Mario Kart Super Circuit

"Coming in Second place all time"

Introduction.

Wooo-hoo, Mario Kart Super Circuit has finally been released on the Gameboy Advance, but how does it do? IT does well, but in order to do well in the Mario series, you must be compared to other Mario Kart games, and that is no easy task it is quite the big shoe to fill. When I refer to this game I will use SC for Super Circuit, I will use DD for Double Dash, SMK for Super Mario Kart, and 64 for Mario Kart 64. I really do not want to use the initails MK because some people may think of Mortal Kombat and I would not want any of that.

Sound
6/10

I would have to say, this game has the worst musical score and sound effects of any Mario Kart game out. Now that does not mean the music is terrible, just that Mario Kart games have set the bar so high it is hard to topple every time a new game is out. You can go play DD, 64, or SMK and their music has one thing in common, you will be whistling the tunes while you play and after you are done. They also put you in this cheery mood and the music fits each level greatly and sound effects are awesome. If you are hit with a shell and fall off the edge in 64 Toad will yell Ahhhhhhhhh, while he tumbles down making the game extra fun. Even in SMK when you were hit by a shell it sounded like someon popped a balloon and smacked you in the back of the head, in DD people started to cry when they lost matches, all those are great examples of sound effects. In this game however, when you pass someone up or get hit you utter some speech and it sounds like your character has a cold, the music for a star is very odd, the characters that do talk sound hoarse, and the lightening sounds weak. But the good parts are the sounds of braking, the different engine sounds, and you can honk your horn. Good job Nintendo, but you can do better.

Graphics
9/10

The graphics are good in this game and every item and character is easily recognized, be it Bowser or a rat with a bandana on his face. All the items look like they are suppose to and the characters look better than they did on SMK which is always a good improvement. The backgrounds in this game are hihgly decorated giving you that familiar happy go lucky Mario Kart experince. The only thing bad about graphics is that they are not a big factor when it comes down to the overall score of a game.

Control
10/10
Now the Gameboy Advance is not the best game to play racers on, but Nintendo and Camelot do a great job of givng you that portable Mario Kart feel, without making it to complicated by making you press buttons simultaniously or just by taking a few things out. You hop with R, you gas with A, you brake with B, you use items with L you honk your horn with select, and pause the game with start. That is about as simple as it gets and every button is well used and should never confuse you.

Gameplay
Single player 7/10

I will talk about the single player gameplay first because most people will play it by themselves the first few times unless they have a lot of friends who play a lot of SC. Okay the artificial intelligence (AI) in this game is weak. I was able to turn this game on and kick but on 150cc, I did not really get triple stars but I got the gold or silver relatively quickly. The AI does not try to push you out into holes or even ram you when they are barrling down at high speeds, they just take their own slow and steady pace. You will easily beat the computer opponents and soon find out that your only challenge is yourself. When I played SMK I was excited when I could rank in 100cc, and I was scared to play 150cc. In 64 I was beat up terribly on 150cc and mirror mode, but then mastered them later. In DD I had a hard time even getting 5th place in 100cc. That game was tough to play.. But then of course I mastered it, but the AI in SC never gives you a challenge or is not even worth mentioning. Nintendo strays from the normal whacky Mario Kart racing and instead tries, to make this a simulation? Yes, in this game in order to get the besst ranking(from E-A and then one, two, and three stars) you must be near perfect. That means you are not suppose to use weapons, you are not suppose to fall behind, you are suppose to get all the coins, and you are suppose to go fast at all times and not hit walls or characters. That does not sound like a Mario Kart game does it? No that is why the single player is average at best, if they really wanted me to be perfect in a course why do the not just put course ghosts in the game? When I go for perfect I hit up time trial. Another good thing about the one player besides time trial is quick run. It lets you pick one course to play on with all the computer opponents which is great for practicing.

Mulitplayer 10/10

This is where Mario Kart Super Circuit shines, when you connect four Gameboy Advances together and have four games each. Sure you can link up for Gameboys with only one kart, but you can only play on four courses and you can only use different colors of Yoshi so you might as well go out and buy the game yourself. You can have a great versus match, which is a lot of fun since the computer does not know how to push and bully you like your friend does. And since you are all looking at you own Gameboy's, no one really knows what you are plotting. You can also do battle mode, which has been watered down from SMK but is still fun on its own. They should of brought the feather back for this game but oh well. This game should be released on the Nintendo Dual Screen, wireless multiplayer Mario kart with two screens per person would be a great thing to have. But for now, we must stick with one screen. Still a great game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 10/22/04