Mario Kart: Super Circuit

Mario Kart: Super Circuit is a Mario Kart game for the Game Boy Advance. It is the third entry in the series and the first one to be released for a handheld console. Mario Kart: Super Circuit was first released on July 21, 2001 in Japan. The game combines the elements from the previous Mario Kart games, with the key feature of the Mario Kart series being the usage of items obtained from Item Boxes in order for the operator to gain an advantage over the opponents being retained; additionally, it contains all the courses from Super Mario Kart. Mario Kart: Super Circuit allows up to four players to enjoy the game through the Game Link Cable, including a multiplayer mode where only one game cartridge is needed; however, the single cartridge-based multiplayer has heavy restrictions on the content available.

Mario Kart: Super Circuit was eventually re-released on the Nintendo 3DS's Virtual Console exclusively to the 3DS Ambassadors first in Oceania on December 15, 2011. Mario Kart: Super Circuit was re-released again on the Wii U's Virtual Console in North America first on November 13, 2014, and for Game Boy Advance - Nintendo Switch Online as one of its launch titles on February 8, 2023. Mario Kart: Super Circuit is the only Mario Kart title to be developed by Intelligent Systems, as well as the last Mario Kart game where the drivers are sprites rather than models. This is one of the last entries in the Super Mario franchise to use the N64-era art direction (which had been in place since Super Mario 64 in 1996), as Nintendo started to update the 3D art direction after 2001, starting with Luigi's Mansion.

Gameplay
The objective in this game is to place first in the races, as with most racing games. Each race has eight drivers. As in other Mario Kart games, players can drive through Item Boxes which contain items, which can aid the players. On the course, coins are collected to increase the kart's top speed. Like with Super Mario Kart, if the player has no coins, they spin out if they collide with another racer. The player starts a race with 2 to 5 coins depending on the starting position, and 50 coins are found on each course. Therefore, the player can hold up to 55 coins at once.

This game has five cups, and each has four new race courses. These cups are the Mushroom Cup, the Flower Cup, the all new Lightning Cup, the Star Cup, and the Special Cup. If players collect 100 coins in each cups after winning Special Cup for the engine class, they unlock the Extra Cup version. These cups contain all of the courses from Super Mario Kart. If the player manages to collect a gold trophy on all of the Super Circuit cups, the background for the title screen changes to a sunset. If the player manages to obtain a triple star ranking for all Super Circuit cups, the title screen's background changes to a night time setting. In addition to the aesthetic changes, the intro's theme also changes.

Game controls

 * On the character selection screen, if the player presses the, , or  button, the character the player is on fires a green shell. If the player presses , , , or  button, the character hops. If the player presses ,  or  button, the characters honk their horn. However, the horn does not work if Random is selected.

Game modes
Mario Kart: Super Circuit has five different game modes: Grand Prix, Time Trial, Quick Run, VS, and Battle Mode. All are accessed by the single player except VS and battle modes. Up to four players can participate using the Game Boy Advance Link cable with even a single game cartridge. However, all players using single cartridge mode are limited to selecting Extra Mushroom Cup using only Yoshi and different colors of him.

Grand Prix
In this mode, one or two players race against the CPU. The player chooses a cup and plays the four courses it contains. The player earns points by placing within the first four positions. When finished in fifth place or lower, the player must restart the race. The player is able to restart a race three times, with three race flags representing the lives. When the flags run out, the player can no longer restart any race in the cup, and must start from the first race if they fail to reach 4th or higher. When playing with two players, only one player has to finish in the top four in order to move on to the next race. At the end of the cup, the player with the most points wins. If the player is ranked 4th or lower at the end of a Grand Prix, their character drives in front of the three winning drivers and gets crushed by the podium. There are three different speeds to choose from, each with varying difficulty.
 * 50cc - This engine size is the smallest engine size. Karts go at a slower pace than other engine sizes. Computers rarely use items against the player. This engine size is best suited for beginners.
 * 100cc - A slightly larger engine size. Karts go slightly faster than 50cc, but not as fast as 150cc. Computers use items more often against the player. This engine size is better suited for intermediate players.
 * 150cc - The largest engine size. Karts go at their fastest. The computer regularly uses items against the player, such as frequently throwing Red Shells, using Boos, or even tossing a Spiny Shell. This engine size is best suited for expert players.

