Super Circuit

''Mario Kart: Super Circuit'' is a 2001 kart racing video game for the Game Boy Advance (GBA). The third installment in the ''Mario Kart'' series, its gameplay resembles that of its predecessors: the player controls one of a selection of characters from the ''Mario'' franchise in races against opponents around tracks. Tracks are themed around locales from ''Super Mario'' platform games, and contain obstacles and power-up items that hamper or aid the player's progress through the race. The game contains a variety of modes in both single-player and multiplayer, including a Grand Prix racing mode and a last man standing battle mode.

The game was developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo. ''Super Circuit'' is the only game in its series to be developed by Intelligent Systems and the first on a handheld system. The game's graphical style changed drastically from early demos to its final release, with the final release itself resembling ''Super Mario Kart'' visually. It was one of the first games revealed alongside the GBA in 2000, and was released in mid-2001, months after the console's launch.

''Super Circuit'' received critical acclaim upon release. Critics praised its modes, presentation, gameplay, and difficulty, though its multiplayer connectivity was met with more mixed reception. Despite this, it is often ranked low by retrospective critics in regard to the best ''Mario Kart'' games. It was nominated for several major awards, of which it won one. The game has sold 5.91 million copies since release, making it one of the best-selling games on the GBA. It has been re-released digitally on both the Nintendo 3DS and the Wii U.

Gameplay

''Mario Kart: Super Circuit'' is a kart racing game featuring characters and elements from the ''Mario'' franchise. The player takes the role of one of eight ''Mario'' characters, and must face opponents in their kart around tracks. Boxes labelled with question marks populate each of the 40 total tracks: once interacted with, the player receives a random item based on elements from the ''Super Mario'' platform games to help them progress through the match. Items can either be power-ups, such as giving the player a speed boost, or offensive, for example temporarily stopping an opponent's kart in place. Tracks are also littered with obstacles intended to slow the player down, and coins which increase the player's top speed once collected. Each of the eight playable characters are sorted into one of three weight classes that determine how they play, with heavier characters having higher top speeds but slower acceleration. Princess Peach, Toad, and Yoshi are lightweights; Luigi and Mario are middleweights; and Bowser, Donkey Kong, and Wario are heavyweights. The player can choose from one of three racing styles prior to a race, 50 cc, 100cc, or 150cc, each being progressively faster and more difficult to control.

There are three main single-player modes in ''Super Circuit'': Grand Prix (GP), Time Trial, and Quick Run. The game's main racing mode, GP, sees the player race against seven computer opponents around four consecutive circuits, with the objective of placing first in each race. Each set of four tracks is part of a "cup", of which there are five. The winner of the GP is whoever achieved the best overall placements across all four races in the cup. A grading is given at the end of the GP based on the number of coins the player collected throughout the cup: achieving a high grade on all cups will unlock all 20 single-player circuits from ''Super Mario Kart'' (1992) for the player to race on. Time Trial mode allows the player to race on their own to complete a track in the fastest time possible. The player can also compete against another player's fastest time shared via the GBA's Game Link Cable, a peripheral cable that connects GBA systems. Quick Run allows the player to race with customizable aspects, such as lap count and toggling item boxes and coins.

The game also allows for multiplayer with up to four players via the Game Link Cable. It is possible to play the game over multiplayer even if only one player owns the game cartridge, though only one character and four tracks are selectable with this setup. Three modes are playable over multiplayer connection: GP, Versus (VS), and Battle. GP remains unchanged from its single-player version though only allows two players to play at once. VS allows up to four players to race around a single track without computer opponents. Battle mode differs from other modes in the game as it sees up to four players compete in an arena rather than a circuit. In the mode, players begin with three balloons above their character, and are given the objective of popping the balloons of other players by attacking them with items. Players are knocked out of the game if they lose all their balloons, and the winner of a round is whoever remains the last man standing.

Development and release

Originally titled ''Mario Kart Advance'' in English, the game was announced by Nintendo prior to its annual Space World exhibition in 2000 and was unveiled alongside the GBA console itself. Gameplay screenshots first unveiled in an installment of ''CoroCoro'' magazine showed a markedly different art style to the final release and showed characters with larger heads. Items from early versions of the game were also absent in the final release. ''Super Circuit'' was developed by Intelligent Systems, the only title in its series to be developed by the studio.
The game deploys a similar graphical style to ''Super Mario Kart'' on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, particularly with its parallax scrolling and Mode 7-style scaling.

Nintendo released ''Mario Kart: Super Circuit'' in Japan on July 21, 2001, in North America on August 27, and in Europe on September 14. It released not long after the GBA itself, which was launched in March in Japan and June elsewhere. It is the third entry in the ''Mario Kart'' series, after ''Super Mario Kart'' and ''Mario Kart 64'' (1996), and the first game in the series to be released on a handheld console. The game was rereleased for both the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U's digital Virtual Console line-up. On the 3DS, it was released free in 2011 for members of the Ambassador Program: the program was eligible for entry to anyone who accessed the console's eShop service before the console received a price cut. It was made available for purchase on the Wii U in 2014 in North America and 2015 in Europe and Japan.

