Line #7 VideoGame/MarioKartSuperCircuit


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6	[[caption-width-right:350:Your family road trip is advancing to a new level... and one red guy is leading the charge!]]
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8	''Mario Kart: Super Circuit'' is the third game in the ''VideoGame/MarioKart'' series, released for the Platform/GameBoyAdvance in 2001. In 2011, this game was given away as a part of the Platform/Nintendo3DS Ambassador Program. It would later see a wider release in 2014 on the Platform/WiiU Platform/VirtualConsole, and in 2023 as a part of Platform/NintendoSwitch Online.
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10	It brought the ''Mario Kart'' series to handhelds for the first time, combining gameplay elements from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioKart'' and ''VideoGame/MarioKart64''. It features 40 tracks in all, the most of any game in the series until ''VideoGame/MarioKart8'' pushed past that with [[DownloadableContent post-release additions]]. In addition to 20 all-new tracks, it also includes [[NostalgiaLevel all twenty from]] ''Super Mario Kart''. In addition to single-player and multiplayer racing and battling, it also allows players to download time trial ghosts through the Game Link cable.
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12	This is the only ''Mario Kart'' game that was developed by Creator/IntelligentSystems, who also made the ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' and ''VideoGame/PaperMario'' series.
13
14	[[foldercontrol]]
15	[[folder:Drivers]]
16	* Bowser
17	* Donkey Kong
18	* Luigi
19	* Mario
20	* Peach
21	* Toad
22	* Wario
23	* Yoshi
24	[[/folder]]
25
26	[[folder:Tracks]]
27	* Mushroom Cup
28	** [[GreenHillZone Peach Circuit]]
29	** [[GangplankGalleon Shy Guy Beach]]
30	** [[CaveBehindTheFalls Riverside Park]]
31	** [[LethalLavaLand Bowser Castle]] 1
32	* Flower Cup
33	** [[TheBigRace Mario Circuit]]
34	** [[BigBoosHaunt Boo Lake]]
35	** [[LevelAte Cheese Land]]
36	** Bowser Castle 2
37	* Lightning Cup
38	** [[BattleInTheRain Luigi Circuit]]
39	** [[LevelInTheClouds Sky Garden]]
40	** [[PalmtreePanic Cheep Cheep Island]]
41	** [[InjunCountry Sunset Wilds]]
42	* Star Cup
43	** [[SlippySlideyIceWorld Snow Land]]
44	** [[ToyTime Ribbon Road]]
45	** [[ShiftingSandLand Yoshi Desert]]
46	** Bowser Castle 3
47	* Special Cup
48	** [[ChekhovsVolcano Lakeside Park]]
49	** [[GhostShip Broken Pier]]
50	** Bowser Castle 4
51	** [[AstralFinale Rainbow Road]]
52	[[/folder]]
53
54	[[folder:Battle Tracks]]
55	* [[TheBigRace Battle Course 1]]
56	* [[LethalLavaLand Battle Course 2]]
57	* [[GreenHillZone Battle Course 3]]
58	* [[ShiftingSandLand Battle Course 4]]
59	[[/folder]]
60	----
61	!!The game features examples of these tropes:
62	* OneHundredPercentCompletion: While you get a new title screen by getting all the gold trophies, you get a second new one for achieving a three-star rank on each GP.
63	* AlwaysNight: Boo Lake, Broken Pier, and the SNES Ghost Valley tracks. Sunset Wilds takes place [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin at sunset]], with night falling on the third lap.
64	* AmazingTechnicolorBattlefield: As usual, Rainbow Road (both of them).
65	* TheArtifact:
66	** Donut Plains and Choco Island reuse the backgrounds from Riverside / Lakeside Park and Sunset Wilds, which means they’re not actually set in their original locations anymore.
67	** In ''Super Mario Kart'', Bowser Castle 2 had a dead end intended to create shortcuts using the feather item. The feather is not present in ''Super Circuit'', yet the dead end remains.