Ranking
At the end of each race in Grand Prix mode, the top four players are awarded points based on their placement. The player in first place receives nine points, second place receives six points, third place three points, and fourth place one point. The bottom four players do not receive points.

The following letter ranks are achievable solely based on how many points the player has at the end of the four races of a Grand Prix:
 * A: The player has collected all 36 points.
 * B: The player has collected at least 30 points.
 * C: The player has collected at least 25 points.
 * D: The player has collected at least 20 points.
 * E: The player has collected less than 20 points.

However, during each race, the game also secretly tracks several statistics to calculate a hidden value known internally as SkillPoints. These statistics all contribute in different ways to the final SkillPoints calculation at the end of each race. Note that an unmodified copy of Mario Kart: Super Circuit runs at 60 frames per second.

Although race placement does impact SkillPoints, there is no direct relationship. Instead, the player's placement for each race is measured relative to the position the best-placed CPU opponent ends the race with. The calculation that provides this value is known as PositionPoints. The below table shows the number of PositionPoints added to SkillPoints depending on the player's and CPU's placement points.

The game calculates the average of the four SkillPoints values across each race to generate a final SkillLevel value. If the player has obtained all 36 standard points from race placement, all three star ranks are obtainable, depending on the SkillLevel</tt> value:
 * ⭐⭐⭐: SkillLevel</tt> > 329
 * ⭐⭐: SkillLevel</tt> > 199
 * ⭐: SkillLevel</tt> > 99
 * A: SkillLevel</tt> > 29

If the player has obtained at least 27 points, the following ranks are possible:
 * ⭐⭐: SkillLevel</tt> > 329
 * ⭐: SkillLevel</tt> > 199
 * A: SkillLevel</tt> > 99

If the player has obtained at least 21 points, the ⭐ rank is possible if SkillLevel</tt> > 329.

Time Trial
One player can race against the best times on each course with no CPU opponents. After beating a best time, players can save Ghost data onto each time trial course. Whenever the player races on that course again, the player's Ghost mirrors movements of the saved data. Ghost data can also be downloaded from other players using the Game Boy Link Cable. Players are given Triple Mushrooms for use during Time Trials. Players also have the option to view their Ghost data using the Records option. Players can either turn their Ghost on or off during Time Trials using the before selecting the mode.

Quick Run
Quick Run is a one player VS mode, unique to Mario Kart: Super Circuit, that enables players to race on any tracks they unlocked with no restrictions or regulations. Players can choose what engine size they want to race on, with the difficulty level alongside with the speed. Players can alter the number of laps, appearance of coins, and item boxes by pressing before accessing this mode. Later Mario Kart installments since Mario Kart DS (excluding Mario Kart 7) have a similar mode to Quick Run, which is named VS mode except that single players can also access the mode.

VS
VS mode is a Quick Run mode with two to four players and cannot be accessed by single players. CPU players are turned off in this mode. The game counts how many times the player won or lost against other players. Players can alter the number of laps, appearance of coins, having triple mushrooms as starting items and item boxes by pressing before accessing this mode, but only if it is played with multiple game cartridges. Players can play with multiple game cartridges or just a single cartridge via Game Boy Link Cable. When using a single cartridge, however, players have more limited choices. Players use a different colored Yoshi where player 1 is Green, player 2 Red, player 3 Light Blue, and player 4 Yellow. Aside from that, the only courses available are four SNES courses: Mario Circuit 1, Donut Plains 1, Ghost Valley 1, and Bowser Castle 1. The VS menu's music is an arrangement of Super Mario Kart's menu music, the VS race theme is an arrangement of the title theme from said game, and the result screen music is that of Mario's from the same game again. The character/item animation and music quality is also simplified compared to the base game, to ease the amount of data that has to be transferred.

