Don't worry, I'm not dead. (Mario Kart Super Circuit (GBA))

Member Name: adidadi_young

Product:	Mario Kart Super Circuit (GBA)
Date:	01/02/02 (125 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Niec textures, lasts a while, it's Mario Kart!

Disadvantages: Hmm... don't know

Nintendo. It was last June that they released the Game Boy Advance, a small, handheld portable games console that revolutionised 2D gaming. I?ve bought one, and how much joy has it given me? Ooh, rather a lot, I?ll have you know. Although only having 4 games for it, and all 4 being sort-of rehashes (F-Zero ? ?new? rehash, Super Mario Advance ? Rehash, Rayman Advance ? Rehash) and one more, which might be a rehash from a predicted view. This other game, by no means, however, is a rehash.

Mario Kart: Super Circuit. Nintendo?s Super Mario Kart has proven to be one of the most successful; racing games of all time, and is still played many a time by retro fans. Like me. However, there?s something satisfying by carrying classic games in your good ol? (in a new way) GBA. MK: SC (and MK is NOT Mortal Kombat, for the last time!) has a totally redesigned graphics engine, and give s fresh new feel to the MK series. Okay, is that enough for the intro? I?d think so. Let?s get on with information about this game.

The graphics of this game. They don?t push the GBAs power to the limit, like Rayman does with its 2D-only effects, but they make very, very good use of sprite scaling, and is what makes a lot of the game appear 3D; this is mostly implied on the characters/karts. The tracks of the game are very nicely detailed, much like the SNES version?s, but these have more detailed road/off-road textures, with a nice scaling background. Do you remember running at full speed through a straight on Green Hill Zone on the game I do not need to mention? It was absolutely beautiful. This does the same thing. The menus too, are eye-candy. While the menus are not doing much do let you get on with the game, they still provide nice, cool effects that can make you say ?Oh, wow!? or ?Hehe, cool?. It just does, look cool.

Okay, what is Mario Kart? Some of you might even be asking. It?s a kart racing game, featuring 8 of the main Nintendo characters: Mario, Luigi, Peach/P
rincess Toadstool, Bowser, Yoshi, Toad (we can?t forget him now, can we), Donkey Kong (not Jr. this time) and Wario. No, there?s no Koopa. Damn them, everyone wanted Koopa! Okay, so all these characters, you control in the usual manner of racing games. This one has very fluid controls; it?s a game where you can?t win by holding down ?A? constantly. It?s clever, and addictive.


You are given 5 main options of this game: Mario Kart GP, Single Race, and Time Trial. Do I need to explain what the latter 2 are? Mario Kart GP.

On this mode, you are given 3 kinds of difficulty levels (and which are also speed levels, pretty obviously. You?ll see why now): 50cc, 100cc, and 150cc. 50cc is great for starting off. I did it quite easily, with only 1 silver cup instead of gold awarded, which I retried and got the gold again. It was pretty easy, and great for beginners (like I was then). However, this got me to the point where I thought the game would be easy. I underestimated. 100cc is good if you have fully mastered 50cc, it gives a bit more of a challenge: the Special Cup was something I had quite a bit of trouble with. Still, this will take you a bit longer to finish, because you don?t quite reach the 1st position every single time. Well, I didn?t. And I played SMK to death. Kinda. 150cc: You wish I?d written here. I haven?t finished it yet. And I?ve tried a lot.

Okay, so after playing your 20 brand new GBA-exclusive tracks, are there any bonuses? Oh yes. You?ve only done half the game. And even that took you a while, didn?t it? If you get a good number of coins on the 2nd time round on the cups, you?ll unlock the ?extra? version of that cup. Once you?ve unlocked them all, then jump for joy! You?ve unlocked all the classic SNES tracks! The fact that I found this harder; better/more aggressive AI, 5 laps etc made this an extra challenge. I?m afraid of losing on this on 150cc, so I don?t really want to do it. *scared*


Okay, what?s the
fourth mode? Multiplayer. OF COURSE. Yes, multiplayer. You can have 4 people playing with only 1 cartridge. Nice, eh? Unfortunately, you can only choose from 4 tracks and be different colours of Yoshi, but eh. If you have several carts, then you can have everything; co-op Mario Kart GP, single race (which you can choose any character and any track you?ve unlocked) and battle mode. This is basically battling in an arena, which is very nice.

That done, I might as well go on to the weapons to hinder your opponents.

Green Shell: Fires a shell to fire at the enemy, but bounces off walls and basically goes wherever it want to. So aim carefully.
Red Shell: Same, but it homes in on the enemy and can?t sustain wall damage.
No more feather!
Star: Invincibility, and speed.
Lightning: Makes everyone tiny enough to squash. Mwahahaha!
Banana Peel: Makes enemy slip and spin off.
No more coin!
Mushroom: Turbo boost! Weeee!

M?kay! That?s all done now. So how long does this game last? Heh, well, quite a while. I told you before, I?m still on 150cc, and I?ve had it for months. And I still play it too. It?s a nice challenge. By rushing, expect about 2 months minimum. In the no food/drink/toilet era.

So what about this game as a whole then? Oh, you won?t be disappointed. I could write an opinion saying, ?It?s Mario Kart.? but I wouldn?t be able to. Besides, I?ve used up people?s time by writing this. Hehe!

This is a classic game, and a reason alone to own a Game Boy Advance. This well deserves the 5 stars that I give it; and by this, I mean that it is a bloody good game. It?s like; Fighter?s equivalent to liking swords. He dislikes Nonswords, see?
Ah well, the 20 minutes I?ve wrote this have been very enjoyable, and I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I have when writing it. Byee!

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