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GBA | Driving | Mario Kart Super Circuit

Boxart for Mario Kart Super Circuit
Mario Kart Super Circuit 30 screen shots
  • GRAPHICS: 4.5
  • SOUND: 4.0
  • CONTROL: 4.5
  • FUN FACTOR 5.0
  • AVG USER SCORE 4.7
  • AVG CRITIC SCORE 4.6
Winner of the GamePro Editor's Choice Award

Review: Mario Kart: Super Circuit

Review by Wes Nihei | 08/27/2001 | 12:14:08 PM PST

Sure it looks pretty but is it Kart? Mario Kart: Super Circuit is ready to roll for the Game Boy Advance.

Mario Kart: Super Circuit stays true to form as it brings classic kart racing to the Game Boy Advance. And that means a surer thing couldn?t exist for Mario Kart fans.

Super Circuit manages to recycle everything that?s entertaining about the Mario Kart games for the Super NES and Nintendo 64 and seamlessly mold them into great handheld fun. You get 20 tracks, organized into four Cup courses. The Special Cup circuit unlocks when you complete three previous Cups. The tracks are new but feature similar layouts, terrain, and themes (like the ?Boo? ghost areas and Bowser Castle lava circuits) from earlier games. Most of your favorite drivers are running rigs here, too: Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Donkey Kong, Peach, Bowser, Toad, and Wario. (Sorry, Koopa Troopa fans, looks like you?ll have to hope for a GameCube version.)

All the weapons and power-ups return, but some have added capability. Purple spiked turtle shells, for example, home-in on the lead driver?and take out everyone else along the way. Also, the ghost power-up not only makes you invisible, but it sends a ghost to latch onto and slowdown a random racer, too.

Time Trial and Battle modes also make return runs with new twists, and as multiplayer games they rock! In the basic Mario GP mode, even if you have only one cart between you, four players can race four tracks as differently-colored Yoshis. If all of you have a cart, all the tracks are open to you. In Battle Mode, where you try to bust each others? balloons, busted drivers can continue to play as kamikaze-like mobile bombs. Time Trial has a cool feature that enables you to save your best time as a ?ghost? car. Then you can race against yourself or link up with a pal, download his racer, and drive against two phantom karts.

Overall, Super Circuit handles like a front-runner, but sometimes the windshield needs cleaning. The direct-light-dependent GBA screen can drive you nuts when you use body english around turns because glare makes the game temporarily ?disappear,? which can destroy your run. The controls are tight, but nit-picky M. Kart vets may find the right-shoulder-plus-directional-button combo for powerslides a little finicky.

Despite the sensitive screen, the audio/visual show is a treat. The music is totally amped compared to that of the earlier games. The graphics are clean, colorful, and wonderfully kart-oony. If you take time to check out the backgrounds you?ll see some cool stuff, too. This version of Mario Kart is a very nicely tuned piece of work. Kart fans should be more than satisfied and newcomers? Well, you?re in for some kick-ass kart-driver?s ed. In the race for handheld fun, Mario Kart: Super Circuit earns the checkered flag.


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