Mario Kart: Super Circuit: Difference between revisions

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'''''Mario Kart: Super Circuit''''' is a ''[[Mario Kart (series)|Mario Kart]]'' game for the [[Game Boy Advance]]. It is the third entry in the series and the first one to be released for a handheld console. ''Mario Kart: Super Circuit'' was first released on July 21, 2001 in Japan. The game combines the elements from the previous ''Mario Kart'' games, with the key feature of the ''Mario Kart'' series being the usage of items obtained from [[Item Box]]es in order for the operator to gain an advantage over the opponents being retained; additionally, it contains all the courses from ''[[Super Mario Kart]]''. ''Mario Kart: Super Circuit'' allows up to four players to enjoy the game through the Game Link Cable, including a multiplayer mode where only one game cartridge is needed; however, the single cartridge-based multiplayer has heavy restrictions on the content available.

''Mario Kart: Super Circuit'' was eventually re-released on the [[Nintendo 3DS]]'s [[Virtual Console#Nintendo 3DS|Virtual Console]] exclusively to the [[Virtual Console#Nintendo 3DS Ambassador Program|3DS Ambassadors]] first in Oceania on December 15, 2011. ''Mario Kart: Super Circuit'' was re-released again on the [[Wii U]]'s [[Virtual Console#Wii U|Virtual Console]] in North America first on November 13, 2014, and for [[Game Boy Advance - Nintendo Switch Online]] as one of its launch titles on February 8, 2023. ''Mario Kart: Super Circuit'' is the only ''Mario Kart'' title to be developed by Intelligent Systems, as well as the last ''Mario Kart'' game where the drivers are sprites rather than models. This is one of the latest entries in the ''Mario'' franchise to use the [[Nintendo 64|N64]]-era art direction (which had been in place since ''[[Super Mario 64]]'' in 1996), as Nintendo started to update the 3D art direction after 2001, starting with ''[[Luigi's Mansion]]''.

!rowspan=2 width=20%|Action(s)

!width=25%|Game Boy Advance

!width=25%|Nintendo 3DS

!width=25%|Wii U GamePad<br>Wii U Pro Controller<br>Wii Classic Controller

!width=25%|Wii Remote

!rowspan=2 width=19%|Action(s)

!width=24%|Game Boy Advance

!width=24%|Nintendo 3DS

!width=24%|Wii U GamePad<br>Wii U Pro Controller<br>Wii Classic Controller

!width=25%|Wii Remote

*On the character selection screen, if the player presses the {{button|gba|L}}, {{button|3Ds|L}}, {{button|wii|CCL}} or {{button|wii|A}} button, the character the player is on fires a green shell. If the player presses {{button|gba|R}}, {{button|3Ds|R}}, {{button|wii|CCR}}, or {{button|wii|B}} button, the character hops. If the player presses {{button|gba|select}}, {{button|3Ds|select}} or {{button|wii|-}} button, the characters honk their horn. However, the horn does not work if Random is selected.

In this mode, one or two players race against the CPU. The player chooses a cup and plays the four courses it contains. The player earns points by placing within the first four positions. When finished in fifth place or lower, the player must restart the race. The player is able to restart a race three times, with three race flags representing the lives. When the flags run out, the player can no longer restart any race in the cup, and must start from the first race if they fail to reach 4th or higher. When playing with two players, only one player has to finish in the top four in order to move on to the next race. At the end of the cup, the player with the most points wins. There are three different speeds to choose from, each with varying difficulty.