68	* AthleticArenaLevel: The game features circuit tracks hosted by Mario, Peach and Luigi respectively, with the latter one standing out for being raced on during rain (which affects the road's friction and leads to the presence of slippery moats). The game is also the first in the series to bring back old tracks, including the four Mario Circuits from ''Super Mario Kart''.
69	* BattleInTheRain: Luigi Circuit is the only track whose races take place during a rainy day. The road ends up being slippery as a result.
70	* BigBoosHaunt: Boo Lake and Broken Pier are located atop wooden boardwalks out in an empty lake on a dark night with ghostly Boos on the haunt. The Boos on Broken Pier will attack the players and attempt to steal coins.
71	* {{Bowdlerise}}: The international versions of the game remove the feathered headdresses on the Shy Guys in Sunset Wilds in order to avoid any [[TheSavageIndian negative stereotypes of indigenous peoples]]. When the course was brought back for ''VideoGame/MarioKartTour'' and ''VideoGame/MarioKart8 Deluxe's'' Booster Course Pass, it was ''further'' bowdlerized so that the tipis were changed to regular tents and the Shy Guys now sport mining gear, avoiding any implications altogether. As a result, what was once InjunCountry is now more of a WildWest course.
72	* BuildLikeAnEgyptian: Yoshi Desert, which not only features pyramids in the background, but also a sphynx statue modeled after Yoshi (hence the course's name).
73	* CheesyMoon: The Cheese Land racetrack is set on the Moon, made of CartoonCheese and inhabited by Mousers. Gravity is the same as everywhere else though. Averted when Cheese Land was brought back for ''VideoGame/MarioKart8'', as the setting had been {{Ret Con}}ned to resemble a desert with a clear blue sky above.
74	* ChekhovsVolcano: Lakeside Park, the first track of the Special Cup, features a volcano in the background that starts erupting in the second lap, dropping debris and flaming rocks on the track.
75	* ContinuityNod: You can see Bowser's Castle from ''VideoGame/PaperMario64'' on Rainbow Road.
76	* DeathMountain: The mountain-themed Choco Island tracks from ''Super Mario Kart'' make a return in ''Super Circuit''. However, them reusing the tileset of Sunset Wilds make them look more like desert-themed tracks.
77	* EarlyBirdCameo: In PAL territories, this game was released before ''VideoGame/PaperMario64'', so the aforementioned appearance of Bowser's Castle in the background of Rainbow Road counts as this.
78	* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
79	%% Please do not add ''Mario Kart 64'' to this example below as the game does not give you limited lives, you can retry as many times as needed.
80	** Like ''Super Mario Kart'', this game gives you limited lives when attempting a GP - you lose one each time you finish below 4th place, or if you restart a track at any time. Also like ''SMK'', the tracks are entirely flat.
81	** This is the first game to introduce a personalized rank aside the trophies. Like [[VideoGame/MarioKartDS later]] [[VideoGame/MarioKartWii games]], this is determined by your performance on the road and your ability to restrain yourself from using items, but unlike these, you gain more points if you use a heavy character.
82	** The Lightning Cup, introduced in this game, started life as a Nitro Cup between the Flower and Star Cups. In all the other games it appears in, it's the Retro counterpart to Nitro's Special Cup.
83	** The character attributes are a strange mix between ''VideoGame/SuperMarioKart'' and ''VideoGame/MarioKart64'': every character can reach the maximum top speed, meaning once again, lightweights are actually faster ''because'' they are '''better''' at accelerating, but also turn more precisely '''''and''''' endure off-road less than others. While heavyweights are more stable on slippy tracks like [[SlippySlideyIceWorld Snow Land]] or [[ShiftingSandLand Yoshi Desert]] and can use mini-turbos more easily to compensate their low handling, these are only situational powers. The developers seemed to be conscious of it, considering they give bigger bonuses for using heavy characters on Grand Prix.
