Joystiq

Mario Kart: Super Circuit (Game Boy Advance)

With the advent of the Game Boy Advance, Nintendo finally had a portable system powerful enough to handle a Mario Kart game. The game obviously owes more to the SNES original than the N64 remake, with flat courses and the reintroduction of on-track coin collecting. Super Circuit even featured unlockable tracks taken wholesale from the original game.

Super Circuit was the first Kart game to grade single-player racers with a letter grade based on how precisely they navigated each course. Suddenly first place wasn't enough -- getting that three-star rating was the ultimate goal, and one that could while away many a long car ride.

Fun fact: While Super Circuit required only one cartridge to allow up to four players to race, the mode limited players to racing as different colored Yoshis.

23/04/08