With
all of the game cartridges in my collection, these days all I ask for is a
game that I can go back to after a few months. Something I can just pop in
and play without having to re-learn the controls or even touch the
instruction manual, for that matter. Well, everyone knows that I'm the
Anti-Mario (before there was a Wario), but I must admit, Nintendo finally
produced a Mario game with idiotic creatures like Toad and Koopa that I
can actually enjoy. Will wonders ever cease?
In Super Mario Kart, your perspective is from slightly above and behind your kart similar to Nintendo's own F-Zero. The tracks spin and wind beneath you with incredible smoothness, although the backgrounds are pretty flat. There are several ways to play, the racing games all involve the obvious get to the end objective, with a special "battle mode" for two players mixing up the action a little. In battle mode, you have to hunt and destroy your opponent's kart in a pseudo-virtual-reality contest.
There
are many other options, some of the better ones include practice races
where you can race against yourself from a previous race, power-ups during
the race, an awards presentation at the end of a cup race, and a hidden
"challenge" level of courses that only appear if you win the
gold in each of the three other levels. In one-player games you even have
the option of viewing the overall course from above (displaying the
locations of the other racers as well) or a rear-view mirror in the lower
window. In head-to-head games each player has his own half of the screen
to view.
This is certainly a game you can come back to, and you can just pop it in and play with anybody. There are lots of ways to handicap players, so there's seldom a mismatch. The graphics are cartoony, reminiscent of Super Mario World, but they're colorful and well animated, and the background tunes are fun to listen to. I couldn't ask for much more! Well, I could, but I'm going to go a few laps against that turtle with the long tongue instead.
