Video Game Review: Super Mario Kart for SNES

Stars: 2 out of 5
Pros: Started a fun franchise, fun memories

Cons: Poor graphics, repetitive game play

The Bottom Line:

I remember fun

But it doesn't hold up well

Stick with newer ones

Time Has Not Been Kind to the Original Mario Kart

It's hard to imagine a video game world without Mario Kart any more.  Originally released in the early 1990's, Super Mario Kart has become a staple of the Nintendo franchise.  The first version was part of the Super Nintendo family of games (also known as SNES), but each subsequent game system has had their own version.  Since I have become hooked on the Wii version of Mario Kart, I decided to dust off my old Super Mario Kart and see what I thought of it now.  Man, was I laughing at it.

The idea behind the game hasn't changed much over the years.  You race around various track in go-karts trying to be the first to cross the finish line.  Yep, it's as simple as that.  In this case, you can choose to be one of eight Nintendo characters from Mario and Luigi to the Princess, Toad, and Yoshi.  Interestingly enough, this is the only time that Donkey Kong, Jr. is one of the option.  The poor guy seems to have been forgotten these days.  You have no choice of karts, but each characters offers their own advantages or disadvantages.  Or at least that's what others claim.  I've never been good enough to notice the differences.

If you are doing a race, you have a choice of four cups (the fourth cup had to be unlocked by beating the first three).  Each cup consists of five different tracks (that's 20 total in this game).  And each race lasted five laps.  If you don't finish in the top four spots, you don't get any points for the overall standings in the cup.  And you don't get to move on either.  That's right, if you don't finish a race in the top spots, you have to repeat it.  But you only get 3 bottom half finishes per cut or your race is over and you go back to the main screen.

When playing by yourself, you are racing against 7 computer opponents.  But to add to the fun, you can race against one friend.  (Remember, the SNES only had spots for two controllers.  How primeval.)  When playing against a friend, you'd move on if only one of you finished in the top spots, but if one of you kept finishing near the bottom, you'd both be kicked back to the main screen instead of finishing the cup.

Question marks were a part of the original Mario Kart as well.  However, they usually only appear in one part of the track and can only be rolled over once.  They still give you random items to help you and hurt your opponents like turtle shells, banana peels, invincibility stars, and mushrooms for bursts of speed.

Then there are the coins.  You start out each race with a couple of coins.  Sometimes, you'll get coins from the question marks.  But they are also all over the track.  Again, they don't come back once someone have claimed them.  And you need them.  Every time you spin out or bump into some, you lose coins.  Get down to zero, and it is much harder to control your kart and every little thing will make you spin out.  More coins help increase your speed, with 10 being the most helpful.  You can collect coins beyond that, but they are only an insurance policy in case you lose coins along the way.

The controls are pretty straight forward and easy to use.  You push the left and right sides of the "plus" shaped controller to move those directions.  The buttons are your gas, and one of the buttons on the front on the controller is your trigger.  It really is that simple.  Of course, I've never been super great at these games, so I still slide and crash all over the place.  But that's just operator error.

Another staple of the Mario Kart franchise is the battle courses.  Here, you and a friend face off in a battle to see who can pop the other person's balloons first.  You've each got three on your kart and you use turtle shells and banana peels to pop each other's balloons.  It's a fun way to play.

But here's the part that had me laughing.  The graphics are so much worse than what we are used to these days.  The characters are 2-D and look pretty bad.  The courses are okay, but they don't look nearly as good as the modern versions of Mario Kart do.  Mind you, the current version still looks rather cartoony, but it is supposed to.  Here, it look juvenile.

When I got my SNES in the late 90's, this was one of two games I would play by the hour.  Now, I find it boring and repetitive.  Five times around the course seems too much.  The three times on the modern version is much better.  And, while there are 20 tracks total, they all seem the same after a while.  The modern graphics and creativity over the years has allowed for greater variety, which really helps.

Honestly, I wish I had kept my love of Super Mario Kart as a memory unfazed by time.  Still with the modern versions of Mario Kart.  Even nostalgia only helps a little when it comes to this franchise launcher.