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SUPER MARIO KART Company: Nintendo Released: September 1992 Genre: Racing Graphics: 8.5 Control: 9.5 Sound/Music: 8.5 Storyline: 7.0 Review by: Corbie Dillard ©2008 SUPER-NES.COM

Before all of the kart racing craze, there was the original Super Mario Kart. Nintendo took many of its' most popular Super Mario game characters, including the immortal Mario, and packaged them together into one of the most endearing and enjoyable racing games the Super NES ever saw. Not only was the game easy to pick up for just about any age gamer, it was also one of the most fun games you could buy for the Super Nintendo. Using the Super Nintendo's Mode-7 capabilities to the max, Nintendo was able to accurately create the illusion of 3-D in a way that was not only impressive visually, but also made the game a lot more realistic than most racing games up until that point. Super Mario Kart is exactly what it strived to be, one hell of a fun racing game with enough playability to keep you coming back for more. If ever there was a game for the Super NES that truly pushed the Mode-7 capabilities to their max, it's this one. Although by today's standards the graphics in Super Mario Kart pale in comparison, at the time of this game's release these were some pretty cutting edge visuals and a testament to the direction Nintendo took by including the Mode-7 capablities in the first place. The graphics have their traditional Super Mario look complete with bright and vibrant colors galore. There' also a good feeling of speed as the tracks seem to fly by at times. There's a good amount of variety in each of the tracks, with most having their own unique look and feel. As I mentioned, somehow Nintendo was able to use the scaling and rotation effects to perfection to simulate the look and feel of a 3-D racer and it all manages to come together rather well for a 16-bit game. It's not going to set new 16-bit standards but for its' time it was pretty damn impressive and even today this is still a very fun game, despite it's slightly aged visuals. I guess if you're going to use Mario characters you might as well stick with the theme and use Mario tunes as well and that's exactly what Nintendo has done with the music in Super Mario Kart. You'll hear tons of classic Super Mario Bros. music, remixed of course, to give it a fresh edge to it. Even the tunes that are new are extremely well done and quite catchy considering this is a racing title. It's pretty much the exact type of music you would expect from a light-hearted racing game like this one. Sound effects are also very well done and even the kart sounds are pretty good. Upbeat and catchy tunes all come together to make up almost as memorable a soundtrack as the game itself. Nothing too fancy here, just some really fun kart racing and a nice and original battle mode thrown in for good measure. In GP mode you get to race through the different tracks of each cup, playing against the other computer-controlled racers. You have 3 different levels of difficulty, 50cc being the easiest, 100cc being a bit more challenging, and finally after beating the previous two classes you open up the 150cc class, which is the most challenging of all. There are a ton of different tracks ranging from seaside tracks, bowser's castle tracks, and even haunted house tracks. If you get tired of racing in the GP races you can always try to beat your records on the time trials portion of the game. You can even race against the ghost of your best time in order to have an idea of how your doing in your latest time trial. Where the game really shines, however, is in the battle mode. Here you get to team up with a second player and ride around square tracks while trying to pop all of the balloons surrounding your opponents kart. While the tracks aren't anything too special, it can be quite challenging trying to locate your opponent, not to mention trying to put a precise hit on their balloons. Overall there's a ton of things to do in Super Mario Kart in both single and two-player modes. You'd be hard pressed to find a more fun game on the SNES than Super Mario Kart. It's easy to see why the kart racing theme has taken off so well over the years since Super Mario Kart's release. Not only do you get the fun of racing with some of Nintendo's most memorable characters, but you also get the super fun battle mode that's worth the price of the cart by itself. Visually Super Mario Kart was quite impressive back during it's time but hasn't held up particularly well over the years. Of course it's not really about the graphics with Super Mario Kart and despite the age of this game, it's still one of the most enjoyable games available for the Super NES. If you like an easy to play, but extremely fun game, grab this one.