Dom Robinson reviews

Price: £34.99 Players: 1-4 I could never get into Mario Kart on the N64, but on the GBA it's a different beast. On a big screen the game seemed too much of a simplistic exercise given what the consoles were capable of by comparison. However, on the Gameboy Advance Mario Kart: Super Circuit has found it's natural home and the portability of the unit makes it a great little game to play while out and about, or as an entertaining alternative to reading the newspaper in the smallest room of the house. 40 tracks are available for racing around here: half taken from the original SNES courses and the other half being all new. There are eight characters riding round the track including Mario, Luigi, Yoshi and Bowser, each with different speed and weight differentials. Multi-player action with up to 4 connected GBAs is possible, although I understand that not all the facilities are available if only one game cart is used, whereas a full set of cartridges amongst your friends will resolve this.

The graphics are very colourful and move fast. My only complaint is that for this into-the-screen action the turns do look to be a bit on the tight side and I'd opt for a slightly higher top-down view if I was programming the game. Sound, like the other GBA games I've played to date, is fairly inconsequential. Nice jolly tingly sounds when you collect a power-up, but nothing else really sticks out. A tune plays in the background, but I was paying more attention to attempting to win the race than listening to its structure. When you first play MKSC you'll no doubt spend most time spinning off the track, but patience is its own reward and you'll learn how to cut up your opponents so you can zoom past. Apparently the L and R shoulder buttons can help with tight turns, but, for me, the right one made me jump up in the air - for later levels presumably - and the left one, once I'd picked up some certain ammo, enabled me to scupper the others by throwing turtles at them... if that makes sense.

The three key aspects of the scores below are the graphics, playability and enjoyment, each of which attain 4 out of 5. The sound isn't particularly important here and the concept has been around for some time so that accounts for the lack of originality. Unless I'm mistaken, the Mario Kart racing games appear to have kick-started this whole genre of cutesy driving sims which pit characters from a particular franchise against each other, with no cartoon series left unturned when there's a fast buck to be made, so that has to be a testament to the longevity of the game.

GRAPHICS SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC PLAYABILITY ORIGINALITY ENJOYMENT
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Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2001.