Super Circuit is the only Mario Kart game released on the GBA. While the other games in the Mario Kart series are critically acclaimed for being groundbreaking and addicting, this game does little to add to the appeal of the overall series.

Graphics: 8

These are probably the highlight of the series. The graphics here are good when compared to other GBA games. However, the only game in the series they're better than would be the SNES version. The coins and most of the terrain is still flat. However, there is some nice activity in the background and the item boxes and items at least stand up. Other than that, it's comparable to the SNES graphics. One thing I was disappointed about was the lack of the pop-up map on the bottom, but I guess there was no room for it on such a small screen.

Sound: 6

The music was probably made to sound similar to the music in Mario Kart 64, but the shortcomings of the GBA's sound system didn't quite let it get there. It's not as addicting as any of the music in the series. The sound set just makes it sound average to all other GBA games, really. The sound effects are similar to those in the SNES Mario Kart, as well. Nothing very significant about those.

Addictiveness: 5

Like I said, this game falls short of the expectations of other Mario Kart games. So as a result, it's not quite as addicting as them.

The fact that it's on the GBA makes it portable so that you can play Mario Kart wherever you go. But that happens to be one of the shortcomings in its addictiveness. Because it's on the GBA, it's a hassle trying to set up multiplayer, with adapters and wires and whatnot needed to establish a connection. I consider multiplayer to be one of the core mods of the Mario Kart series, so because it hardly exists here, it's not as fun to play.

Also, another gameplay aspect that I find unnecessary is the coin system. In the SNES version, coins were also used as sort of a "health" gauge, and they're back in Super Circuit. They're similar to the way rings work in Sonic. If you run into someone or hit a stage obstacle, you'll lose some coins. If you do any of that with 0 coins left, then your cart spins out and you lose a lot of time.

Coins can be found scattered across the course, but picking them up can be a pain because they're so small to see. And in a race where you have 0 coins, it becomes frustrating trying to pick up more because you're always spinning out when you hit an opponent or an obstacle. So you can see how annoying it would get if you were 5th or something in a race with no coins left in your possession. You have to hope you stay 1st the whole race or you'll be bumping into other karts too many times in the race and you lose coins much much faster. What annoys me is that computer doesn't seem to be affected by coins, so they never spin out when you hit them.

Story: N/A

It's a racing game... Some racing games have stories, but not this one. It's just race to get 1st and win the trophy.

Depth: 5

There isn't a lot you can do with this game besides the initial appeal of the gameplay. Whenever you win 1st in a series, you get a nice little trophy to display in the menu. There is one cup that's locked, which you have to unlock by winning 1st in every other cup of that difficulty.

Other than that, there really isn't anything else to unlock in the game. You can try for the best times in Time Trial mode, and that's about all you can do. It's not as deep as future Mario Kart games, and not even as great as Mario Kart N64.

Gameplay strategies remain the same as most other Mario Kart games. You can't drift to get a mini-boost in this game, however. Some of the courses have a few hints and tricks you can use to get through them faster, though. You can try to figure out these tricks using the Time Trial mode and implement them in the actual game.

Difficulty: 7

This game isn't the hardest in the world, but it is harder than the other Mario Kart games. The game has horrible steering, which feels more like you're always drifting. Because you're playing simply on a D-pad, you can't control how far you turn, unlike the console Mario Kart games. And since you control it like that, drifting doesn't really feel like drifting.

Also, like I said before, the CPU feels unfair because they're not affected by the same properties as you. You seem to be the only one affected by unfair steering and the detrimental coin system. It makes for quite a challenge in the races.

Overall: 7.0

This game is average in terms of gameplay, but subpar compared to other Mario Kart games. It just doesn't retain that fun feel that the other games do. It feels the most like SNES version of Mario Kart, which is actually harder than this one, believe it or not. Try playing those two if you want a different and more challenging twist on the whole Mario Kart series.

I remember playing this game when I was younger.

Mario Kart Super Circuit was a decent game that I played many times on my gameboy on long car trips.

My favorite part about the game was that the races were rarely the exact same, so you could generally find a new way to win every time.

oh I rented this game back then it's cool that they had SNES levels in the game as unlockables

I remember this game. I found it on the floor on the street when I was younger, picked it up, and played it nonstop. Compared to other MArio Kart games, it doesn't feel as addictive as the others. Still, it's not a bad game at all, but it's not one that I would play over and over again as of now.