However, during each race, the game also secretly tracks several statistics to calculate a hidden value known internally as <tt>SkillPoints</tt>. These statistics all contribute in different ways to the final <tt>SkillPoints</tt> calculation at the end of each race.<ref>FerneuMKSC (October 15, 2017). "[https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/gba/371318-mario-kart-super-circuit/faqs/67255 Mario Kart: Super Circuit – Rank Calculation Guide]". ''GameFAQs''. Retrieved May 12, 2023. ([https://web.archive.org/web/20230512225015/https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/gba/371318-mario-kart-super-circuit/faqs/67255 Archived] May 12, 2023, 22:50:15 UTC via Wayback Machine.)</ref>

 

|<tt>Coins</tt>

|The number of coins collected during the race.

|Each coin the character has at the end of the race increases <tt>SkillPoints</tt> by 4 per coin.

|-

|The number of times a character is hit by the Lightning item.

|Each time the player's character is hit by Lightning increases <tt>SkillPoints</tt> by 40.

|-

|The amount of time the player takes to complete each lap.

|The player must beat a unique time for each course to receive extra <tt>SkillPoints</tt> based on how much faster than the target time the course completion time is. This target time is often very low.  

|How many frames the player does not press the accelerate button for.

|Each frame the player does not press the accelerate button decreases <tt>SkillPoints</tt> by 0.25.

|How many frames the player presses the brake button for.

|Each frame the player presses the brake button decreases <tt>SkillPoints</tt> by 2.

|<tt>LakituRescueCount</tt>

|How many times Lakitu places the character back on the track.

|Each time the player is rescued by Lakitu decreases <tt>SkillPoints</tt> by 30.

|<tt>GotHitAndSpunCount</tt>

|How many times the character spins out and loses coins, whether from an item or enemy.  

|Each time the character spins out decreases <tt>SkillPoints</tt> by 15.

|<tt>StartMiniturboCount</tt>

|How many times the character performs a Rocket Start, or boosts upon hitting the ground after being picked up by Lakitu.

|Each time the character performs a Rocket Start or boosts after Lakitu picks them up deceases <tt>SkillPoints</tt> by 25.

|How many times the character passes through an Item Box while an item already occupies the item slot. Holding an item behind the character, or having Triple Green Shells or Triple Red Shells circle the character, does not count.

|<tt>FramesOutsideTrack</tt>

|How many animation frames the character spends on off-road sections of the track. Some courses are marked as containing no off-road sections, such as the Bowser Castle courses and, strangely, Mario Circuit 2 and Choco Island 2. These courses instead increment this value each time a character hits a wall. (In Choco Island 2, the mud pool in the middle of the course still counts as an off-road section.)

|Each frame the character spends on off-road sections of the track decreases <tt>SkillPoints</tt> by 0.25.

|Which character the player selects to play as. This value is seemingly connected to how difficult the character is to use in a race based on their stats. A variable amount of <tt>SkillPoints</tt> is awarded at the end of each race based on which character the player had selected.

Quick Run is a one player VS mode, unique to ''Mario Kart: Super Circuit'', that enables players to race on any tracks they unlocked with no restrictions or regulations. Players can choose what engine size they want to race on, with the difficulty level alongside with the speed. Players can alter the number of laps, appearance of coins, and item boxes by pressing {{button|gba|Select}} before accessing this mode. Later ''Mario Kart'' installments since ''[[Mario Kart DS]]'' (excluding ''[[Mario Kart 7]]'') have a similar mode to Quick Run, which is named VS mode except that single players can also access the mode.

VS mode is a Quick Run mode with two to four players and cannot be accessed by single players. CPU players are turned off in this mode. The game counts how many times the player won or lost against other players. Players can alter the number of laps, appearance of coins, having triple mushrooms as starting items<ref>[https://data.nimages.fr/shroomsb7k.png]</ref> and item boxes by pressing {{button|gba|Select}} before accessing this mode, but only if it is played with multiple game cartridges. Players can play with multiple game cartridges or just a single cartridge via Game Boy Link Cable. When using a single cartridge, however, players have more limited choices. Players use a different colored [[Yoshi (species)|Yoshi]] where player 1 is Green, player 2 Red, player 3 Light Blue, and player 4 Yellow. Aside from that, the only courses available are four SNES courses: [[SNES Mario Circuit 1|Mario Circuit 1]], [[SNES Donut Plains 1|Donut Plains 1]], [[SNES Ghost Valley 1|Ghost Valley 1]], and [[Bowser Castle 1]]. The VS menu's music is an arrangement of ''Super Mario Kart''{{'}}s menu music, the VS race theme is an arrangement of the title theme from said game, and the result screen music is that of Mario's from the same game again. The character/item animation and music quality is also simplified compared to the base game, to ease the amount of data that has to be transferred.