84	** To play Time Trials on the Special Cup tracks and the Extra tracks, you must unlock them on 150CC. In other games, unlocking a cup in Grand Prix unlocks it in all other modes.
85	* EmbeddedPrecursor: The "Extra Tracks" are the tracks from ''Super Mario Kart'', though they are rearranged into five cups of four like the regular tracks, rather than four cups of five as they were in the original game. They still, however, last five laps instead of the three laps that the Super Circuit tracks last because the SNES tracks are much shorter than the GBA tracks.
86	* EventDrivenClock: Sunset Wilds will go from sunset to dusk come the second lap, and then dusk to nighttime for the third. The version of this stage seen in ''VideoGame/MarioKartTour'' only has two laps, but makes up for it by having the sun slowly set before the second lap. The one present in ''VideoGame/MarioKart8 Deluxe'' doesn't retain this feature, staying at sunset for the whole race.
87	* EvolvingTitleScreen: Upon getting a gold trophy on all five main cups in all three engine classes, the title screen will be updated to replace the daytime sky with an orange sunset sky. Earning a three-star rank on all the same cups will unlock a third title screen that not only changes the sky to nighttime, but also features a new rendition of the title music.
88	* FragileSpeedster: Every single character actually can reach the maximum top speed, but the lightweights can reach it faster thanks to their acceleration, which also makes them unstoppable on environments like [[PalmtreePanic Shy Guy Beach]] where you have to race on water. Unlike the previous installment, they also benefit a good traction, making them as good for starters ''and'' veterans because of the inward drift mechanic. The developers seemed to be conscious of it, considering it is harder to win the best rank on Grand Prix when controlling these characters.
89	* IncredibleShrinkingMan: This installment not only features the Lightning item, but also has Thunder Clouds on its Rainbow Road which shrinks down characters that drive underneath them.
90	* InjunCountry: Sunset Wilds is set on a Native American reservation, with totem poles and tipis found throughout the center of the track. When running into a tipi, a Shy Guy will latch onto a driver and rob them of their coins. In the [[{{Bowdlerise}} Japanese version]], the Shy Guys are also seen wearing [[BraidsBeadsAndBuckskins headdresses]].
91	* InsurmountableWaistHeightFence: Like ''Super Mario Kart'' on the SNES, ''Super Circuit'' had to display two-dimensional blocks to mark the impassible boundaries of the racetracks, even though seem perfectly capable of hopping over them. Starting with ''VideoGame/MarioKartDS'', whenever tracks from ''Super Circuit'' are brought back for [[NostalgiaLevel Retro Cups]], the barriers are made taller than the racers but are no longer impassible.
92	* JackOfAllStats: The game allows every character to reach the maximum top speed, making the difference on other criteria. Mario and Luigi don't have exceptional acceleration, off-road and handling, but they are still good enough in these areas to compete. They also don't have exceptional grip, making harder for them to reach turbos on turns and stay stable on slippy tracks compared to heavyweights, but they are not as handicapped as lightweights in these areas.
93	* JungleJapes: Riverside Park on Mushroom Cup and Lakeside Park in Special Cup. Both tracks take place in primeval rainforests surrounded by large bodies of water, and the latter also has volcanoes in the background that erupt and send Lava Bubbles onto the road once the drivers begin the second lap. Riverside Park reappears in ''Mario Kart Tour'' and the DLC of ''8 Deluxe'' as a NostalgiaLevel.
94	* LethalLavaLand:
95	** The Bowser's Castle tracks take place over massive pools of lava. Each one includes places where racers can fall off the track and into the lava, forcing Lakitu to come rescue them, and certain lava pits contain Lava Bubbles that jump out and try to hit racers jumping over them.
96	** Lakeside Park includes volcanoes in the background that shoot rocks onto the track, but the course doesn't go near any lava.
