go go mario racier

When the gameboy advance came out, it came out with a lot of great games. However, a lot of these games like Castlevania and Mario advance didn’t exactly deliver graphically what Nintendo promised. Sure they were better then the GBC, but not really anything that would could compete with the SNES. The only game that could say that is Irdion 3d, but that was only used to cure people of their insomnia. Finally in late summer Nintendo released their gameboy advance version of Mario Kart.

I of course waited a month after it's release before picking up a copy, and then had blast. So what did Mario Kart Super circuit bring to the game boy advance table.

Story
No story really, Mario and his friends are just out racing, and beating each other up in go karts.

Graphics.
One of the biggest things that Mario Kart brings up to the table is it's excellent graphics. It's graphics shows that not only can the GBA compete with the SNES, it can easily beat it. The graphics are a mix between the N64 and the Super Nes. The character sprites are water down version of the N64, they have a bit less animation then the N64, but other then that they look identical. The backgrounds are a bit more of the SNES, however the backgrounds have more depth, and movement. Sailboats move in the background, huge statues adorn Bowser castle, and even of course a 2d version of Peaches castle has made it into the backgrounds of some courses.

The tracks are mostly SNES material, there all flat, no hills, and hardly any bumps. Of course this is to be expected since the game boy has no 3d engine, of course this doesn’t mean Nintendo didn’t find ways to make them interesting. There are plenty of hazards in the tracks, including Shy Guys, Ghosts, deep water, Cannon balls, and everything else that you can imagine to be a road hazard.


Sound.
The sound also shows what the game can do. The music is not has good has the N64 of course, but better then the super because it's more instrumental. The only thing that really keeps it down is the fact that it's on the GBA small sound speaker.

Also each character has a voice, however unlike the N64 there brought down to a few cry and shouts, and no actual sentences are said. Which means don't expect to be hearing "I'ma Wario, Ima going to win

Gameplay
While not much has change in the Mario Kart world since the release of the first one 10 years ago. You still have GP, and a time trail. There is also a multiplayer mode but I don't know of anybody else that owns a game boy advance. They also thrown in a quick race option that lets you race one track, with all the other characters like in GP mode.

All right here are the details of the one player game.

GP mode.
Main mode of the game, choose one character, a cc engine, and a cup. Each cup is made out of four tracks, your goal is to have the best score out of everybody after the 4 races to win the gold cup.

Time trail.
Race around the tracks with no obstacles to get the best time.

Quick race.
This mode is just for people who want to practice one track, full of obstacles and people, outside of the GP mode. It's a bit better practice then Time Trail.

Of course it wouldn’t be Mario Kart if you where just racing around tracks. There are different character classes, unlockables, and of course plenty of weapons.

First we have the 3 character classes.
The classes are more like the super nes, the lightweights are no longer the fastest, and the heavyweights can no longer have the best in steering, here is the differences.

Lightweight. Peach, Yoshi, Toad
The lightweight’s can take out of the starting line with real fast acceleration. However there top speed isn’t that great, they can go off course with out much loss of power.

Middleweights. Mario and Luigi
Of course has usual the Mario Bros. are the middleweights, with the best, and worse of both world. These are the best for the beginners.

Heavy weights. Wario, Bowser, DK
The bad boys of the Mario Bros. series take the heavy weight category. If you can get these guys up to top speed you'll be passing everybody in a blur, however, they have pitiful slow acceleration, and will slow down to a snail pace if they go off track.

Weapons.
The weapons haven't change much from the N64, and I'll let those who haven't played the other 2 versions discover the different weapons by yourself. However I will tell people about the weapons that have been changed. I should also warn you that the computer can now use shells, has well has all the other power ups. This includes the red heating seeking shells and the dreaded spike shells ouch.

Ghost.
The ghost still turns you invisible and steals other people’s items. It now has a feature where it grabs on to the person in first and steals all there coins.

Red shell.
Still tracks down the person in front of you, and still give you a better chance of hitting the person then with the green shell. However now it can be dropped down behind you, however this is not like a banana peel, and does more then slip up the competition. If a person even gets close to your shell it will chase after them and hit them, you can set up devious traps with these things.

Coins
Not really a power up or weapon, coins make you go faster and protect you on the course. Whenever you get hit, or fall of the course you will loose coins, when you run out of coins a single bump by another player will send your Kart spinning. You should try to pick has many of these has you can off the track.

Unlockables.
It wouldn’t be a Nintendo game without unlockable features. The biggest one on this version is the SNES tracks, by beating all the cups with a gold trophy, and then beat them again with a rank of C or higher, (rank is determine by how many coins, and place at the end of each race.)Will unlock the SNES courses.

Of course don't go rushing out to trade in your old SNES Mario Kart. The tracks have been gutted, while they’re still the same, all the obstacles have been taken out of them. Racing in the old Bowser castle stages isn’t the same without thwomps.

Bad things
I do have to warn you about one bad thing when it comes to this game, and that is the controls take a bit of getting use to. For the first few games don't be surprise if you feel like your Kart is driving on oil. Once you get use to the slippery controls though they will feel natural, and won't give you too much of a problem.

Final recommendation.
If you’re into the past Mario Kart’s, or just looking for a portable racer Mario Kart super circuit is your best choice.