Just like VS mode, Battle mode cannot be played with only one player. The player participates with one to three other players in attempt to pop each other [[balloon]]s using items. Also seen in VS mode, the game counts how many times the players won or lost. When a player loses all of their balloons, the player turns into a [[Bob-omb]] and stays like that for the rest of the game. The Bob-omb can make it more difficult for the other players by either picking up item boxes or blasting into their karts.

A few Yoshi color variants are only playable in Single-Pak Multiplayer, each by a certain player.

|A Big Cheep Cheep appear in the background of Cheep-Cheep Island, where they swim around and occasionally leap.

|When a player loses all of their balloons in Battle mode, it turns into a Bob-omb and stays like that for the rest of the game. The Bob-omb can make it more difficult for the other players by either picking up item boxes or blasting into their karts. A Bob-omb also appears in the crowd in the game's awards ceremony.

|A large, but not gigantic Cheep-Cheep leaps over the winner stands in the game's awards ceremony.

|Obtained exclusively in Time Trial and Versus modes. Drivers will have three Mushrooms instead of one. They cannot be replenished once they are all used until the Time Trial is over.

|Obtained rarely by lower-ranked drivers, they shrink every other driver not using a Star or a Boo. Shrunk drivers lose speed and the ability to use a Mushroom. Shrunk drivers run over by a normal driver will spin out. Shrunk drivers revert back to normal after a set amount of time or if they fall into a pit.

The game features 20 new courses, and brings back the original 20 courses of ''[[Super Mario Kart]]'' (though, due to the Grand Prix format, they are organized in five cups instead of four). However, most courses brought back have the hazards removed found in them such as the [[Monty Mole]]s in the Donut Plains, oil slicks in the Mario Circuits, and the Thwomps in Bowser Castles and Rainbow Road. The only hazards that have stayed are the breakable blocks in the Ghost Valley and Vanilla Lake, as well as water holes in Koopa Beach. The cups containing ''Super Mario Kart'' courses are unlocked for usage in Grand Prix Mode by finishing the respective engine class' [[Special Cup]] consisting of ''Mario Kart: Super Circuit'' tracks in first place, and then completing each cup again, while collecting at least 100 coins.

These races are new and they have three laps, similar to the second game (with Lakitu appearing on the right side of the player, holding the start signal and the lap count signs).

{|align=center width=75% cellspacing=0 border=1 cellpadding=0 style="border-collapse:collapse; font-family:Arial; text-align:center"

![[File:MKSC Mushroom Cup Emblem.png|85px|link=Mushroom Cup]]

|[[File:Peach Circuit MKSC icon.png|80px]]<br>[[GBA Peach Circuit|Peach Circuit]]

|[[File:Shy Guy Beach MKSC icon.png|80px]]<br>[[GBA Shy Guy Beach|Shy Guy Beach]]

|[[File:Riverside Park MKSC icon.png|80px]]<br>[[GBA Riverside Park|Riverside Park]]

|[[File:Bowser's Castle 1 MKSC icon.png|80px]]<br>[[GBA Bowser's Castle 1|Bowser Castle 1]]

![[File:MKSC-FlowerCup.png|85px|link=Flower Cup]]

|[[File:Mario Circuit MKSC icon.png|80px]]<br>[[GBA Mario Circuit|Mario Circuit]]

|[[File:Boo Lake MKSC icon.png|80px]]<br>[[GBA Boo Lake|Boo Lake]]

|[[File:Cheese Land MKSC icon.png|80px]]<br>[[GBA Cheese Land|Cheese Land]]

|[[File:Bowser's Castle 2 MKSC icon.png|80px]]<br>[[GBA Bowser's Castle 2|Bowser Castle 2]]

