Mario Kart: Super Circuit

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Mario races onto the handheld scene. Cover art for Mario Kart Super Circuit.

Mario Kart Super Circuit is a kart racing game in the Mario Kart series made for the Game Boy Advance. It was the first entry in the series to release on a portable device, and was visually quite the feat for its time thanks to the use of pseudo 3D visuals.

The gameplay is similar to Super Mario Kart for the original Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Due to the engine acting similarly to the Mode 7 technology of the original game, tracks are flat with limited verticality, making the races relatively straightforward.

It was released by Nintendo in 2001. It later saw a release for the Nintendo Switch Online service.

Tropes used in Mario Kart: Super Circuit include:
  • Amazing Technicolor Battlefield: The track Ribbon Road features roads of ribbons among a background of giant column arches overhanging stacks of picturesque wrapped presents.
  • Big Boo's Haunt: Boo Lake is a series of floating piers over Bottomless Pits with Boos holding candles along the race way.
  • Bottomless Pits: Present in courses such as Boo Lake.
  • Bubbly Clouds: The track Sky Garden, featuring what appear to be beanstalks peaking out of the clouds.
  • Car Fu: Karts can bump into eachother.
  • Die, Chair, Die!: The sidings in Boo Lake can be slammed into, breaking them, but saving the kart from the bottomless pit. Areas without railings don’t save karts from falling in. This isn’t present in all levels with railings, such as Cheep-Cheep Island.
  • Go-Karting with Bowser: It’s possible to race against Bowser, Wario, and Donkey Kong.
  • Green Hill Zone: The track Mario Circuit features verdant green grasses, with large trees and Mario style cylindrical round top hills in the background.
  • Jack of All Stats: Mario and Luigi both have equal weight and speed stats.
  • Palmtree Panic: The track of Cheep-Cheep Island is a lively beachfront course, with short bridges across the waters and plenty of wildlife compared to the rest of the game.
  • Scenery Porn: While hamstrung by technological limitations, the concepts and background art for many of the courses is imaginative and detailed.
  • Shifting Sand Land: The Yoshi Desert features a sandy expanse, with pyramids and a giant Yoshi Sphinx visible in the background.
  • Slippy-Slidey Ice World: The track Snow Land is a snowy area surrounded by giant pointy ice crystals.
  • Wacky Racing: The style of racing is cartoonish and not a serious simulation.
  • The Wild West: The track Sunset Wilds features a desert vista reminiscent of a western, complete with teepees in the distance.