I’ve owned and played every version of Mario Kart at some point in my life. The series is fantastic. It practically invented the vehicular combat genre of video games. And oddly enough, I almost didn’t get Mario Kart Super Circuit. But now I’m glad that I did.

This game looks fantastic. If Tony Hawk didn’t exist, I’d say that Mario Kart Super Circuit has the best graphics of any Game Boy Advance game. The renders of the characters are beautiful. Their animations are great too. They animate very smoothly through turns. The tracks are also very good looking, much better than they looked on the Super NES. The backgrounds are rich and detailed.

I’m satisfied with the sound. The music is upbeat and catchy and very Mario Kart. The engine sounds are good also, and the horns are a pointless but fun addition. The voice samples of the characters are great, and really add some personality to each driver. The only disappointment I have with the sound is that it is too soft. It never seems loud enough for me.

Control is where Mario Kart Super Circuit differs from its 2 brothers. The controls in Super Circuit are looser than they were in the previous two games. Also, some of the characters control abilities have changed. Yoshi, who used to be awesome at turning, is now only good on off-road tracks. I don’t like that, seeing as how I am a Yoshi driver in the other 2 games. Power sliding is also a bit trickier in Super Circuit, it is much looser.

This game is flat out fun. The tried and true formula of racing around a track and attacking opponent racers with weapons is executed perfectly in Super Circuit. The game doesn’t add anything new to the series though. It borrows track design from the Super NES version and character design and weapons from the N64 version. It’s pretty much a best of both worlds scenario. As for the multiplayer, I have only played a bit of single-pak link. Its great fun and the graphics and sound are pretty good for single-pak play, much better than F-Zero Maximum Velocity.

Mario Kart Super Circuit has some great replay value too. As mentioned before, I lost my copy of Super Mario Kart. In Super Circuit you can unlock all the old SNES tracks and race them. This is a wonderful bonus for me, as I have been sadly missing Super Mario Kart. Time Trials add a good amount of replay too. But the Quick Run option is fantastic. With it, you can select any track that you’ve raced before, and race it in GP mode with 7 computer opponents. In the past, you’d have to race the entire circuit if you wanted to race a certain track.

Mario Kart Super Circuit takes the best from its SNES and N64 brothers and rolls them into one fantastic kart racer. It is sure to delight almost any fan of racing games.