Mario Kart: Super Circuit

Mario Kart: Super Circuit
A Kart Racing series finally on the go.
Genre(s): Racing Platform(s): Game Boy Advance Virtual Console (3DS, Wii U) Release Date: Game Boy Advance: JP: July 21, 2001 NA: August 27, 2001 EU: September 13, 2001 AU: September 14, 2001 Virtual Console (3DS) (Ambassador Program): AU: December 15, 2011 WW: December 16, 2011 Virtual Console (Wii U): NA: November 13, 2014 EU: April 23, 2015 AU: April 24, 2015 JP: July 22, 2015 Developer(s): Intelligent Systems Publisher(s): Nintendo Series: Mario Kart Predecessor: Mario Kart 64 Successor: Mario Kart: Double Dash

Mario Kart: Super Circuit, known in Japan as Mario Kart Advance, is a kart racing game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance in 2001. It is the third main installment in the Mario Kart series and the first in the series for handheld consoles. It was succeeded by Mario Kart: Double Dash!! for the Nintendo GameCube in 2003.

Why These Circuits Are Super

1. Goes back to the original gameplay from Super Mario Kart instead of the 3D gameplay from Mario Kart 64.
2. In addition to the twenty new courses, the game contains all of the original twenty courses from Super Mario Kart, being the first game in the Mario Kart series to re-use courses from a previous game. Interestingly, the game has the 2nd amount of tracks in Mario Kart series (only fewer than Mario Kart 8).
3. Good and catchy soundtrack.
4. In addition to the Grand Prix and Time Trial modes, there's a Quick Run option, which allows players to race on one course with CPU opponents, a predecessor to the VS. mode from Mario Kart DS onwards.
5. Introduces the Ranking System for Grand Prix that would later be implemented in future games starting from Mario Kart DS, as the game features ranks (with Three Stars being the highest and E being the lowest.) that is based on your performance and skill at the end of the cup.
6. Brilliant multiplayer mode, with even a decent selection of tracks in the "single-cart" mode.
7. Good use of digitized audio.
8. Was the first Mario Kart to play on the go.
9. You can play Multiplayer with only one copy of the game thus allowing you to play as four Yoshis (each of which has their different color) as well as playing four courses from Super Mario Kart.
10. The 3D looking graphics looks very nice for an early GBA game.
11. In the Japanese Version, the game allows players to play online for the first time using the Mobile Adapter GB that connects to your Game Boy Advance to a Mobile device, allowing you to access rankings, ghost data and even a Mobile GP Mode in which you can race where the time that could be stacked up against other racers. It fact you can download up to two Ghost Data from other players, though this mode is no longer played as of December 14, 2002.

Bad Qualities

1. Very slippery controls that aren't always responsive. While this can be blamed in part on the GBA's lack of an analogue controller, Mario Kart DS later managed just fine with only a D-pad.
2. No new characters. They are just the same eight from Mario Kart 64.
3. No new items. Plus, the Banana Bunch, Fake Item Box, and Golden Mushroom were removed.
4. For some odd reason they used the voices from the Japanese version of Mario Kart 64 instead of the western release, meaning that some of the characters sound pretty weird, one glaring example can be heard with Luigi's voice.
5. The track selection for the new tracks is mediocre.
6. Even though the game lets you play multiplayer with one copy of the game, the multiplayer will be heavily limited in terms of characters and stages unless if both/all players are using actual cartridges.
7. Other than playing on the go, the game doesn't offer anything special to the series.
8. Because Mobile System GB has been discontinued unless you're playing the Japanese version of the game, You can no longer play online using the Mobile Adapter GB as mentioned above, thus making the Mobile option useless to play nowadays.
   • Online Play in this game is very primitive compared to Mario Kart DS and later games that featured online play, since it doesn't allow you to go head-to-head with other players due to it's primitive technology at the time.

Reception

Mario Kart: Super Circuit received critical acclaim. It holds a score of 91.54% on aggregate site GameRankings and a 93 of 100 on Metacritic.

However, over time, its reception was less positive with it being seen as the game that aged the most (Even more so than Super Mario Kart) due to the fact that other than playing on the go, it had nothing unique to it since almost all games in the series can be played on the go now and also because of how connecting multiplayer on the GBA was seen as a hassle.

Trivia

• This is the first installment in the series to bring back retro tracks, where in this case, all 20 Super Mario Kart circuits are reused.
• This is the only Mario Kart game by far to not be bundled in with a console.
• As mentioned above, Mario Kart Super Circuit was one of the few GBA games with online support via Mobile System GB services.

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