Super Mario Kart

"After much thinking, I gave this game a rare 10............."

It deserves a 10, in my opinion at least. Super Mario Kart is a racing game for one or two players. There are eight selectable kart racers: the average guys, Mario and Luigi, the lightweights, the Princess and Toad, the speedy guys, Koopa Troopa and Yoshi, and the heavyweights, Donkey Kong Jr. and Bowser. Each group of racers is very different than the other groups; Bowser and DK are slow accelerators, but have the highest top speed and can bump anyone off the track. The lightweights accelerate the quickest, but their top speed is not as high and they can easily be thrown off track. The game consists of 20 tracks, grouped into themes: Mario Circuit, more or less regular tracks, Donut Plains, muddy tracks, Ghost Valley, where you race on wooden planks and if you fall off, you REALLY fall, Bowser Castle, where a fall means a dip in the lava, Koopa Beach, where you race on the sand with the ocean as the boundary, Vanilla Lake, an icy version of Koopa Beach, and the unique Rainbow Road, a colorful track suspended in the sky with no safety railing. Options include, for the one player mode, Grand Prix and Time Trial. In the Grand Prix, you engage all other computer opponents in a series of five races, and the racer with the most points afterwards wins the series. There are four series': Mushroom, Flower, Star, and after those have been completed, Special. The other option, Time Trial, lets you choose a track and race by yourself to get the best time you can. Battery back-up saves the five best times for each track. For two players, you can both engage in a Grand Prix, with the same rules applying as the one player mode. The other option is the most fun in the game, Battle Mode. You select one of four courses and battle it out with a friend. You each have three balloons circling your kart; when you get hit one of them blows up, and when all three are gone you lose. Weapons are found in question blocks scattered around the track, and include green shells and red shells, the same except that red shells follow you, banana peels, feathers to make you jump, a ghost to steal the other player's item and a Star for temporary invincibility. Think of it as a deathmatch on wheels.

Graphics: 9/10

Nice use of the Mode 7 graphics. The colors are bright and the tracks are well made and look good. Considering the time of the game's release, 1992, the graphics were great.

Sound: 9/10

The music was very good, and the sound effects were mostly taken from previous Mario games. The Rainbow Road music, for some reason, is still stuck in my head.

Gameplay: 10/10

The control is great, your kart slides sometimes, but that's only when you try to take a turn too fast. All things considered, the racers are more or less even, and most of their different abilites cancel each other out. It acutally depends on what mode you're playing. The heavyweights are by far the best for Time Trial, and the lightweights are better for the tougher races when you know there's always going to be a tight pack. There are three kart engines, 50, 100 and 150 cc. 150 cc is the most difficult. Battle mode is very fun. The tracks are well done and the weapons are suited well to the action. A nice touch is the many obstacles that litter the track, such as pipes, moles, Thwomps, fish and oil.

Replay: 10/10

This game has one of the longest lives of any game in history. It's still as fun to play as it was during it's release. The single player mode will keep you busy first with racing others, then trying to set new records in the Time Trial mode. Then for two players you have the amazingly fun Battle Mode.

Overall: 10/10

Truly a masterpiece. This is the best racing game for the SNES, and one of the best game for the system, period. If you have a SNES and haven't played this game for some reason, do so. Now.

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99