97	* LevelAte: Cheese Land resembles a typical sandy desert level, except the ground is made of [[CaptainObvious cheese]]. The background features fortresses made of holey cheese, and Little Mousers can be found walking around and getting in the way of the racers.
98	* LevelInTheClouds: Sky Garden. It's part of the Lightning Cup, and is a racetrack made of a cobble road suspended in the sky, bridges made of vine wires, and clouds that outline it. Large beanstalks can be seen in the background. It returns later in ''VideoGame/MarioKartDS'', ''VideoGame/MarioKartTour'' and ''VideoGame/MarioKart8 Deluxe'' as a NostalgiaLevel.
99	* MarathonLevel: Bowser Castle 4 has a long, complex layout where drivers have to take many sharp turns and jump various successive gaps; and it still has to be traversed in three laps. When the track returned in ''VideoGame/MarioKartTour'', the race was reduced to a single lap divided in two segments.
100	* MarketBasedTitle: Notably, it's the only ''Mario Kart'' game to have different titles in different regions, being known as ''[[SuperTitle64Advance Mario Kart Advance]]'' in Japan and ''Super Circuit'' everywhere else.
101	* MusicalNod: The intro to Rainbow Road is taken from a part of the one in [[VideoGame/SuperMarioKart the original]].
102	* MythologyGag: On Rainbow Road, you can see Bowser's Castle from ''VideoGame/PaperMario64''. It makes sense because Intelligent Systems [[CompanyCrossReferences developed both games]].
103	* NonIndicativeName: In spite of the name, Boo Lake has no water in it, instead being a dimly-lit boardwalk above a bottomless pit, much like the Ghost Valleys from ''Super Mario Kart''. ''VideoGame/MarioKartTour'' and ''[[VideoGame/MarioKart8 8 Deluxe]]'' would later [[SubvertedTrope rectify this]] by placing the track in a giant pool of water, as well as including an underwater driving section.
104	* NostalgiaLevel: The entire library of ''Super Mario Kart'' is available as extra cups. This is the only ''Mario Kart'' to feature all of the tracks from a previous game.
105	* OddballInTheSeries: Doesn't carry on some series traditions, likely due to having been developed by Creator/IntelligentSystems:
106	** It was the first game post-''VideoGame/MarioKart64'' to bring back some ''VideoGame/SuperMarioKart'' gameplay elements, such as flat, 2D environments and having (visible) lives in Grand Prix mode. For a long time, it was the only game other than ''Super Mario Kart'' to include coins, before ''VideoGame/MarioKart7'' brought them back to the series for good.
107	** It's the only game not to include a [[RecurringRiff remix]] of the [[BootstrappedTheme theme]] from ''Super Mario Kart'' in its title screen music, although the theme is indeed in the game as the music used for single-pak multiplayer. Though subjective, the music in ''Super Circuit'' as a whole has something of a different feeling than the rest of the series.[[note]]None of this game's team, consisting of Kenichi Nishimaki, Masanobu Matsunaga and Minako Hamano, has returned for a future installment. The rest of the ''Mario Kart'' games post-''64'' have had at least one on-again, off-again recurring composer, usually Kenta Nagata, Shinobu Tanaka or Ryo Nagamatsu, lending the rest of the series a consistent musical tone.[[/note]]
108	** This game has five separate cups of new tracks unlike than the others, which only have four[[note]]Not counting retro cups and DLC[[/note]].
109	** It's the only game to include [[EmbeddedPrecursor every single track]] from a previous game. While retro courses would become a staple of the series starting in ''VideoGame/MarioKartDS'', only ''Super Circuit'' does them to this extent.
110	** It was the last game to use the N64-era voices[[note]]Specifically, the ones used in the Japanese version of ''Mario Kart 64'' and all region versions of ''VideoGame/MarioParty'' and ''Mario Party 2''[[/note]] for Luigi, Wario, Peach, and Toad. For Americans, this game was the ''only'' time they got to hear Thomas Spindler's Wario or Julien Bardakoff's high-pitched Luigi in a ''Mario Kart'' game, because these voices were replaced with the more familiar Creator/CharlesMartinet performances for their debut in ''Mario Kart 64''. It was also the last ''Mario Kart'' game to use StockSoundEffects for DK and Bowser.
