Mario Kart Super Circuit

"Dude, not worth the trouble of getting..."

Christmas of 2001...I got a Gameboy Advance and along with it , Mario Kart: Super Circuit. I was an ecstatic little 9 year old boy ready to play one of my favorite series. I put fresh batteries into the GBA and put the cartridge in, and in a matter of minutes I was severely disappointed, I think I died a little inside. What made it such a traumatizing experience? Let's take a look...

Graphics: Let me first say that for a GBA game that the graphics are surprisingly decent. Although the characters can look a teeny bit pixelated they are indeed still good graphics. The backgrounds are ok, nothing too special, and the course itself isn't all too exciting, but it had great bright colors which is always nice; nothing else much to say here.

Sound: The sound was decent, and at the same time just flat-out annoying. The courses' music sounded pretty nice, in fact, there are quick a few good tunes on the game so that's a plus. What was annoying? The characters' voices were annoying, especially Luigi's; he sounds like he is stoned and laughing to himself in his own little world. It was just flat-out creepy to hear the characters' voice because it was so pathetic sounding, so the sound department didn't have the the best character voices, but decent melodies for the courses.

Controls: The controls are what made this game shockingly bad. Now the A button is your acceleration button, B button is to brake, R button is to drift, L button to use items, and the control pad to steel. Lets start off with the L button, it's easy to shoot your items, but if you wanted to hold an item then you would have a finger on the L button while still trying to drive. It wasn't so much it was hard to steer and hold an item, but your hand would get tired holding the position for a short amount of time. Now let's go to the R button and drifting; holding the R button to drift isn't the problem as much as it is the fact the drifting is terrible. You start to drift and you're going to have problems staying on the road. You drift so far out of place you'd almost be better out without using it. Not too Mention that the drift isn't like of Mario Kart 64, Mario Kart DS, and MKWii where you move from left to right on the d-pad/analog stick to get a mini-turbo. Instead, you have to drift as soon as you hit the turn and let go as soon as you finish the turn to get the boost. If you don't drift the entire turn, or are not perfectly straight once finishing the drift, then you're not going to get the drift. All that's left to talk about is the steering, and let me tell you, this is what made me want to cry like a little school girl who just lost her dolly. The steering is so slippery, that even lightweight characters have a little bit of slippery control. It's such a constant struggle to stay on the road and avoiding hitting the walls that I find myself rocking the control pad back and forth in order to stay straight and on the road. Steering is one of its major flaws, so bad that I find 150cc almost impossible to play because of how bad the controls are for staying on the road with the speed you go at. More than likely, you're going to have to play the course over and over and over again just to know what position you have to be in, in order to make the turn work. The controls are what gave this game the real challenge so terrible...it reminds me of the bad controls in Superman 64...nah not that bad, but you get the point I'm trying to make.

Gameplay: In the game you either have a choice of single-player mode or multiplayer mode. In single-player mode you have a choice between Gran Prix Mode, Time Trials,and Quick Run. In Gran Prix Mode you have to complete a series of four races trying to get first place in each time. Depending on how well you did, you get a ranking with 3 stars being the highest and E being the lowest. You must place 4th or better in each track in order to advance to the next race. If you do not make it in fourth or better, then you have to try again. Now here is one of the things that pissed the living crap out of me, the game makers decided to have a continue system. That's right, a continue system, three attempts and no luck and you have to start the cup over. And I guarantee you'll be using the continues no thank to the shockingly awful controls. The next thing I have a problem with this game is the coin system. Now, it was a good idea to add money to the course as they did in Super Mario Kart, because the coins helped you go faster and help earn a higher rank on the cups. But the coin system was also very annoying because it also represented your health. Now was that really necessary? No, it wasn't. You start out with 5 coins each race; if you get hit with an item or even by bumping into another racer, then you lost coins. The items taking away coins makes sense, but bumping into each other makes you lose coins? That's just stupid, why have that it in a game? Now that wouldn't be as much as a problem, losing coins that is, if it weren't for the fact that you spin out if you have no coins. That's right, if you have mo coins and a computer bumps into you, then you spin out. To prevent this from happening, run over the coins on the road, but with such terrible steering, its hard to nail the coins. And I swear, you have to be right on top and in the middle of that coin in order to get it or else you're just driving on top it. So the coin system ended up being another annoying factor in the game. Next on to Time Trials, not much to say here but to go and try to get the fastest time of the tracks, and while at it find short cuts. You're allowed to save up to 10 ghosts, which believe it or not, was a huge accomplishment for the Mario Kart series. Lastly, there is Quick Run, which basically lets you race on a track you've unlocked and just race that solo track. In addition, you and able to set a few rules in Quick Run, such as how many laps and whether to have coins or not. I played on this mode the most to enjoy the game more, but not by much. Multiplayer mode, this also killed the game because if you are not able to do multiplayer. During this mode you have the choice of either going GP mode ( Two players only) VS mode, and Battle Mode. All are self explanatory and the gameplay is not too bad but still due to bad control, the gameplay is less than enjoyable.

Miscellaneous: Now despite this game is not all cracked up to be, it did offer two nice features that have been featured in the later Mario Kart games in the series. One I already mentioned but didn't talk about is the rank system. It challenges gamers to get the 3 star rank, which believe me is really challenging, and by doing so you getting bragging rights of having a 3 star rank. The next is that the game added retro tracks from the SNES which gave this game a lot of different tracks to race on. And now in the Mario Kart series we get a refreshing 16 new tracks and 16 retro tracks from all the all the past games so kudos to the game.

Overall: I give this game a 5/10. It wasn't that great of a game due to it's terrible handling. The game offered decent graphics, ok sound, and had a few good features that made its way to later games in the series which has made those games even better. Mario Kart Super Circuit isn't a title I would recommend if you are able to get a hold of other version of Mario Kart.

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 07/02/09

Game Release: Mario Kart Super Circuit (US, 08/26/01)