Super Mario Kart Review
It seems like the perfect idea, put the Mario characters in a kart racing game, but... how do you think of that? Especially in the format of Mario Kart. Mario Kart is a genius idea, so creative and appealing that the formula would be stolen by dozens of kart racers in the near future. Super Mario Kart goes down in history as one of the best spin-off ideas in video games.
Mario Kart's soundtrack is playful and bouncy, taking some of its tracks from other Mario games. The great thing is because it's a spin off, Mario Kart manages to weasel its way into not having a wholly original soundtrack, which is fine in my books, the tracks after all are reminiscent of previous Mario games. Mario Kart's soundtrack in a word, is enthusiastic. It's happy, fast and really, that's all you want in a Mario Kart game. Even the Ghost House and Koopa stages have a whimsical feel to them, as opposed to genuinely scary.
Mario Kart makes great use of mode seven and all of the SNES's horsepower, resulting in a game that feels, literally, much more dimensional than it is. Mario Kart has a saturated, cartoonish vibe with graphics that seem close-to impossible for the time. This was the SNES doing pseudo-3D in a time before it was possible and I commend it very much so for the attempt. Despite the game fighting against the restrictions of the machine, Mario Kart never feels like its struggling to scale the tracks.
Game-play is quite obviously, through deliberate mechanics and being the first game in a long-running series, the most divisive part of Super Mario Kart. Super Nintendo Mario Kart does not feel, in any way, like the later games in the series, or even the next console version of Mario Kart, it really is its own beast. Slides are incredibly slippery compared to later games, as well as just turning in general, if you go into Mario Kart expecting Mario Kart Wii or Mario Kart 8, you're gonna have a bad time (South Park). However... and I know I'll be crucified but I prefer this games controls. It feels deliberate despite what some might say, it is more difficult and it feels like there is significantly less rubber banding, despite the other racers being infinitely and truly, more difficult than the later games. It doesn't feel like a synthetic difficulty where the players at the back are just given everything possible to boost them back to the front, it feels like the other racers are genuinely pretty good at kart racing.
Super Mario Kart is an amazing game. The series races off to a flying start with the original, Mario Kart pushes what the Super Nintendo is capable of in almost every critical aspect whilst staying casual enough that anyone is able to enjoy this accessible masterpiece. One of the best Super Nintendo games of all time.