Super Mario Kart Test of time

Here comes another one!

SUPER MARIO KART (SNES)

The test of time

HISTORY

Developed and published by Nintendo, Mario Kart is one of the most critically appraised games ever. Even to this day some people believe that it is better than the superb Mario kart Double Dash! With such hype it has to be good… right? Well, that’s what I set out to find out!!

GAMEPLAY

When Mario and Bowser aren’t battling for a member of the royal family, what do they do? They ride around on go-karts shooting Koopa shells and banana skins at each other! Those two sentences pretty much sum up MARIO KART, as that is pretty much all they do. Like my other reviews before this game, there is once again barely any plot, and therefore the game relies more on its fun-factor. That’s what Mario kart is all about, having fun. But does the game pull it off? Well, that’s a two way street, and it all depends what way you play. If you sit down in front of your TV with a copy of Mario Kart in your faithful old SNES expecting to be able to sit there and play on your own for 2 hours, you’ll be sorely disappointed, because after the first half hour, you’ve played all the tracks the single player experience just gets mundane and repetitive. On the other hand, if you sit down with a couple of friends just expecting to have a quick 15-minute bash, you’ll have the time of your life! Like many of even today’s games, GAMEPLAY in Mario Kart is a mixed bag, but because of its excellent multiplayer fun, I’m going to award it a very fair score of:

8.8

CONTROL

The control in Super Mario Kart is a strange thing indeed. Even though you are using a d-pad, it feels like you have complete control over the Kart, which is a big advancement because even these days some companies can’t get their control working in racing games with 32 way controller sticks! Besides the controlling of the kart, the rest is rather simple, and the only buttons you’ll be needing to use would be the accelerate, brake, and item button. Now, onto the learning curve, while I’ve heard many say that the game is ‘really really hard’, I found the game to be quite a pleasant difficulty, not to hard not too difficult. The learning curve is about the same, just average. Mario Kart has exceptional controls; difficulty level and learning curve, so I give it a CONTROL score of:

9.0

SOUND

This is, in my opinion, Super Mario Kart’s biggest letdown. In a game where most of the sections of the game are well above the norm, this section merely scrapes through as average. It’s not that there’s anything particularly wrong with Mario Kart’s sound, it’s just that there’s not anything particularly right about it either. While the sound effects can be nice at times, they are rather limited and there’s certain boredom about them, while the background music isn’t very Mario-like at all and it all sounds very fake. To top it all off the quality is also quite poor. The SOUND in Super Mario Kart is rather boring and gets old fast, so I give it a score of:

6.8

GRAPHICS

Mario Kart’s graphics were amazing in its time because of one thing, the fact that it used mode 7 effects, which is effectively a way of making 2D look 3D. It does this by allowing the backgrounds to move and wind around, making it appear that you are facing different bits of the background. Remember that Super Mario Kart was made in 1992 and take into account the fact that it is in 2D game that actually looks 3D! With these new bits of information under your belt, you can now see that the graphics are actually great. Super Mario Kart also has a very good frame rate so the game runs very smoothly at all times. Couple all these together with some very nice character design and you’re looking at a very good gameplay score. One of the only complaints is the use of sprites for the characters, but being 1992, Nintendo didn’t have much choice on that one. I give Super Mario Kart a GRAPHICS score of:

9.3

REPLAY VALUE

Now as I mentioned above in the GAMEPLAY section, the single player game is rather Humdrum experience, so I’m going to assume that you’ve got a few Video gaming friends.

The best thing about the multiplayer in Super Mario kart is the Battle mode. The premises is simple, each player starts with three balloons and must rid the other players of their balloons before theirs get popped. You do this by firing the various weapons at the other characters. While the idea may seem simple, there are many strategies to the game and it is surprisingly deep. If you decide to try out the racing mode, you will once again have a lot of fun, but as with the one player, after a while you will get bored and head back to Battle mode. If you really do have no friends, then there is always the time trial mode to keep you occupied. Time trial consists of you trying to beat you own best score, and while you may be able to play it for a while, after a bit, like most of the sections of the game, you will end up getting bored. I’m almost tempted to give this a multiplayer and a single player score, but since that isn’t allowed, I’ll give it a REPLAY VALUE score of:

8.9

So, does Super Mario Kart stand up to the test of time?