111	** Rather than having treacherous curves with no railings like most Rainbow Roads, the Rainbow Road in this game makes the unusual decision of lining its track with jump pads, which can used in conjunction with a boost for some rather creative and game breaking shortcuts.
112	** It's one of the only non-RPG ''Mario'' games ''period'' to [[ContinuityNod acknowledge]] [[SpinOff the RPGs]] by having Bowser's Castle from ''VideoGame/PaperMario64'' appear in the background of Rainbow Road. ''Super Circuit'' also includes Goonies (on Cheep Cheep Island) and Little Mousers (in Cheese Land) from ''VideoGame/YoshisIsland''.
113	* PalmtreePanic: Shy Guy Beach, Cheep Cheep Island, and the SNES Koopa Beach tracks all take place across a series of tropical islands. The layout of Cheep Cheep Island stands out for being surprisingly disorienting, due to the flat surface making it harder to foresee the standard sand (the course's safe terrain), the grass (which slows down the drivers' speed), and the water (which has to be avoided altogether).
114	* ProlongedVideoGameSequel: ''Super Circuit'' sports a much bigger amount of content than its two predecessors, featuring both 20 unique courses and the original 20 from ''Super Mario Kart'', for a total of 40. It was also the longest ''Mario Kart'' game overall until ''Mario Kart DS'' and onward standardized the portrayal of new and retro courses (even then, ''Super Circuit'' still held the record of having the most tracks until ''8'' finally surpassed it thanks to its DLC).
115	* QuicksandSucks: Yoshi Desert contains pools of spiraling quicksand that should be avoided at all costs. Funnily enough, the unlucky drivers fall onto it don't end up ''completely'' sinking, as they're instead eaten by a large Piranha Plant lurking beneath.
116	* RankInflation: The first game in the series to use this. Upon clearing a Grand Prix, players will receive a rank based on their overall performance across all four races. Ranks go from E through A, then up to three stars. Factors that contribute to the final rank include the number of Coins collected, the player's placement in each race, the time it takes to finish, and the character chosen, with heavier characters contributing more to a higher rank.
117	* ShiftingSandLand: Yoshi Desert is a standard desert course with pyramids, quicksand, and a Yoshi sphinx. Sunset Wilds is a more unique approach, as it takes place in a Wild West-inspired desert where the time of day transitions from sunset to early nighttime.[[note]]The Choco Island tracks from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioKart'' have also retroactively become desert courses for some reason, as they share a tileset and background with Sunset Wilds.[[/note]] Lastly, the fourth Cattle Course takes place in the same desert area as Yoshi Desert.
118	* ShoutOut: Lakeside Park gets its name from the song of the same name by Music/{{Rush\|Band}} off of their 1975 album, ''Music/CaressOfSteel''.
119	* SlippySlideyIceWorld: Snow Land and the SNES Vanilla Lakes in Extra Cups. There are moats of cold water in the new track, as well as snowmen in the ledges, but they're not too difficult to evade.
120	* TheSmurfettePrinciple: Yet again, Peach is the only female racer in this game. This would also be the last game in the series in which she is the only female playable character.
121	* SuperTitle64Advance: In Japan, the game is called "Mario Kart Advance".
122	* UnlockableContent: The Extra Cups, which require completing their standard Cup equivalents beforehand and getting at least 100 coins in the process for each case.
123	* {{Wackyland}}: Ribbon Road, a long, winding road made of ribbon with wrapped-up presents and ribbons galore in the background!
124	* TheWildWest: Sunset Wilds, which features Shy Guys as Native Americans living in tipis.

Context VideoGame / MarioKartSuperCircuit