Battle
Just like VS mode, Battle mode cannot be played with only one player. The player participates with one to three other players in attempt to pop each other balloons using items. Also seen in VS mode, the game counts how many times the players won or lost. When a player loses all of their balloons, the player turns into a Bob-omb and stays like that for the rest of the game. The Bob-omb can make it more difficult for the other players by either picking up item boxes or blasting into their karts.

Characters
All playable characters from Mario Kart 64 return, along with colored Yoshis appearing only in the multiplayer mode. As in all the previous games, they also race in the same go-karts, but with different sizes and colors that suit each playable character. Also, as in all the previous games, each racer is classified into three categories: lightweight, middleweight, and heavyweight, each class with their own advantages and disadvantages. Additionally, in VS play with a single cartridge, all players use Yoshi, with each being a different color.

Many other characters appear in the game as nonplayable. Some can help out, such as Lakitu, who can pull characters out of the water, and Boo, who serves as an item. Other characters are mainly there to serve as obstacles to racers, and many hinder the racers by making them spin out.

Drivers
Characters are divided into three classes depending on their weight: light, medium, and heavy. Characters' speed and weight stats are viewable at the player select screen. The Japanese version's stats are translated as acceleration and weight, the international release displays the acceleration stat as "speed", though the instruction booklet describes more accurate stats.

Lightweights are generally characterized by having high acceleration and low top speed. They are knocked easier by heavyweights and middleweights and skid easier. Peach and Toad share the same stats as having the highest acceleration and handling and the least weight and speed in the game, and Yoshi offers slightly less acceleration and handling for slightly better weight and speed.

Middleweights are classified by their all-around stats. They do not excel at anything, nor do they have any significantly low stats. The only middleweights are Mario and Luigi, and they share the same stats.

Heavyweights have a very high weight and top speed stat, but suffer from low acceleration. They also skid less than karts of lighter weight. Bowser offers the most weight and speed in the game, but the worst acceleration and handling, while Wario and Donkey Kong have slightly worse weight and speed in exchange for slightly higher handling and acceleration.

The character selection screen offers the option to select a random character if the Item Box icon is selected. A few Yoshi color variants are only playable in Single-Pak Multiplayer, each by a certain player.

Rival order
Similar to Super Mario Kart, a preset order of CPU opponents exists for each character in Grand Prix mode: one very fast, one fast, one medium, one slow, and three very slow drivers. In Quick Run mode, the orders are reversed, except in the first track of each cup. When playing Grand Prix in multiplayer, the rival order depends on the first player's character.

Other characters and elements
These characters and elements can act as course obstacles, causing a variety of effects when they are driven into, or appear as background scenery for world-building purposes and do not interact with racers.

Items
Mario Kart: Super Circuit features eleven of the fourteen items from Mario Kart 64, with no new additions, also making this and Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit the only Mario Kart games to not introduce any items. Like the past games, items are found in Item Boxes and are typically used to hinder opponents and assist players who obtain them.

Courses
The game features 20 new courses, and brings back the original 20 courses of Super Mario Kart (though, due to the Grand Prix format, they are organized in five cups instead of four). The cups containing Super Mario Kart courses are unlocked for usage in Grand Prix Mode by finishing the respective engine class' Special Cup consisting of Mario Kart: Super Circuit tracks in first place, and then completing each cup again, while collecting at least 100 coins.

Mario Kart: Super Circuit has the most Bowser Castles (four from this game's tracks and three from the original's tracks, making seven total tracks) in any Mario Kart game to date.

Super Circuit tracks
These racecourses are new and they have three laps, similar to Mario Kart 64 (with Lakitu appearing on the right side of the player, holding the start signal and the lap count signs).

Extra tracks
These courses were originally featured in Super Mario Kart, and are reused in Mario Kart: Super Circuit. The player races five laps on these tracks (similar to the first game) in Grand Prix mode. These courses lack most of their obstacles from Super Mario Kart (besides the breaking blocks in the Ghost Valley and Vanilla Lake courses and the deep water in the Koopa Beaches). Coin locations are also changed so that each track has exactly 50 coins.

