Super is Right!

Mario was the one who started the whole Kart racing games and guess what he still has the number one Kart racing game. There have been plenty of cop off games trying to cash in on the Kart racing idea but Mario the little red dressing Italian plumber is number one.

If you have never played Mario Kart basically what you do is you drive around a track as Mario or one of his friends trying to win a race.

The Controls
If you have ever played a Mario Kart game before you will recognize some of the controls. It took me a little getting used to because I was used to playing the N64 version of Mario Kart.
L button-uses your item and can stop the item selection when it is in the middle of picking.
R button-used for doing mini jumps and when you hold it down with the left or right direction you can do the drift or power slide.
A button-your accelerator
B button-brakes, will take you in reverse when you are at a complete stop. Press quickly after running over a banana or if you run into some type of animal that would normally make you spin out. You did it right if a music note appears above your character and you will keep driving without spinning out or losing any coins.
control pad-is for steering left and right.
select-horn
other-if you want to get around a sharp turn press the direction of the turn on the control pad and press A and B at the same time and you will perform the SPIN TURN.

Gameplay:9.4
This game is a kind of mixture between the first two Mario Karts. It uses the coin idea like in the original from the SNES days but has the item boxes like the N64 game and pretty much all the same items from the N64 game. I don't really like collecting coins, while it adds to the difficulty of the game it gets annoying going out of the way to collect coins. Normally the coins are easy to get and are in your path but sometimes you will have to go out of your way to collect them. Collecting coins will help your overall grade(I will explain later) and when you are hit you will lose coins. If an opponent runs into you when you have no coins instead of losing the normal one coin you will spin out.

All the characters have returned:
Lightweight Class: Yoshi, Peach, and Toad
Middleweight Class: Mario and Luigi
Heavyweight Class: Donkey Kong, Wario, and Bowser

Each of these characters have advantages and disadvantages like Yoshi is great on dirt and Toad has the fastest acceleration. Unfortunately there are no new characters but the track would be too crowded if you added any more. There are 3 different engine classes to choose from before racing 50cc, 100cc, and 150cc. 50 is the easiest and 150 is the hardest.

The game has several game modes Mario GP, Quick Run, Time Trial, Vs., and Battle:

Single Player Game Modes
Mario GP:
In this mode you race against the seven other players around a track 3 times. The first around the track 3 times is the winner and receives 9 point, next person gets 6, then 3, and finally 1. If you don't place in at least 4th then you will either have to race over again or just start a whole new game. You have 3 continues for all 4 tracks. You want to have the most combined points after all 4 courses. Also you will get a grade on how you did overall going from E, D, C, B, A, *, **, ***. E being the worst and *** being the best.

You start out with 16 tracks to play and can unlock the special cup on the GBA version and can have 20 tracks from the SNES version. This is 40 tracks in all which means a lot of playing if you want to unlock them all and play them all.

Quick Run:
Same as Mario GP but instead of choosing an entire cup you choose a level in the cup. You can use this for practice racing against opponents and to learn about the level.

Time Trial:
Race around the track three times and try to get the fastest record. You don't have any coins, question boxes, or other racers in this mode it's just you against the clock. You get 3 mushrooms to use throughout the race.

Multiplayer Game Modes

Vs.(Single Pak)
In this mode you only need one game between 2 to 4 other people. This mode only allows you to choose between 4 different tracks and the players without a game pak are forced to be different colored Yoshi's. This mode only has one engine class and the first to complete 5 laps wins.

Vs.(Multi Pak)
You may choose a track from one of the Mario GP cups. Also all players get to choose their own racer. I think you only do 3 laps in this mode but I am not sure because I haven't found anyone with a GBA or this game yet.

Battle(Multi Pak)
Choose between 4 courses to battle between 1 and 3 of your friends. If you have ever played the N64 battle then you don't need to read this because it is basically the same. You have 3 balloons and everytime are hit by a shell, drive over a banana, drive off the edge of the track, or are hit by an invulnerable opponent you will lose a balloon. In 3/4 player matches the first 1/2 players who lose all their balloons turn into bombs and can still affect the outcome of the battle by running into one of the remaining players.

Graphics:7.5
I guess it is good for the GBA but there are so many bright colors so you will be able to see it better. Some okay looking levels and your basic looking characters.

Sound:9
I don't really pay attention to the music but it is that happy type for normal levels, the normal Bowser beats for Bowser's Castles and spooky type for Ghost levels. Some neat things are the character voices and the sound of skidding tires.

Replay Value:10
40 levels that you can play, 24 that you must unlock, trying to find shortcuts in levels so you can get the track record in Time Trail. Lets face it 3 difficulty settings with 40 levels equals a lot of gaming.

Overall: 9
Mario keeps is role at the top of the Kart Racing games with this game. Another well done addition of Mario Kart.