Mario Kart captures the gold

Author's Rating:

Pros: Great graphics, sound, and plenty of racing. Very much like the 64 version.

Cons: No Battle Mode against the CPU. Other than that, nothing.

The Bottom Line: 
It's just plain fun. Racing enthusiasts and Mario fans will be very pleased with this game.

Author's Review
It’s like going home again. This game is so reminiscent of the original (hey, it’s not, is it?) that anyone who gets their hands on this cart won’t want to give it up. Hint: Don’t lend your game to a soul. After playing this beauty for a while, I yearned to write a review as soon as I could. Then I started to play it again. But I’m here now and still wanting to go back to it.

Everything for a brilliant game is here – the great graphics, funky music and sound effects – just listen to Mario when he takes a flying leap and lands or when he launches a turtle shell at Yoshi’s racer (Yoshi sounds like The Flinstones’ Dino for some reason). Even our old buddy the power slide is back. And there’s a great replay feature allowing you to watch your thrill of victory or the agony of defeat.

Difficulty Levels: The best part about this game is it’s playable by anyone and everyone. Unlike some racing games where you sweat blood trying to win third place, this game offers hope of actually winning and if you practice, you do win. The manual never comes right out and says it but I call the racing engine selection the difficulty setting. 50 CC is the easier mode, 100 CC is medium, and 150 CC is advanced. Of course the bigger the engine, the faster you go, that’s why I call that the difficulty meter.

The Who’s Who of Mario Kart: There are eight racers to choose from - Yoshi, Peach, Toad, Bowser, Donkey Kong, Wario and of course, our famous pair, Mario and Luigi. Each racer has his or her own characteristics and each will react differently on the tracks. Yoshi, for instance, races very well on dirt while Luigi is a good choice for those who need a little more help steering during the fray.
The racers come in three classes: Lightweight – Yoshi, Peach and Toad
Middleweight – Luigi and Mario
Heavyweight – Bowser, Donkey Kong, and Wario
These distinctions come in ever-so-useful when, on a whim, you race as Wario and do accidental donuts all over the course then realize Mario is really a better bet at first.

You have Single-Player Game, 2-4 Player Game, Battle, Time Trial and Quick Run. Playing single-player or multi-player would both be entertaining though I can only speak for single player mode. Battle is “racing” on special tracks and trying to pop your opponents’ balloons. Again you have to have two people for this. There’s an option Single-Pak Multiplayer (where you need only one game pak) and a Multi-Pak VS. where each player needs their own game pak. Time Trial is racing alone to get the best time and Quick Run is a great way to get the feel for the tracks before going into a championship. Each of the 16 tracks is available to race and figure out a good strategy for when it counts. Very useful indeed.

Controls: The controls are easy to learn but take a little getting used to in the beginning. Or maybe I’m just ambidextrously challenged this week which is more likely the case. Actually, the controls are fine. The A button is the accelerator, B button the brake, control pad steers right or left and down is reverse gear. The R button when tapped causes a mini-jump (it’s kind fun) but when held down whilst pressing the left or right cursor will cause the kart to “drift” AKA our pal the power-slide. There’s a spin turn (A and B together + left or right) which causes me mass panic because I haven’t perfected it yet but it looks fun if I ever could. Then comes the exciting part - knocking the competition out of the race (or at least slowing them down). L button + Up and you can throw bananas ahead of you. L button + Down and you can take out opponents with a turtle shell. Too bad there’s not rear-view mirror to gleefully watch the opponent spin out.

Items: When you’re racing you come across these floating baby blocks. Drive through them and get an item. The item will be display in a square in the top middle of the screen. When you want to use the item, hit the L button. The game has 10 items as power-ups or attacks:
Star – Used for invincibility.
Mushroom – Use this for a brief boost of speed.
Lightning – Shrinks opponents and slows them down.
Boo – Steals items from other racers and lets you use them. I love this one.
Banana – Make opponents slide out of control by strategically dropping the peel. Just be careful, however, if no opponent slips on it, it’ll also be there waiting for you on the next lap.
Red Shell – make your day by launching a guided missile shell at the racer in front of you.
Green Shell – these only go straight ahead so be careful when you fire these. I’ve lost a temper or two when the shell zips past an opponent turning a corner. You’d think I’d learn…
Triple Red Shells – They spin around your kart and you can use them to ward off attacks from other players or use them offensively as well.
Triple Green Shells – Same as the reddies only greener.
Spiny Shell – This is like the nuclear shell. Launch it and if you can watch while still driving (or watch a replay), see it hunt down and knock out every kart in its path. A very nice prize and its saved my bacon a few times. Too bad they don’t come in a six-pack.

Championship Cups: There’s the Mushroom Cup, Flower Cup, Thunder Cup, Star Cup and the Special Cup. You have to win gold trophies in all the other races to enter the Special Cup. Each Cup has four races in it. And don’t think there are guardrails all over this game, folks. Yours Truly has fallen into oblivion so often, the wrecker’s now paying me to stay off the road. On some of these tracks, there are gaping chasms on each side of the track that are huge and if explored, they might find Jimmy Hoffa in one. If you fall into a chasm, you have to be fished out and that’s quite humiliating as you lose time and your place in the race. You’ll be playing catch-up for the remainder of the race unless you’ve paid the race officials or just drive better than I do.

Points & Trophies: Each race has three laps. Players earn points if they’re in the top four finishers. 9 for 1st, 6 for 2nd, 3 for 3rd and 1for 4th. Finish fifth and get ready to race that track again. Gold, silver and bronze trophies are given to the three racers with the most points at the end of the four-race cup. The game is gratefully saved at the end of a cup challenge because after staring at Donkey Kong’s rear end for four races, I’m glad to have a break.

Coins: Along the race track there are coins scattered around and it’s best to pick up as many as possible. This raises the racer’s top speed. The maximum coin count a player can get, so I’ve read, is 55. Just don’t whack into anyone during the race or some of your gold coins will bounce out of your pocket. Lose all your coins and you’ll spin out when another player smacks into you.

Mario Kart Super Circuit was much anticipated and well worth the wait. I think anyone who had the 64 version will love this game and those who missed out on the 64 will find out what all the fuss was. It’s worth what you pay for it. Just remember, lend it and lose it because this is a great game.