Saturday, February 22, 2003

GBA - Mario Kart Super Circuit review

| GAME FEATURES |

Developer : Nintendo

A.) Mario racing karts on Gameboy Advance

Publisher : Nintendo

B.) 32 tracks including all unlockables and battle mode tracks. This is a big game.

Released on August 27, 2001

C.) A practice area where someone can increase their skills at coverting to white shielding or black shielding in the game. A lot of practice will be needed for an average gamer to get past the C grade level at the end of the practice run.

D.) A co-op option letting a friend battle evil with you.

Type : Kart Racing

This is a game that I've played everyday at school in the 12th grade during brakes. Mario Kart invented the kart racing formula. No other game can match it's style and success. When I say this game rocks, I mean it's fantastic. Why, because I had nothing better to do, no one to talk to, and it was the only GBA game of two I own. The game not only has 4 tracks and 4 cups, but not intended also has all the SNES Super Mario Kart tracks for the gamer to unlock. I haven't unlocked any because I never had first on all four tracks on 150cc difficulty. The game is harder then Super Mario Kart 64 much because you play the game on a small screen. If only I had a Gameboy Player. Does anyone even care? I sure didn't think so ....

Mario Kart Advance's graphics aren't as pretty as some other games. But it isn't bad. I'm not use to draw in graphics which the Gameboy Advance has. The game isn't on CD format so it can't load very detailed backgrounds, one disadvantage of having a 32 megabyte cartridge. It's average by the console's standards. I'm guessing that the Sony PSP will be more powerful then the Gameboy Advance although the Gameboy does have more games for it.

Since I spent more time on this game then any other game for the hand held, I thought the Grand Prix mode in Mario Kart was the best. Even if I could time myself in time trials. I don't see any point to the time trials. I mean the only way you can get better is to race the grand prix until your good at it. I am able to get 1st or 2nd place in the 50cc tracks. The 100 are less unforgiving. One mistake and your out of the race. Did I mention that you must get a certain number of coins before you can get a good grade. But since the GBA LCD screen is so small, you have to switch to see the Screen times. It's worth it though playing this game on the computer. Though emulation, you can of course blow up the image to full size. The game can click ass especially when GBAEMU has a multiplayer that can be activated through networking. A cool feature. The only thing that needs to occur is the host computer needs to be able to ping the computer your playing on. (article posted August 09, 2003 4:10AM)

Summing up Mario Kart : Super Circuit

Graphics

8.0

The characters models are well done. Nintendo drew out the maximum amount of detail that the gameboy advance can juice out. But the level design is what's there. The game goes back to the SNES roots with backgrounds that stay still while the track itself moves around on an axis. Back in 1991, this was new technology. Know it's what's expected in a videogame. The Gameboy Advance wasn't created to run 3D games That's why the backgrounds are too 16-bit era. They don't have an hardcore feel to them. They don't look high resolution. It's not that complex like we see in other unintended games like Super Mario Advance 3. Fine so the graphics are really good, just not amongst the gameboy advance's best.

Control

9.5

The game is extremely challenging in Single Player Mode. You can have your friends all hooked up to the Game's muitiport feature, but your biggest challenge is not against your friends but the game. I can tell that his game is harder then Mario Kart 64. Compared to most games, MK64 was easy. In the game you use the right trigger to slide while you use the d-pad to turn directions. The karts come in weight classes. Which I think is a good idea. Without weight classes ever racer would be equal. Take Yoshi, the easiest to control of the bunch. Mario is the favorite and is medium weight. I would think that Luigi is a light weight because he looks so skinny, but he is also a medium weight like Mario. Donkey Kong and Wario are heavy weights. These karts can't be knocked around. And some times on the easier courses, these guys are best to pick. One reason is that they'll end up in front quicker and they'll stay more still then the others so if your timing is right, the heavy weights pick up all the coins on the track. My experience with Wario was best because I could pick up most of the coins in the track in the Flower Cup. That about sums this game up. It's still challenging. I bet that a lot of you grown tired of challenging games if you even picked this game up.

Orginalism

9.0

Mario Kart is highly original. The idea to put Mario in a racing game wasn't a bad one, it caught on. I was once anxious to get Mario Kart 64 when I was 13. Now 7 years later I have forgotten mostly about that game and this game is the only Gameboy Advance game that I play. I'm glad Nintendo brought back the Rainbow Road race from the N64.

Sound

6.0

The sound is alright. Nothing really good about it.

Replayibly

10.0

You'll be playing this game a lot because it's one of the most fun games to play if your looking for a 3D racing game.

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