Battle courses
Four new battle courses appear in the game. No battle courses from the previous Mario Kart games return; however, all four of the courses from Super Mario Kart exist in the game's code and are playable through hacking.

Critical reception
Mario Kart: Super Circuit received critical acclaim. It scored an average of 91.54% based on 39 reviews in GameRankings and an average of 93 based on 24 reviews in Metacritic.

Craig Harris of IGN praised nearly all of the game's aspects and noted that the extra development time of the game can make it outstanding. He ended with, "It's a GBA game with very few flaws -- it's a shame that it didn't quite make the system launch, but the extra wait did the game wonders, and it shouldn't be missed." He gave the game a 9.5 out of 10. Tom Bramwell of Eurogamer gave the game a 9 out of 10. Though he criticized the lack of backlighting due to the Game Boy Advance system lacking it and the pick-up system of Lakitu, he praised the game for being a vast, improved "conversion" of Super Mario Kart onto the Game Boy Advance. He wrote, "It has everything a single player, or indeed a foursome of like-minded console gamers, could ever dream of, and all with the added benefit of extensive replayability. With Super Mario Advance 2 still a way off, Mario Kart Super Circuit is the killer app for GameBoy Advance as of now. Buy it." Joao Diniz Sanches of Pocket Gamer UK gave the game a 9 out of 10. He praised the game for being universally and immediately fun.

Ron DelVillano of Nintendo Life reviewed the ambassador version of Mario Kart: Super Circuit and gave the game a 7 out of 10. Though he noted the game's aging and that the multiplayer is removed in the 3DS Ambassador version, he called the game fun and worthwhile to play with.

Sales
Mario Kart: Super Circuit is the fourth best-selling game for the Game Boy Advance after Pokémon Ruby, Sapphire, FireRed, LeafGreen, and Emerald, selling 5.91 million copies worldwide, as of March 31, 2009.

Pre-release and unused content
Early Nintendo Power screenshots showed that the characters had different, "super-deformed" sprites of bigger heads contrasted by smaller karts. The game was planned to feature all 14 of the Mario Kart 64 items, but the Banana Bunch, Super Mushroom, and Fake Item Box were removed for unknown reasons. The unfinished versions can be seen by using a GameShark code: the Banana Bunch is non-functional, the Super Mushroom acts like normal, and the Fake Item Box causes racers to spin out of control as with a Banana. There is also an infinite version of the Super Mushroom.

Staff
Mario Kart: Super Circuit was developed by Intelligent Systems, the same company behind the Paper Mario series and the WarioWare series. Takeshi Ando and Yukio Morimoto directed the game while the executive producer was Hiroshi Yamauchi. The Donkey Kong 3D model used in the pre-rendered sprites was provided by Rare Ltd..

CPU Glitch
To perform this glitch, the player must select the Rainbow Road track with any character in 100cc or 150cc. When the race starts, the player must obtain a banana. At the shortcut area, the player must place the banana on the very corner of the curb leading to the shortcut. After that, the player must drive backward until the player is between the shortcut and the other side, then park on the middle of the track. If a CPU hits the player, the CPU may hit the banana and fall off. When the CPU is put back on track, it will drive toward the shortcut but still falling.

Koopa Beach 1 Glitch Shortcut
If the player spindrifts after the finish line then aims behind it correctly, that player can perform a glitch were it could count as a lap if they shroomed behind the finish line with a hop.

Cheese Land Glitch Shortcut
If the player spindrifts 270 degrees right going behind the starting line, that player could perform a glitch where the player can use a mushroom and a hop onto Little Mouser to count all three laps if successful. This will work with any character.

