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Mario Kart for the first
time takes on handheld gaming in
the form of Mario Kart: Super
Circuit for the Game Boy
Advance. The 3rd installment has
made the jump from console to
handheld, as well as retaining
the classic features we all have
come to know and love.
With the high standard of games
in the series, Mario Kart: Super
Circuit was released with a lot
of high expectations. There may
have been some uncertainty over
the fact that it broke the chain
of console Mario Kart games.
Either way, Mario Kart: Super
Circuit was released and brought
the series into an entirely
different realm.
For a first attempt at a
handheld Mario Kart game, Super
Circuit is decent. There's many
good things about the game, but
there's also some negative
things found in the game, as
expected with many first
attempts.
Let's start out with the good.
The obvious positive factor is
that it is indeed a true Mario
Kart game. Fans wouldn't expect
anything less. The racing is
very nice and is very
reminiscent of previous Mario
Kart titles. It could have been
fine-tuned slightly more to take
care of minor details, but
again, it's a first attempt, so
let's give Nintendo some leeway.
Another good thing is the
character selection. As standard
in the Mario Kart series, each
different character has his or
her own attributes which affect
the way the character is capable
of racing. That holds true in
Super Circuit, seeing as many of
the attributes play a heavy role
in racing. There is a good
selection of characters as well.
Another nice feature is classic
tracks. Mario Kart: Super
Circuit combines new school with
old school - all of the tracks
from Super Mario Kart can be
found in this game. Of course,
they are altered a bit, and they
do need to be unlocked. It's
still nice to have them though -
it adds a lot of hours to
gameplay and it adds a lot of
time for replaying the game as
well.
The new tracks are nice as well,
though some of them are kind
of...blah. They're not the
greatest, but they get the job
done. A few are very nicely
done, but those are found few
and far between. Those tracks
that are good stand out in the
entire series, but that may only
amount to two or three tracks.
Graphically, the game excels
with a crisp and clean look. All
the characters have a nice
rendered touch to them, and the
course look phenomenal. There is
a lot of color and vividness put
into the game, some of which
overkills the tracks a little.
However, that is not present
that often throughout the game.
With all the good comes the bad,
and there's a fair share that
goes around in Super Circuit.
Let's start with those classic
tracks. They were altered, but
in a bad way. The music was
completely changed, and the
amount of laps and such was also
taken out. The modern looks
wasn't bad, but the classic
looks would've been so much
better.
Speaking of the music...well, it
just isn't all that great. All
the new music isn't very nice to
listen to, with the exception of
a few tracks. I found myself
annoyed at some tracks,
especially with the old classic
tracks - all the old music was
replaced with the new. The music
could've used some more work,
especially with the composition
of the tracks.
The last major problem with the
game is the difficulty of it.
There's hardly any to be found.
Most of the courses are very
easy to navigate, and a lot of
the shortcuts are obvious. The
computer racers are very easy to
beat, and better items seems to
be easier to come by than in
previous Mario Kart games. There
isn't a whole lot of obstacles
to get in the way either.
Mario Kart: Super Circuit is a
decent game at best. It has ups,
it has downs. The downs just are
stressed more than the ups. It
was a good first attempt, and it
set the path for later handheld
Mario Kart games to be developed
Overall Score: 7.6/10 |
