Slusy's Full Review: Mario-Kart Super Circuit for Game Boy Advance
It seems that Nintendo doesn't think it's worth coming up with fresh ideas for the Game Boy Advance. All three of their titles for the system to date (Super Mario Advance, F-Zero: Maximum Velocity, and now Mario Kart Super Circuit) are essentially simple updates of NES or SNES games, and none have really added all that much to the original games. Mario Kart Super Circuit, while being arguably the best update out of these three, suffers from the same problem; it's something we've played before.
Don't get me wrong, Mario Kart Super Circuit is a good game, and definitely one of the best available for the GBA currently, and on its own merits, it's quite fun, especially for those who either didn't have an SNES way back when or are simply too young to remember the original Super Mario Kart. It's just a shame that Nintendo couldn't have done something original with this concept and made the game innovative in its own right.
But I digress. For those unfamiliar with the Mario Kart series, it's the granddaddy of the kart racing genre, featuring such games as Diddy Kong Racing, Crash Team Racing, and Wacky Races. Basically, you get a bunch of cartoon characters (in this case, Mario and his buddies), given them some stuff to shoot at each other, and let them race. It's really quite simple, and when done correctly, can be lots of fun.
Mario Kart Super Circuit features 8 racers from the Mario series, all ranked according to the slightly confusing characteristics of speed and weight. "Speed", in fact is acceleration and steering, and "weight" is actually top speed as well as stability. So Toad, for example, will zoom out in front early on, but Bowser will eventually be whizzing past everyone once he gets up to his top speed.
There are a number of modes to choose from, both in single player and multiplayer modes. The main mode is Mario GP, which is the tournament mode, much like F-Zero: Maximum Velocity's Grand Prix mode. You play through a succession of four courses, and get points based on your placing in each race; if you place first in overall points, you win that circuit and can move on to the next. There are also the requisite single race and time trial modes that are present in just about every racing game these days. As for multiplayer, there are Vs. mode, which is fairly self-explanatory, and Battle Mode, which is basically like a kart-style deathmatch. I unfortunately cannot comment on the multiplayer experience as I am the only one among my circle of friends to own a GBA (it's lonely being a gamer in the "real world", after all), but I am rather disappointed that Battle Mode is restricted to multiplayer only; that would have been a nice change of pace for the single player as well.
As for the actual races, they're pure Mario Kart. You race around a track with some obstacles sprinkled about, pick up some weapons along the way, and hope you come out on top. You can also collect coins, which improve your top speed, and are lost when other racers bump into you. The tracks are also designed nicely, and even the later ones are still manageable.
The control is fairly standard and intuitive for this type of game, for the most part. A and B accelerate and brake, as expected. L readies and/or uses an item that you've collected, and R performs a mini-jump which can be used to perform a sliding turn. An interesting note is that Select honks your character's horn; it's a rarely-used feature, but it's a nice touch.
Graphically, Mario Kart Super Circuit shows off the GBA's power nicely, almost as much so as Rayman Advance does. There's a lot of nice stuff going on here, from the way that the characters scale as they get closer and farther away, to the cartoony backgrounds (the Sphinx with Yoshi's head in one level is an especially nice touch) and the illusion of 3D as the camera pans around a particular car. (It's too choppy to be actual 3D, but it's a very good approximation.) The only complaint I have is the same complaint I have about most GBA games; some of the levels are too dark. This is especially apparent in one of the early levels, when the track drops off, except the track is a dark brown to begin with, and the area without any track is black, so the difference between the two on the GBA screen is minimal.
Sound is also excellent, though you do have to listen through headphones to fully appreciate everything that's going on. The purring of engines is particularly dead on, and most of the other sound effects are true to their Mario roots, such as the sound of coins being collected. The music is generally well done as well, though it's often overpowered by the sound effects. What can be heard is peppy, and, especially in stereo, a joy to listen to. Also, the characters all have voices in Super Circuit, much like in Super Mario Advance. However, unlike Super Mario Advance, the voices are kept to something of a minimum, and are not nearly as annoying as the one in Super Mario Advance. One noticeable improvement is that, for Toad, they used his voice from the Mario Party games rather than his Mario Advance voice, which was simply awful.
Overall. Mario Kart Super Circuit is a fun game, more so than I originally expected. The main problem here is replay value. Even given that there are 20 tracks to pay plus an additional 20 original tracks from the SNES Mario Kart, this game, at least for the single player, will get stale quickly. I've had it for two days and it's still fun, but the fun factor is waning quickly. I will grant that, with more players, Mario Kart Super Circuit would provide a great deal more fun than without. However, Nintendo went overboard on multiplayer, it seems, and forgot that one cant have friends over all the time.
So, Mario Kart Super Circuit is a very good game, if you don't mind the fact that it's essentially a souped up SNES game, much like every other GBA game Nintendo's put out. If you have lots of friends with GBA's, then this game is probably worth a purchase. If not, then definitely rent first and see how much you really like it. Either way, this is a great game to show off the power of your GBA with. now if only we had a brand new game that did the same...
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