pretty much jump-started the racing genre as a whole. But is it still a classic game?

Has it aged well? Let's take a look.

Ah . . . Mario Kart -- the game that shone light on my dismal childhood. Let's play one-player

mode in the grand prix. And let's get down to gaming. Mario Kart lets you choose between

eight characters from the Nintendo universe. Each plays slightly differently but for now

let's start with our main man, Mario. Let's see, we have three tournaments to choose from.

Let's pick the Mushroom Cup because it's the easiest one.

Count us down, Lakitu! And now, let's burn some rubber! Mario Kart blasts off with a

really fun, exhilarating start. Just hold down "B" and steer and you'll be racing ahead

of your foes in no time. Jeeze, the thrill of this game just makes me want to spout out

stupid racing clichés like, "Eat my dust!"

Mario Kart really controls well, too. "B" is the gas, the control pad works the steering,

but also, it uses "L" and "R" as jump buttons. Yes, you can jump in a racing game. It's a

really subtle move. Apparently, if you hold down the button you can do a "power slide"

like in the new games but I never got the hang of it.

The jump is a feature that hasn't been in every Mario Kart since then. "Double Dash"

for instance didn't have that feature but it did have the "power slide". Now, a thing

that I really wish they had kept in more of the games is the coins.

In this original version of Mario Kart, there are coins scattered around every level. The

more of them you collect, the faster your character can go. This is a cool feature and

it adds an extra challenge to the levels. It's kind of a shame that they didn't include

this in some of the newer games.

Luckily, there's one thing that the series really stuck to hard-core. That's using the

items. Super Mario Kart came out with a lot of creative items and this kind of thing hadn't

been seen in racing games before at all. You've got the banana peel that slips up other racers,

the zigzagging green shell, the homing red shell, the star, and couple other items, all

of varying usefulness.

It has a kind of interesting item system. The worse off you're doing, like say last

place, the better the item you'll get. This is a cool system because it helps players

that are doing bad to have a chance of winning. But they didn't overdo it in this game. If

you're first place, you still have a good chance of keeping your lead.

Now for the newer Mario Karts, I can't exactly say the same thing. Blue Shell!

But of course, the original Mario Kart has its own fair share of frustrations. My main

gripe is that the computers can cheat. They have some moves you don't have. Like Peach

can throw poisonous toadstools and D.K. Junior's got those stupid banana peels. It's not laughing

matter to be tripped up by a freaking ape! It's humiliating!

Was it really necessary to give your enemies super powers? Isn't this game hard enough?

It can be pretty challenging when you first play it. Now, I wouldn't say it's as hard

as the newer Mario Kart games because it's very simple. But it's still a challenge to

unlock the last cup. And that's the one you want to unlock because it has all the cool

levels like Rainbow Road.

But that's not so say the other levels aren't a ton of fun, too. You've got fast paced racetracks,

spine-chilling ghost houses, Bowser's castle, a snowy place, and a beach. The tracks are

all very interesting and fun to play through. In fact, the design is so good that they repeat

these same levels in lots of the new Mario kart games. If you can still entertain kids

today with the same stuff you pumped out in the early '90's, then that shows you've got

a classic on your hands.

It was also really innovative for racing games in general. True, F-Zero came out first with

its cool 3-D graphics but it just didn't have the same spirit as Mario Kart. Mario Kart

brought in all items, battle mode, and all kinds of features that racing games had never

seen before.

For instance, it put a huge on characters for once. Choosing a character is a big part

of the strategy in this game. Each one of them controls subtly differently. You've got

Mario and Luigi who are well-rounded, Yoshi and Peach who are a little less stable but

have good acceleration, and you've got some pipsqueaks like Toad who have great acceleration,

and the heavy weights like Bowser who take a long to time to build up speed but can get

really fast.

This adds a lot to the replay value. You can just keep on playing and trying out new characters

and it's a blast. Super Mario Kart's gameplay has actually aged well. And the game overall

has aged well. Just look at the graphics. Pretty spiffy, eh? Well they're no 3-D masterpiece

but they sure look smooth and nice, even today. The colors are all vibrant, the scaling is

smooth, and you get a good sense of the speed. And the music rocks.

That music just puts me in a good mood. Another thing that I like about the game is the multiplayer.

In this era, there weren't a lot of racing games where you could actually challenge you're

friends. Like, look at F-Zero. That didn't even have a two-player mode but Mario Kart

-- awesome two-player mode.

Not only could you race each other and compete for the first-place cup, but you could also

fight each other with Battle Mode where you use items as weapons. This is a great mode

and I still love it to this day.

-Get rid of computer cheating.

-Add more level types, not just variations of pre-existing levels.

-And finally, put in more situations where the jump is useful.

These are really minor complaints, though. Mario Kart was a real turning point for racing

games and a truly brilliant classic. On my scale, Super Mario Kart scores a nine out

of ten.

So that's Mario Kart: a classic game and if you haven't played it, I really suggest it,

racing fan, Mario Kart fan, or not. It's just a blast to play and it's cool to see where

the roots of the racing genre really started. So, until next time, I salute you! This has

been SNES Man.