RETRO REBOOT | Mario Kart Super Circuit (Game Boy Advance)

The original SNES Super Mario Kart game transcends spinoff and has become a series of its own, more of a celebration of what everyone loves about the Mario universe. It’s spawned almost every other platforming video game character to take that stab at making a kart racing game of their own, from Sonic (whatever the hell Sonic R was) to Crash Bandicoot, and even the Chocobos from Final Fantasy got in on the fray.

Released in 2001 for the Game Boy Advance, Mario Kart Super Circuit is the third entry in the series and feels like Kart 64 and the SNES title mashed together. The Nintendo 64 character sprites are replicated reasonably well on the Advance. I'm getting ultra fancy and playing it on my Game Boy Advance Player. What a fantastic device that expands the versatility of the GameCube.

While it may seem like a downgrade from the textured world of Mario Kart 64’s courses, this game is packed with great visuals that utilize the parallax scrolling and Mode 7 graphical skewing the Super Nintendo made great use of through its lifespan. Some courses, like Cheese Land and Yoshi Desert, can be a tad bit disorienting with the palette and I would sometimes go careening into a trap or a bumping into a wall trying to target a shortcut.

Background images like a glowing, tempering volcano and Boos floating around with candle holders in Ghost Valley courses are brilliant aesthetic touches that shows off the power of the Game Boy Advance. I really like the courses in Super Circuit, they have a tightness of the SNES Kart, while having the visual pop of its 64 predecessor. For a time, a cool blend of the old and the new.

While I've never been a fan of the Mario characters talking in the video games, I have begrudgingly gotten used to them as time passed, mostly because the hammy nature of the voices has noticeably been toned down. I don’t know if Charles Martinet was getting sick of it, but when he says, “Let’s go”, in New Super Mario Bros. U, compared to the exuberance exhibited in Mario 64, he sounds like he’s phoning it in. Much like that entire game, if I say so myself (shots fired).

Some of the voices, sounding slightly garbled, are sampled from the N64 game and slightly altered. The music is great, not only do the Super Circuit original scores sound amazing, but the SNES courses are back with the original music intact, some even sounding like they some extra mixing, as I noticed some bass drops in the Mario Circuit score. I still totally love that Bowser theme. This might be a little nitpicky (What a shocker, coming from me…), but I have always been sad that individual character themes for winning a race has never come back since the first game. It added a little personal touch to the roster.

Circuit is silky smooth (blah, alliteration) and retains the tight controls from the SNES, putting some slight variations on weight classes. Only Mario and Luigi seem to be identical as the most balanced drivers, but Peach and Yoshi, who were equal, are slightly varied. Wario is lighter and handles better than the heavyweights, Donkey Kong and Bowser. This was back before the weapons got completely out of hand, so it remains balanced with no new additions, and that great, as far as I’m concerned.

Super Circuit has a really tight difficulty with aggressive CPU and amazing course design. The 20 additional tracks are unlocked via a high course ranking. A high rank is determined by how many coins are collected, continues used, how many times you go off course, FALL off the course, and the frequency of red and green shells used to hit other racers. Yeah, YOU have to follow a code of honor while everyone else can pummel you into oblivion and you can’t retaliate.

Unless you use a well-placed banana. It took a great deal of patience to not fire triple red shells when 1st place is right there and it’s the final lap, but you CAN’T do it unless you want those extra courses. This also puts the incentive on not being weapon-reliant and sharpening driving skills. It also keeps the replay value fresh as the cc gets bumped higher, because there will always be an increased degree of challenge, making this one of the longer Mario Kart replays I’ve ever toggled with.

I feel this game is considerably more enjoyable than the Mario Karts that succeeded it. Super Circuit easily outclasses 7, Wii, and vanilla 8 (Deluxe is the top of the mountain for the foreseeable future). It's got amazing replay value, excellent music, and the courses are awesome. Highly recommend this Mario Kart entry, it deserves way more adulation.