Super Mario Kart
James Macfarlane

Developer: Nintendo
Publisher: Nintendo
Players: 1-2
Genre: Racing
Console: Super NES
Media: Proprietary Super NES cartridge
Year of Release: 1992-1993


Some particularly exciting screenshots of the cover and cartridge!

This is the game that gave birth to the karting genre and the Mario Kart games themselves. A Player’s Choice million seller on the Super NES it was an instant hit. But why did it enjoy so much success, and does it still hold up against the test of time. This review is here to shed the light on those mysteries and give you the helpful insight for buying your next classic title. For those who have enjoyed or have not enjoyed the game read this review, read on and see what you think…


Here is where the goodness (or badness, I'll let you decide) begins!

The success of Super Mario Kart was inevitable and it is a separate story to the main game. One of the first games to utilise mode 7 to make 3D environments, it had (for the time) jaw-dropping. A mix of go-karting and the successful Mario franchise ensured it a little slice of success. The game play itself is a mixed affair. There are three engine classes (only two are available originally), deciding the speed of play and the difficulty of the AI. Once you have made a decision you can choose one of four (again only three available originally) grand prix cups, which include five races. Most tracks are designed quite well, shortcuts and lots of different terrain to mix things up. Some tracks are quite short but even so, there are always five laps for competition. The grand prix is quite like a Mario plat-former with level progression, you must ensure a 4th place or higher to progress to a new race.


Menus, menus, menus. You can't have a meal without them. A fancy menu doesn't mean a good meal, please apply the same principle to games.

The actual racing is standard fare, with the good and bad, ups and downs. The AI is easily the best feature of this game. They’re fantastic and really give you competition for 1st place. Also a feature that departed from the later games was coins. I personally like coins, you collect them and each coin increases your speed and with ten the maximum speed is reached (of course you can keep collecting back up coins). The handling in this game is too sharp and the lack of a joystick is noticeable with only one degree of turning the brake coming into play far too often. The game really lacks those mini-turbos that were introduced in later renditions. The characters are a nice spread but make very little difference to the actual racing. Hackers have found that whilst the characters have been programmed differently, those differences are tiny. The AI has a couple of annoying habits. The AI don’t receive items by driving over an item block, they just randomly use items at regular intervals. The feather-jumping item cops a lot of abuse. When the AI is due to receive their next item, they get the feather and use it to jump over any obstacles that might bother them (this is actually why the feather didn’t make a re-appearance). Also certain AI characters have their own unlimited supply of a certain item, for Bowser it’s fireballs, Mario it’s stars.


Here is the start of the race. Please don't press A while holding Y, please! I told you not to


Type 'Super Mario Kart screens' into Google and this is what you get:

HINT! You can race against yourself in Time Trial. You read that right, ghosts are in this game. How do you get them....Not telling!!

Multiplayer is far better, with grand prix, 2P match race and battle match modes available. Grand prix is the same as 1P sans an AI character replaced by your fried/family member. In 2P match races, the tough competition given by the AI is replaced with a human who hopefully will give the same level of competition minus the cheating (if they do cheat beat ‘em over the head with your control pad). Battle mode is really where the multiplayer shines, and boy does it shine. You start on one of four courses with three coloured balls. You then drive around grabbing items and using it to pop one the opponent’s balls (yes, yes stop laughing you immature people). It becomes quite heated, shells flying everywhere, mushrooms to dodge incoming items, and Boo being used to sneak around your opponent’s backside.



Graphically it performs nicely maintaining that important frame rate while giving that pseudo 3D environment the game enjoys. The 2D sprites look average but the courses are gorgeous with Mode 7 really pumping out that nice green 3D grass. Menus are sub-standard but hey, is a menu going to influence your decision. Not much else to say on graphics but considering this game was released in 1992 it really excels in graphical terms, even exceeding some games released in 1995. The sound is very retro and quite bland. The songs are very boring tunes and include poor remixes of the famous Koji Kondo compositions. Nothing really to talk about the music, after a couple of times listening to it you’ll probably chuck on the CD player instead.

In conclusion I’d like to state that Super Mario Kart still enjoys a certain level of respectability but really the graphics and the Mario franchise gave it a sales boost. Today classic games are bought for their game-play, graphics and sound only makes a small difference (though yes there are some games that are still great to look and listen too, Chrono Trigger I’m looking in your direction). Mario Kart 64 is a better choice but if you’re looking for some quick multiplayer matches, Super Mario Kart may take your fancy.

Graphics: 88
Sound: 66
Gameplay: 78
Replay Value: 80

Overall: 79
Time heals all wounds, but not this one.