![[File:MKSC Lightning Cup Artwork.png|85px|link=Lightning Cup|Thunder Cup]]

|[[File:Luigi Circuit MKSC icon.png|80px]]<br>[[GBA Luigi Circuit|Luigi Circuit]]  

|[[File:Sky Garden MKSC icon.png|80px]]<br>[[GBA Sky Garden|Sky Garden]]  

|<br>[[File:Cheep-Cheep Island MKSC icon.png|80px]]<br>[[GBA Cheep-Cheep Island|Cheep-Cheep <br>Island]]

|[[File:Sunset Wilds MKSC icon.png|80px]]<br>[[GBA Sunset Wilds|Sunset Wilds]]

![[File:MKSC Star Cup Artwork.png|85px|link=Star Cup]]

|[[File:Snow Land MKSC icon.png|80px]]<br>[[GBA Snow Land|Snow Land]]

|[[File:Ribbon Land MKSC icon.png|80px]]<br>[[GBA Ribbon Road|Ribbon Road]]

|[[File:Yoshi Desert MKSC icon.png|80px]]<br>[[GBA Yoshi Desert|Yoshi Desert]]

|[[File:Bowser's Castle 3 MKSC icon.png|80px]]<br>[[GBA Bowser's Castle 3|Bowser Castle 3]]

These courses were [[Classic course|originally featured]] in ''[[Super Mario Kart]]'', and are reused in ''Mario Kart: Super Circuit''. The player races five laps on these tracks (similar to the first game) in Grand Prix mode (unlike the first game and similar to this game, however, Lakitu is on the right side of the player instead of the left side, holding the start signal and the lap count signs). These courses lack some of the obstacles from ''Super Mario Kart''. Coin locations are also changed so that each track has exactly 50 coins.

{|align=center width=75% cellspacing=0 border=1 cellpadding=3 style="border-collapse:collapse; font-family:Arial; text-align:center"

!Extra<br>Mushroom Cup

|[[File:MKSC Mario Circuit 1 Extra Cup Map.png|64px]]<br>[[SNES Mario Circuit 1|Mario Circuit 1]]

|[[File:MKSC SNES Donut Plains 1 Extra Cup Map.png|64px]]<br>[[SNES Donut Plains 1|Donut Plains 1]]

|[[File:MKSC Ghost Valley 1 Extra Cup Map.png|64px]]<br>[[SNES Ghost Valley 1|Ghost Valley 1]]

|[[File:MKSC SNES Bowser Castle 1 Extra Cup Map.png|64px]]<br>[[Bowser Castle 1]]

!Extra<br>Flower Cup

|[[File:MKSC Mario Circuit 2 Extra Cup Map.png|64px]]<br>[[SNES Mario Circuit 2|Mario Circuit 2]]

|[[File:MKSC Choco Island 1 Extra Cup Map.png|64px]]<br>[[SNES Choco Island 1|Choco Island 1]]

|[[File:MKSC Ghost Valley 2 Extra Cup Map.png|64px]]<br>[[SNES Ghost Valley 2|Ghost Valley 2]]

|[[File:MKSC SNES Donut Plains 2 Extra Cup Map.png|64px]]<br>[[SNES Donut Plains 2|Donut Plains 2]]

!Extra<br>Lightning Cup

|[[File:MKSC SNES Bowser Castle 2 Extra Cup Map.png|64px]]<br>[[Bowser Castle 2]]

|[[File:MKSC Mario Circuit 3 Extra Cup Map.png|64px]]<br>[[SNES Mario Circuit 3|Mario Circuit 3]]

|[[File:MKSC Koopa Beach 1 Extra Cup Map.png|64px]]<br>[[Koopa Beach 1]]

|[[File:MKSC Choco Island 2 Extra Cup Map.png|64px]]<br>[[SNES Choco Island 2|Choco Island 2]]

