Retro Reviews: Super Mario Kart (SNES)

In 1992 Nintendo released a title on their SNES that would give racing games something to think about. With all the racing simulations on the PC and Amiga, the designers at Nintendo had to think outside the box to challenge them. The result is Super Mario Kart, a new kind of racer featuring characters from the world’s most famous gaming icon.

Not even the most optimistic of the Nintendo management could have predicted the success. After seven incarnations of Mario Kart on six different consoles and an arcade version, the original still goes strong. Fifteen years after the original release and this game still excites as it did back then.

The premise is a simple as they come. Take control of a character and race others. The player chooses one of eight characters and one of three events and off they go. The controls are simple enough to grasp, there is one button to accelerate, left and right to turn, one that fires weapons and one that allows the player to jump over obstacles, whilst braking is achieved by simply not accelerating.

There are two big gameplay differences between Mario Kart and other racers of its time. The first is the weapons feature which allows the player to use a variety of simple pick ups ranging from banana skins to drop on the ground to speed boosts and turtle shells to fire at opponents. Unfortunately these only really become useful in the harder of the two difficulty modes where the computer controlled rivals become some sort of a challenge. When they are used however they add depth - a well timed turtle shell can turn a race on its head.

The second big difference is the physics which, in Super Mario Kart, are fantastic. Turn too sharply and the back end will swing out, sending the kart into a spin, or let go of the accelerator and watch as Mario gradually rolls to a stop. To corner properly means moving out wide and clipping the apex, and the whole thing feels free moving and organic, unlike a lot of the “on rails” racers available around the same time such as Formula 1 for the Sega Megadrive. One criticism that should be mentioned is the AI, which will be no problem at all until the 100cc mode and even then the computer controlled characters will finish in a predictable almost parade like order. Mario, Donkey Kong Junior, and Princess Peach will be the top three nine times out of ten and this detracts from the realism a tad – which, after setting such high standards for itself in most other areas, is a little disappointing.

Graphically Super Mario Kart is better than one would expect. Whilst everything is done in 2D the view is somewhat isometric so it feels very much as if there’s an extra dimension. Many games tried this approach but in getting a realistic view the gameplay became a lot stiffer, as trying to pull of 3D gameplay on a 2D system presents a lot of problems. Mario Kart doesn’t suffer from this however as a lot of work has gone into the fluidity of the animations which gives the game its organic feel. The sprites are full of sharp colours and the designers have been careful not to crowd the screen with too much information so navigation around menus is simple and allows the player to focus on the gaming.

The sound is on par with anything else on the system and anyone whose ever played Mario games before will recognize the leitmotifs used in the music, and whilst the quality is very archaic there’s nothing here that will grind too much on the player’s nerves.

Super Mario Kart is still extremely playable and fun even by the standards of today, and given the choice between this SNES game or Need for Speed on PS3, Mario Kart would probably be a better bet. In almost all respects it has passed the test of time with flying colours but its main problem is that of its successors. Mario Kart on the N64, Gamecube, Game Boy Advance and DS all keep the core gameplay intact but also improve it, which pushes Super Mario Kart somewhat into the corner. With so many better versions of the same game out there, this doesn’t give a player any reason to blow the dust off his SNES. But for PC gamers with emulators, before you try anything else: try this.
Overall: 8/10