Super Mario Kart

This is quite a bad Mario Kart [マリオカート] game. I did come in thinking that the original game that started it all probably hasn't aged the best, but I didn't expect it to be as aggravating to get through as it actually is. Now I will list some positives first. Kind of like F-Zero [エフゼロ], this game does use the Mode 7 feature pretty well and it has a very great soundtrack to boot. In terms of the soundtrack, I especially like that there are unique victory themes for each racer when they win. It also has several elements such as the super iconic item wheel that truly makes this game Mario Kart [マリオカート]. I can even praise it at a content level since it features a battle mode and the option to play multiplayer locally.

And that's where my positives end because there are so many problems with this game that I don't even know where the game is really at its worst. First, I'd like to mention the driving mechanics. I do not enjoy using the B button to accelerate and the A button to use items, it's not a great control scheme to work with. The game does have drifting but the drifting feels very unsatisfying to pull off and is sometimes even slower than just straight up turning on a corner. Considering I started off playing the later Mario Kart [マリオカート] games, mainly Mario Kart Wii [マリオカートWii] onwards, the drifting just feels off and I can never really get used to it even as I get closer to figuring out how it actually works. Using the items is definitely the most fun as far as the control scheme goes but not by much. A lot of the items do not feel balanced and often straight up do not work half the time. The lightning might as well be a "free win" button, the red shell sometimes targets directly through walls which obviously makes it miss, and it never feels practical to use the mushroom on anything other than a straightaway. So yeah the driving is not great but it is something that I think I can live with, it's not so unfun that it completely ruins the game. Ruining the game would be combining this with playing the main Grand Prix mode.

The Grand Prix mode is a miserable experience if you play anything other than the Mushroom Cup. There are two reasons for this: the track design and the CPUs. The track design is pretty hit-and-miss, mostly miss, across all 20 available racetracks. There are tracks I do dig playing on such as Mario Circuit 2, Choco Island 1, and Ghost Valley 1. But that is countered by tracks that are either filled with a ludicrous amount of hazards and slowdown opportunities that pretty much mean your race is killed (Ghost Valley 3, Donut Plains 3), or braindead and/or horribly designed courses to the point where you feel like you aren't even playing a proper Mario Kart [マリオカート] track (both Vanilla Lakes, Bowser Castle 2, Koopa Beach 1). And when I say "your race is killed", I mean "your race is killed". The CPUs are relentless, the game is terrible at giving you good items to catch up (you just have to pray for lightning every time), and Lakitu takes 5 business days to get you out of hazardous situations meaning that you are most likely 8th place by the time he's done. Let's talk about the CPUs in particular because they are another reason why the Grand Prix mode is not fun. So imagine you're playing this game and pick Koopa Troopa. You will want Luigi dead and buried by the time each cup is over because he not only can just turn invincible at will even without going over a ? panel, hop frame 1 over your shells or other items, but when you do manage to hit him he just brushes it off like it's nothing and boosts with 2 TIMES THE SPEED BACK TO THE POSITION THE GAME WANTS HIM IN IN SOME OF THE MOST LUDICROUS RUBBERBANDING I HAVE EVER SEEN. He's not the only one that can just use items either, Yoshi can throw eggs, Peach and Toad have a way to make you small with poison mushrooms, and I don't even want to get started on Bowser's fireball thing that is basically just "here's a banana but infinitely better :)". It's even more of a problem because the game FOR SOME REASON was like "I wanna be F-Zero [エフゼロ] lite" and doesn't allow you to progress if you get below 4th place, forcing you to retry until you run out of lives. It's not even that I hate the system, I just don't see a reason why it makes sense here especially if you're on something like Ghost Valley 3. And not just that but the Special Cup is locked behind 3 first place finishes in all 3 100cc cups, and 150cc is locked behind 4 first place finishes across all cups but considering it was a pain at 100cc I don't think I'm missing out on much.

Okay, I will say though. Despite clearly having a lot to complain about when it comes to the game, I can't really bring myself to really dislike it. I did still have a lot of fun at points even with all the stupid stuff the game throws at me and the game can become fun with its current mechanics if you play the Battle mode or the 1 v 1 mode with no CPUs anywhere, which I think may be the most optimal way to experience the game, even if you need to unlock everything first to get all the tracks. And I do admire this game as a first step in what turns out to be a great and constantly improving franchise. That being said though, it is a very rough first step and when you give me the option between this and F-Zero [エフゼロ] for an SNES racing game, I'd pick F-Zero [エフゼロ] in a heartbeat. It's mechanically better in spite of not having the content. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the worst Mario Kart [マリオカート] game.