!Extra<br>Star Cup

|[[File:MKSC Vanilla Lake 1 Extra Cup Map.png|64px]]<br>[[SNES Vanilla Lake 1|Vanilla Lake 1]]

|[[File:MKSC SNES Bowser Castle 3 Extra Cup Map.png|64px]]<br>[[SNES Bowser Castle 3|Bowser Castle 3]]

|[[File:MKSC Mario Circuit 4 Extra Cup Map.png|64px]]<br>[[Mario Circuit 4]]

|[[File:MKSC SNES Donut Plains 3 Extra Cup Map.png|64px]]<br>[[SNES Donut Plains 3|Donut Plains 3]]

<gallery widths=80 heights=64>

MKSC Battle Course 1 icon.png|[[GBA Battle Course 1|Battle Course 1]]

MKSC Battle Course 2 icon.png|[[Battle Course 2 (Mario Kart: Super Circuit)|Battle Course 2]]

MKSC Battle Course 3 icon.png|[[GBA Battle Course 3|Battle Course 3]]

MKSC Battle Course 4 icon.png|[[Battle Course 4 (Mario Kart: Super Circuit)|Battle Course 4]]

{|class="wikitable review_template"cellpadding="4"style="width:100%; text-align:center; border:2px solid black; margin-bottom:5px"

''Mario Kart: Super Circuit'' was developed by [[Intelligent Systems]], the same company behind the ''[[Paper Mario (series)|Paper Mario]]'' series and the ''[[WarioWare (series)|WarioWare]]'' series. Takeshi Ando and Yukio Morimoto directed the game while the executive producer was [[Hiroshi Yamauchi]]. The Donkey Kong 3D model used in the pre-rendered sprites was provided by [[Rare Ltd.]].

*''[[Yoshi's Story]]'': [[GBA Shy Guy Beach|Shy Guy Beach]] is based on the level [[Shy Guy's Ship]] from this game. Some of Yoshi's voice clips are reused.

*''[[Paper Mario]]'': [[Bowser's Castle#Paper Mario|Bowser's Castle]] is in the background of [[Rainbow Road (Mario Kart: Super Circuit)|Rainbow Road]]. The [[Hammer Bro]] seen during the awards ceremony has the same appearance as in this game.

*''[[Mario Kart 8]]'' / ''[[Mario Kart 8 Deluxe]]'': [[GBA Mario Circuit|Mario Circuit]] returns as a retro course in this game and now features anti-gravity on the U-shaped section that has been inclined. [[GBA Cheese Land|Cheese Land]] and [[GBA Ribbon Road|Ribbon Road]] return in ''Mario Kart 8'' as retro courses in the second DLC pack, and come standard in ''Mario Kart 8 Deluxe''. Sky Garden, Snow Land, Boo Lake, and Riverside Park are also included among the courses in the [[Mario Kart 8 Deluxe – Booster Course Pass|Booster Course Pass]] for ''Mario Kart 8 Deluxe''.

*''[[Mario Kart Tour]]'': [[GBA Riverside Park|Riverside Park]], [[GBA Bowser's Castle 1|Bowser Castle 1]], [[GBA Boo Lake|Boo Lake]], [[GBA Bowser's Castle 2|Bowser Castle 2]], [[GBA Sky Garden|Sky Garden]], [[GBA Cheep-Cheep Island|Cheep-Cheep Island]], [[GBA Sunset Wilds|Sunset Wilds]], [[GBA Snow Land|Snow Land]], [[GBA Yoshi Desert|Yoshi Desert]], [[GBA Bowser's Castle 3|Bowser Castle 3]], and [[GBA Bowser's Castle 4|Bowser Castle 4]] appear as returning race courses. [[GBA Battle Course 1|Battle Course 1]] appears as a returning battle course.