Mario and his pals are making a full return to 2D glory when the Gameboy Advance launches later this year in the United States. With all new courses and four player support, Mario Kart: Super Circuit is on track to be the best kart racer ever made.
Of course it helps that the developer of Mario Kart: Super Circuit, Intelligent Systems, is combining the best elements of the Super NES racer with the Nintendo 64 racer to come up with pure kart racing heaven.
The game is both fast and smooth. The powerful hardware known as the Gameboy Advance allows Intelligent Systems (to be known as IS from here on out) to create some great looking backgrounds, nice environments, detailed 2D characters, and still leave enough power for a blazing smooth frame rate. The early version at Spaceworld was a little buggy, but the level that was available for play looked very nice.
In any case, Mario will return with seven other playable characters, all of which were featured in the Nintendo 64 version of Mario Kart: Luigi, Toad, Peach, Bowser, Wario, Yoshi, and Donkey Kong. As of now, these are the only characters that will be available… there's a possibility that there could be some hidden characters in the game, but if the N64 version is any indication, GBA players will probably be limited to eight.
Nintendo insists that the new Mario Kart: Super Circuit will feature levels with more than just banana peels to throw you off course: there will also be elements, rain and snow, to deal with. According to a press kit, Nintendo says, "you've got to drive carefully, but also lay it on the line!" Speaking of obstacles, there will be the usual weapons lying around for personal use. Items are found in boxes (just like the ones in the N64 version) and can be used to your advantage. All the characters will have bananas, shells (green, red, and spike,) lightning bolts, and possibly some other weapons… perhaps the fake boxes or some original weapons will show up in this new Mario Kart. It's not something that was obvious in the playable version at Spaceworld, but IGN Pocket points out that it wasn't possible to drop turtle shells behind your cart or throw banana peels ahead.
The controls work a little something like this: the A button accelerates and the B button brakes. R is your jump button and L is your weapon / power slide button. The controls work fairly easy, but because the GBA is kind of small, L can be really hard to get to for those who have larger-than-normal hands.
Nintendo confirmed that there would be a battle mode in Mario Kart GBA (similar to the one in the Nintendo 64 version) but that part of the game was not playable in the 50% complete version that was available to play at Spaceworld. There was a four-player racing mode (which is what was being played at the show) via the four-player link that will likely be available at the same time the GBA launches in Japan (and America.) Only one cartridge is needed to play with three other GBA players.
As mentioned very briefly above, Mario Kart GBA combines the best elements of the N64 and SNES games and crams them together in one cartridge. Mario Kart makes a full return into the world of 2D games, but combines all the great things about the Nintendo 64 version: multiplayer racing and a battle mode. This game is going to be hot when it is released. The release date is set, so start saving; Mario Kart: Super Circuit comes out shortly after system launch.
Mario Kart: Super Circuit 
