Mario Cart, N64 to GBA

Author's Rating:

Pros: Good Graphics. Fun Gameplay. Easy learning curve. A great way too spend excess time.

Cons: Slightly repetitive gameplay. Some frustrating level design.

The Bottom Line: 
If you are a fan of racing games, or just fun games in general, Mario Cart Super Circuit was made just for you.

Author's Review
At first glance, Mario Kart Super Circuit is an exact port of the N64 Mario Kart game. At second glance- well, it’s still a port. But that, as Super Circuit proves, is sometimes a very good thing.

Mario Kart manages to take the excellent game from the somewhat aging Nintendo 64, and turn it into one of the GBA's best games so far. Now, make no mistake, Super Circuit is not a perfect copy. I actually found that the AI was more advanced, and well, the graphics seemed almost... better.

For those of you who are not completely sure about buying this game because you think it wont have a very large amount of gameplay, guess again. Super Circuit has varying stages. The first stage is like the N64's. Simply get first in the rosters, and you unlock the next set. After you unlock all the tracks, you have the chance to unlock a new set of tracks that supposedly are from older Mario Cart games (NES, SNES). That’s where the addition of coins comes in. You have to get certain amounts of coins to get the tracks.

For the Multiplayer nuts (who don’t have the sense to get themselves an actual console (hint hint, xbox)), there is a descent amount of modes that support link cable, including the regular races, VS, and Battle (a mode where you "fight" the other player to get rid of his/her balloons. You do that buy hitting him/her with a shell, star, etc…).

Alas, it does have a few downfalls. The first is its repetitive gameplay. As much fun as it is, the races do get tiring after a while. Unfortunately, it does not have very interesting level design (nothing that creative anyway), and the levels that are creative have a tendency to be too difficult. By that, I mean certain levels have things like walls that you go run over at contact. These walls often time leave you stranded in dead last.

All in all, Mario Cart Super Circuit is a great game, a great way to spend some excess time, and a good way to put that link cable to use. If you have a big road trip coming up, my recommendation is to pick this one up.


~Kshain