with weapons of mass destruction [who knew a turtle shell imbued with homing capabilities could be so dangerous]. This formula was just begging for success and Mario Kart became one of the most outstanding racing games to ever grace a console to date [Sorry to insult you Gran Turmiso fans out there]. The only other game that managed to really compete against Mario Kart is its N64 squeal, Mario Kart 64 that was actually better than the original in many respects. And now years after the glory of Mario Kart and Mario Kart 64, GBA finally gets it’s share of kart racing madness with Mario Kart: Super Circuit.

Gameplay- Besides having a very funny commercial, Mario Kart: Super Circuit has very good gameplay which is actually a little different from it’s predecessors. Like every MK game you can pick from a whole array of Nintendo Characters. In this case, it is Mario. Luigi, Toad, Princess Peach, Wario, Yoshi, and Donkey Kong. Each character has different stats [Stats consists of Weight and Speed]. The more weight your character has the more he can boss around lighter characters on the track. For example, Bowser [Heaviest Character in the game] can knock Toad [Lightest Character] or any other character lighter than him straight off the track with the right hit [talk about a fender bender!]. Also when a lighter character is hit by someone heavier than him or her, they will lose a coin. Coins can be collected through races and the more coins you have the faster you go. But take note when you are hit with no coins you will spin out. The speed stat of your character tells how fast the character can accelerate [not his or her’s maximum speed]. So though Bowser can hit Toad off of the road, Toad he can accelerate very quickly out of a sticky situation. Also lighter characters like Toad, Peach, and Yoshi have another advantage, they can drive through dirt or other out of road terrain with little trouble or sacrifice to speed. Bigger characters though, like Bowser, Donkey Kong, and Wario move very slowly through dirt and lose a lot of speed in it, but they can reach speeds higher than smaller characters.

The controls of this game are simple and well done. You accelerate with A, you brake with B, you can do a mini jump with the R button [You can do this to avoid small obstacles, and do a power slide which can be done by jumping and turning at the same time, don’t overdo it , though, or you will spin out] and the L button is used to launch weapons which can be picked up all around tracks.

The modes of the MK are more of the same. The only mode that got a little change is the Mario GP mode. This is basically the Championship Mode of MK and you can enter in either 50. 100, or 150 cc races with up to 4 four race long cups [there is one secret one as well] in each one [cups are all of the same no matter what cc you do. Cc just affects the difficulty level and speed of the computer]. The big difference with this mode is that , beside getting trophies, you actually get graded base on your performance in the race [Thank god that MK is not school or I would be a flunky]. The other two modes are fairly simple, Time Attack mode you race against the clock and race ghost cars which a replica of you from a previous race [ghosts can be exchanged with other players]. The quick run mode is just a “Quick Run” on any track of your choosing from the Mario GP mode.

This MK game like all of MK’s has a multiplayer mode that can be played with 1 to 4 people, with 1 cartridge. Though you can play the multiplayer mode with 1 cartridge you will be limited to 1 track with all of the players being automatically chosen to be Yoshi. If every player has a cartridge they can play any track in the game [as long as the track is unlocked]. You also play the famous battle mode if everyone has a cart. In battle mode everyone had three balloons, one hit from any weapon takes away one balloon. If anyone loses all of their balloons they cant play any longer and the last person standing wins. But take note that anyone who loses actually turns into a bomb and can hurt other already alive players! Bombs also constantly reappear.

Graphics- The graphics in this game have two very good things going for it. The graphics are done in Mode-7 [check out my GBA review to see what Mode-7 is] and the graphics are very bright so that you can see a little easier [but the GBA screen still glares a lot though]. The graphics are very crisp and sharp and the 2-D backgrounds of every track are more and more diverse and cool. This game has the best graphics for GBA that I’ve seen so far.

Sound- The sound in this game is amazing [with a good pair of headphones] and can be easily comparable to it’s prequels. Everything from the cool intro song, to the additive menu theme song, all the way to the track songs, you just can’t beat this game’s musical and sounding potential.

Overall- This game has everything a GBA game should have good graphic, music, sound, and gameplay. But MK is starting to have a growing con with every game released. Like the Gran Turmiso series, MK is showing more of the same as each game comes along and unless the next MK game is a little different it might be doomed to a lower score from this reviewer.