References to other games

 * Super Mario Kart: All previous race courses return with the hazards removed. Coins return in Mario Kart: Super Circuit with the same use as in this game, though without the Coin item. Part of the music used for Boo Lake/Broken Pier and the Mario Kart: Super Circuit Rainbow Road is a remix of the music from the Ghost Valley and Rainbow Road courses. The music used for the title screen, main menu and Mario's results screen are arranged as music used for Single Game Pak multiplayer.
 * Super Mario 64: The theme for the Bowser Castle courses has a similar bassline to that of the Bowser battle theme in this game.
 * Mario Kart 64: Many sprites and artwork in this game are based off the sprites in this game, such as the karts, characters, and the character selection screen portraits. Most of the items from this game also return. Players who lose in battle mode in Mario Kart: Super Circuit also turn into Bob-ombs, similar to turning into Mini Bomb Karts. The selection of playable characters is exactly the same as in this game. Also, most voice clips (with the notable exception of Yoshi's) are reused from this game, specifically the Japanese version; Luigi, Peach, Wario, Toad, and the system voice's clips were not replaced with their Western versions when the game was localized for overseas release.
 * Yoshi's Story: Cheep Cheeps use the design of Blurps from this game. Shy Guy Beach is based on the level Shy Guy's Ship from this game. Some of Yoshi's voice clips are reused.
 * Paper Mario: Peach's Castle appears in the background of Peach Circuit. Bowser's Castle along with Peach's Castle on top of it appears in the background of Rainbow Road. The Hammer Bros. and Goombas seen during the awards ceremony have the same appearance as in this game.

References in later games

 * Mario Power Tennis: Lightning Cup returns as part of the Gimmick Masters section of this game's tournament mode. However, the said cup goes by the name "Thunder Cup" in that game's English or Japanese version, as the Lightning Cup has been usually called the Thunder Cup in Japanese sources and not English ones.
 * Mario Kart DS: This game uses the ranking system of Mario Kart: Super Circuit. Also, four GBA tracks return in this game: Peach Circuit, Bowser Castle 2, Luigi Circuit, and Sky Garden. The Lightning Cup has been traditionally modified as one of the four retro cups, and Sky Garden appears in the Lightning Cup in both of the games, a first and only time for the series. The Quick Run concept has been reused and renamed as Vs. Mode. The idea of returning older courses originates from Mario Kart: Super Circuit.
 * Mario Kart Wii: Shy Guy Beach, Bowser Castle 3, and Battle Course 3 return in this game.
 * Mario Kart 7: Bowser Castle 1 and Battle Course 1 return in this game.
 * Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS / Wii U: One of the songs is a medley of the Rainbow Road themes from Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Mario Kart DS, and Mario Kart 7.
 * Mario Kart 8 / Mario Kart 8 Deluxe: Mario Circuit returns as a retro course in this game and now features anti-gravity on the U-shaped section that has been inclined. Cheese Land and Ribbon Road return in Mario Kart 8 as retro courses in the second DLC pack, and come standard in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Sky Garden, Snow Land, Boo Lake, Riverside Park, and Sunset Wilds are also included among the courses in the Booster Course Pass for Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
 * Mario Kart Tour: Peach Circuit, Riverside Park, Bowser Castle 1, Boo Lake, Bowser Castle 2, Luigi Circuit, Sky Garden, Cheep-Cheep Island, Sunset Wilds, Snow Land, Yoshi Desert, Bowser Castle 3, and Bowser Castle 4 appear as returning race courses. Battle Course 1 appears as a returning battle course.

Trivia

 * In Japan, it was once possible to challenge other players online by connecting the Game Boy Advance to a compatible mobile phone via the Mobile Adapter GB. Players could upload personal records, browse national rankings, and participate in Time Trial-based tournaments with real prizes as well. This service ended in December 2002.
 * This game was going to make use of the e-Reader at one point according to the European website for the game, but the section of the site intended to provide details on the e-Reader cards consisted of only a "Coming Soon" notice.
 * This game was planned to release in mainland China by iQue, but was left unreleased due to the huge scene of piracy in China at that time. The unreleased Chinese prototype received an ISBN, meaning it was approved for distribution despite the ban on video games from the Chinese government.
 * In multiplayer, player 4's player color is purple in the menus, but is blue in-game.