Reception

''Mario Kart: Super Circuit'' received "universal acclaim", according to the review aggregator Metacritic. The game was also successful commercially, selling 5.91 million copies worldwide—the fourth best-selling game on the GBA and the best-selling game for the system outside of the ''Pokémon'' series. In the United Kingdom, ''Super Circuit'' sold 350,000 units by 2005 and is the best-selling GBA game in the region, and by 2006 had sold 2.1 million units in the United States. Additionally, owing to its commercial success, the game was added to Nintendo's "Player's Choice" line-up.

The single player modes of ''Super Circuit'' were met with positive reception. Multiple reviewers found that the game had significant replay value due to the grading system and large number of tracks to unlock, both of which are based on coin collection. ''IGN'' also praised the "ghost mode" that allows players to race their friend's saved best time, which the publication noted also contributed to replay value. The game's multiplayer offerings were also lauded by critics. ''Nintendo World Report'' commended the speed of its multiplayer modes, and ''GamesRadar'' declared it the best multiplayer game on a handheld console at its time. Its "battle mode" in particular drew praise from reviewers, although ''IGN'' criticized the lack of ability to play against computer opponents in the mode. The ability for multiplayer modes to be played over multiple consoles with only one copy of the game was met with more mixed reception. While ''GameSpot'' stated that the feature adds further value to the game, ''Nintendo World Report'' noted that there was significant slowdown in how it displayed the game, enough to hinder gameplay.

Gameplay in ''Super Circuit'' was well received. ''GamePro'' described its controls as precise, though found the input to perform a power slide move difficult to produce. ''Nintendo Life'', in contrast, stated that controls could have been more precise. ''GamesRadar'' claimed handling of vehicles in ''Super Circuit'' had outdone its kart racing competitors ''Crash Team Racing'' (1999) and ''Diddy Kong Racing'' (1997), expressing that movement felt "effortlessly perfect". Reviewers also noted the game's difficulty. ''IGN'' described its single player offerings as "extremely challenging" due to the intelligence of computer opponents and the process of unlocking tracks. ''GameSpy'' and ''Nintendo Life'' both agreed that the precision of the game's controls add to its challenge, though become less of a struggle after lengthy experience with the game.

''Super Circuit'' received praise for its presentation, with critics admiring the game's visuals. Some reviewers noted its graphical similarity to ''Super Mario Kart'', though unanimously agreed on an improvement over its predecessor. ''Nintendo Life'' and ''Nintendo World Report'' remarked the creativity of track designs in the game, lauding their thematic variety and attention towards minute details. The original model of the GBA did not contain a backlit screen, an issue which ''GameSpot'' wrote the game's bright color palette helped to rectify. Its sound design was also well received by critics: ''IGN'' described its music as "extremely upbeat", and ''Nintendo World Report'' perceived its stereo audio to contain a high degree of precision.

Overall assessments of the game were largely positive. Giving the game an 18.5 out of 20 rating, ''GamePro'' stated that Intelligent Systems had recycled all the positive aspects of the game's predecessors and combined them "seamlessly" to create ''Super Circuit''. Both ''GamesRadar'' and ''IGN'' claimed that the game had few flaws, the latter naming it a exemplar for what the GBA's hardware is capable of. ''Super Circuit'' received "Favourite Video Game" at the 2002 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards. It was also nominated for "Handheld Game of the Year" at both the 2001 Interactive Achievement Awards and the 2002 Golden Joystick Awards shows, and best "Mobile" game at the 2001 BAFTA Awards show.

Legacy

Despite its positive reception, the game often ranks low on contemporary critics' lists of best games in the ''Mario Kart'' series. ''Nintendo World Report'' called it the game in the series with the "fewest innovations". Critics blamed the game's reputation on the hardware limitations of the GBA: ''GamesRadar'' claimed that the lack of ease of access to the console's Link Cable connection made its multiplayer experience less memorable than other titles in the series. ''Kotaku'' called the game "lost", not being able to live up to the technically pioneering releases of ''Super Mario Kart'' and ''64'' because of the GBA's hardware. Despite this, the game often ranks among critics' lists of best overall games on the GBA.

''Super Circuit'' was the first game in the series to include tracks introduced in previous games, a tradition that would carry with every entry in the series starting with ''DS''. In 2017, Jon Irwin of '' Paste'' ranked Cheese Land as the tenth best track in the ''Mario Kart'' series; he cited it as an example of the game having "some of the wackiest, out-there tracks", surmising that "the course designers hadn’t yet been stultified by the series’ massive success to come during the DS and Wii eras". In 2021, Jonathan Hawkins of ''Comic Book Resources'' named Boo Lake as the game's best track; he opined that among the game's relatively simplistic courses, the track stands out for its "dynamic and thrilling" elements such as frequent jumping ramps, large gaps, collapsing wall barriers, branching paths, and risky shortcuts.

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{{Portal bar, Video games, 2000s

2001 video games
Game Boy Advance games
Game Boy Advance-only games
Intelligent Systems games
Super Circuit
Video games developed in Japan
Virtual Console games
Virtual Console games for Wii U
Mario racing games
Virtual Console games for Nintendo 3DS
Multiplayer and single-player video games