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Super Mario Kart Game Review

Super Mario Kart is a 1992 kart racing video game developed and published by Nintendo for the SNES. It is the first entry in this series and the weakest one by far.

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When this game was released it was acclaimed by critics and still many do deem it to belong among the greatest video games of all time. I wholeheartedly disagree with that assessment. Even though I respect its influence and historical importance, I find its quality and overall look inferior and dated.

Yes, this was a game released in 1992 for the SNES, which means that it’s not 3D. It is one of those early racing games that emulate the feel of a 3D game without being 3D at all. The result is this very dated aesthetic that is very unpleasant and even ugly playing it today. The character designs, power-ups and track details looked good, but the overall look of the game is one that feels rough and unfinished.

The sound and score fared much better as the game does have a memorable and fun score. It also introduced this entire genre of kart racing to the gaming world for the first time, so it needs to be respected for that. Playing as Mario, Luigi and many other iconic characters from this franchise was a lot of fun and having them each have their own strengths and weaknesses made for varied, rich gameplay.

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Yes, the gameplay actually fared much better than the game’s graphics. I did not like that the enemies had power-ups from the beginning, but otherwise the power-ups were well utilized and the coin system worked – if you collect a coin, you are protected from one hit by another player. There are four cups consisting of five tracks, each consisting of five laps. Mushroom Cup and Flower Cup were pretty easy to beat while Star Cup and Special Cup were much more difficult.

Of the courses, Bowser Castle appealed to me the most as it perfectly utilized those last worlds from Mario platformers. Ghost Valley is pleasantly eerie and darker in look while Vanilla Lake was gorgeous in its icy landscapes and Choco Island was quite charming. Others were much less memorable.

Super Mario Kart is so dated that it took me a while to get used to it, but eventually I got accustomed to its controls, graphics and overall feel, though it continued to be too difficult with the A.I. being unreasonably smart and competent. It seems that they are always in advantage, which was frustrating playing the game as a single player.

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Using the power-ups was essential, but the game was too unforgiving when you got hit or fell in a lake as going back to where you were afterward was almost impossible. The tracks were well imagined and detailed, but also too short with the laps being fleeting. The game controls well and it features iconic kart racing mechanics, most still in use today, but those that were dated feel especially unintuitive now with the enemy power and poor drifting faring the worst.