Yes, it does, and it does it rather well as well, with a total score of:

8.7

AFTERTHOUGH: One of the best racing games on the SNES.

Another great TOT, I'm really tempted to buy it off eBay now, just to remind myself of how good it was...though could be quite expensive now I think of it...

I'm also a loan shark!

So, anyone got any suggestions for the next TOT?

how about the ice climbers

Gameplay in Super Mario Kart is some of the best EVER, and the controls are perfect. In contrast to the other MK games, this one has perfectly balanced weapons and they are so much more satisfying as a result. Proper tactical battle and skill. This is one of the greatest games of all time, it even converted some of my non-gaming friends to video games (while PS2/XBOX/GC/N64/PSX all failed). They even got very good within 2 weeks (they did have a master teaching them :lol, although they couldn't come close to my 1'00'*** Mario Circuit 1 time

The soundtrack is also classic. Ghost Valley, Donut Plains, Mario Circuit, Bowsers Castle...brilliant tunes that everyone remembers. Sound effect for the power slide = genius. Crunching sound of a green/red shell hit = perfection

Replay value? The fact that people are still playing it over 10 years after release gives it a 10/10 in my eyes. Greatest racer of all time alongside FZGX imo

In my opinion, I don't think Super Mario Kart has really stood up well over the years - it used to be fantastic - but now Mario Kart Super Circuit beats it by far - and Mario Kart Double Dash has the best multiplayer. SMK seams incredably slow by todays standards.

My thoughts are very similar, hence the slightly lower than what i originally expected score.

Mario Kart stays golden because of it's uniqueness, because of how it set the standard and although it's been surpassed perhaps by sequels it still has a place because of that.

Nice TOT Blizzard, we'll have to see if they have an official place on C3!

Thanks, I'm thinking of doing a golden eye or perect dark one!

Another great ToT, you were honest, most Mario games reveiwed usually get 90+ just cos its mario. Now hurry up! Get started on the next ToT!

NExt One NOW!

[ Edited by Metal-Arms_Glitch on 2004/5/28 14:37 ]

yeah excitebike, please

now Mario Kart Super Circuit beats it by far - and Mario Kart Double Dash has the best multiplayer. SMK seams incredably slow by todays standards.

SMK has a better sense of speed by far, no question. Take Bowser/DK for a spin and it ridicules MKC (MK64 is obviously too slow to even compare). The controls of SMK are also much tighter than the other games, the powerslide is just perfect. Fair enough if you prefer MK64 multiplayer, but my friends and I still think SMK is the best. 2P GP is hilarious, MK64 is just too poorly constructed at the gameplay level and too sluggish to replace it.

I think SMK was a one off moment of genius, the following games in the series have all been of a lesser standard...especially sense of speed and tightness of controls, not to mention bastardization of the weapons/racing balance

Sorry, scratch the Ice climbers one, i couldn't get a hold of it.

Don't know what i'm going to do now..... perhaps something else for the NES.

[ Edited by blizzard224 on 2004/5/29 1:36 ]

Bastardization is a funny word!

Personally, I've enjoyed all the MK games, but they seem to lost some crucial elements to the mixture. There simply aren't enough tracks, the imagination in some is lacking to say the least and battle mode has taken a beating, especially since they added the frickin' 3D ingrediant.

I'm still looking for the feather though.

WillHaven wrote:
SMK has a better sense of speed by far, no question. Take Bowser/DK for a spin and it ridicules MKC (MK64 is obviously too slow to even compare). The controls of SMK are also much tighter than the other games, the powerslide is just perfect. Fair enough if you prefer MK64 multiplayer, but my friends and I still think SMK is the best. 2P GP is hilarious, MK64 is just too poorly constructed at the gameplay level and too sluggish to replace it.

[ Edited by thatBEAMperson on 2004/5/28 18:58 ]

I gotta say, Mario Kart on GBA is a lot better than the SNES version.

Take one thing into consideration when you start talking about speed...They were go-carts! They don't go very fast!

Also take into account that the game is a rather unrealistic concept, therefore it dosn't have to be true to life.

OK, i'm doing Yoshis island.