Genre: Racing
Year: 1992
Developed by: Nintendo EAD
Published by: Nintendo
Platforms: SNES
#96
Feeling Like: Re-inventing the wheel
“Uncle Henry! These graphics are SO BAD.”
I was outraged. About a month ago, we were tasked with babysitting our nephew and niece, aged 13 and 9 for the entire day. We had a blast; a great hike followed by a swim at the pool. Naturally, cool ol’ Uncle Henry suggested we play some video games in the evening. I broke out the SNES Classic. I was going to show these kids what I grew up on! Super Mario Kart seemed like an obvious winner to me, but boy was I wrong. It went over like a fart in church.
The complaints began immediately. How the game was unplayable. How it was SO bad. How there is no way I could have ever liked it, or if it was ever good in the first place. Even Kyla said the visuals made her eyes hurt. We moved onto Smash Bros. Ultimate after a mere 2 races. Emily couldn’t get out of a corner and Tristan placed 8th and then 7th before quietly admitting that this was a “terrible game.”
The gall! The disrespect shown! The total failure on their part to recognize one of gaming’s classics!
Didn’t they know this was a mainstay on the rental circuit? How I used a mushroom to launch past Sean Mc right at the finish line? Didn’t they know John P and I played every single cup three times in a row with different characters? Didn’t they understand that Steve E and I beat the entire game while in small mode? How can you not listen to the Rainbow Road theme and not get it?
These are absolutely the lamentations of an old man who is perennially stuck in a “back in my day!” attitude when it comes to Super Mario Kart. Fine, it’s probably one of the worst in the series. No, you can’t go upside down, or experience a consistent framerate, or expect extremely responsive controls.
What you can expect is a delightful, light hearted game that, until you get the controls down, is tough as nails and as unforgiving as any Mario title you’ll play. At least there aren’t any blue shells (yet).
So, chalk this one up to nostalgia. I will begrudgingly admit it’s not quite as fun to play as Mario Kart 8, but I will still claim its merits. It essentially started a genre – seemingly every video game mascot after this seemed to be involved in a kart racer of some sorts. The maps are colorful and a blast to play, particularly the Bowser Castle stages. Aren’t they always the best part of a Mario Kart?
Once you get used to the controls, the jump slide turn is a must. It’s so satisfying to see you fling your go-kart in one direction and have the camera go crazy trying to keep up with you. There’s a ton of potential for it to go horribly wrong. Missing your target and ramming into a corner will almost certainly result in a few lost placements, and backing up isn’t exactly a quick ordeal. But racing favors the bold!
It’s surprising how many innovations in Super Mario Kart are still in-place eight games later. Coins disappeared for a while, but they’ve since returned in Mario Kart 8. Collecting them gives you a small speed boost, so they’re worth going for. Red shells are homing, green aren’t but can still do damage if your aim is true. Banana peels to drop, mushrooms to zoom, stars to be a wrecking ball on the track. The lethal Lightning Bolt to render all your opponents tiny, hopefully in range to get run over. The item blocks or “picks” as we used to call them…(why did we call them picks?) are filled with random-ish items. The worse you’re doing the better the item. Some may cry foul at the rubber banding in this manner, but I think it’s totally fair. This is not a 100% skill based, simulation racer. It’s Mario and friends with wacky items, you don’t want a player in last place to be hopelessly miserable.
Shortcuts were rare, but always worth it. Using the feather to leap across the chasm on one of the ghost tracks was a must-try. Using a mushroom in tandem with a boost could lead to some zany angles. The courses themselves are the real star of the show, and I can’t think of a single Mario Kart game that doesn’t have at least a handful of sublimely fun playgrounds to race on. That all started here!
It had battle mode, it had a a great cast of characters, it had memorable tracks and it had multiplayer. What else could you ask for in 1992? The soundtrack isn’t going to go down as a classic, but the themes are cheerful enough to not be irritating after hearing them a dozen times.
It may not be the best Mario Kart, but it was the first and one of my comfort choices for renting. I don’t care what Tristan, Emily or Kyla say, I will continue to love this game for what it was and what it led to.
Bad graphics, get out of here! The game is 31 years old, you leave Super Mario Kart alone!
The 500 