Supa Mario Kato

In the early nineties, it was just not cool not to have this gaming console. Looking back with a, X-Box or Playstation 3 in hand, most consumers might snicker at how primitive that technology was. The joke's on them, for their contempt is cruelly misguided.

Today it appears that most games aim for amazing graphics (that being a relative and short-lived term these days) and seem to think of game-play and durability as a last resort. Yet in 1992, there came a game that rocked the video-gaming world for all the right reasons.

Reprising all the key characters of the Mario Bros platform saga, Mario Kart equipped them with karts, variable strengths and weaknesses, and threw an array of racing tracks and cups at them. The key element here lies not only in the superbly inventive tracks (standard Mario Circuits, slippery Vanilla Lake, eerie Ghost World and ludicrous Rainbow Road) nor the likable characters, but in the ability to blast one another to bits in a variety of ways.

Beyond the 20 racing tracks (arranged in 4 cups, each playable in 3 widely different levels of difficulty) playable as championships, time trials or duels, it also boasts a delirious battle mode, where each player has his kart fitted with 3 balloons his enemy must pop in order to win. What makes the game so enduring is that a relative amount of precision is required for attacks to succeed (the polar opposite of the "upgraded" Mario Kart for Nintendo 64), so there are always new strategies and cray stunts to discover.

A testament to this game's greatness is that you could play it for days on end, where you would have run out of patience ages ago with any given Wii game. Unsurprisingly, the Nintendo 64 version proved to be massive visual overkill, unable to surpass, let alone equal the original.

A pure classic!

Despite having bailed out just before the Gamecube for reasons of supposed maturity but also video game apathy, I had started gaming with the original orange hand-held Donkey Kong, progressed onto the NES, then the SNES, then onto the N64. The SNES was the console that featured this game and it is the one SNES game that I keep coming back to when I get a chance. The N64 version was not much cop and only continues to confirm how much I love this original.

The game is split into two parts - the various types of races and time trials and the two-player battle mode. The races are visually simplistic by today's standards of course but they were and remain both challenging and fun. The game is nicely weighted throughout with the courses and cups building the difficulty level while the jumps between cc class require you to be able to get and maintain speed. The items are useful but, importantly, avoidable – even the dreaded red shell can be evaded with a bit of skill and a healthy dose of good fortune. The courses are a real good mix and use the standards of the Mario games really well. They are also mostly skill based and mean that, if you are very good in some of them you can open up a real healthy lead, although in others the amount of obstacles mean that it does get frustrating the odd time. The way the characters all follow the same order all the time is a bit of a bother but I suppose it does allow for competition to be maintained – although it is fun to try and "take out" the computer chosen leader and make him finish the cup outside of the points. The tracks are mostly shaped like race tracks and not someone's intestine, which also makes the time trials that much more fun (again, they are skill based).

The battles play out in relatively simple grids with a simple radar system. It is effective and very fun and again requires skill rather than blind storming around; I loved it because it was manic but also allowed for strategy. The characters are fun and the only problem is that everyone I ever played against wanted Koopa – just like me. Toad was a close second but, although the others had their strengths, they also came with their weaknesses whereas Toad and Koopa gave up the strengths in exchange for no one main weakness.

Overall an enjoyable racing game that lends fun and skill really well. I would call it a retro-gaming classic but is it retro if it continues to stand the test of time in terms of pure fun?

This game was pretty good. Graphics are good for the type of system it's on (Super Nintendo). Many characters are familiar (Mario, Luigi, the Princess, Toad, Bowser, Donkey Kong Jr, Yoshi and Koopa Troopa). My major complaint with this game is how the order never varies and the same character is always second no matter what. That's why I mainly play the Battle mode part, which is the best.

I love this game, I still play it now, I can't believe it's 11 years old. It has to be the best multiplayer game ever, rivaled possibly by goldeneye. I would hate to total up the hours i've spent playing this game. Maybe I'm looking at it through rose tint glasses but this has to be one of the best games EVER!!!!

Another classic for the SNES, and one that has stood the test of time in the fun factor. 8 racers (my favorites are Mario and Yoshi) and plenty of different courses with varying challenges, what's not to like? I've spent many countless hours playing this with friends and it stuck with me over the years. Even today I still break it out and play it, it's just that good, even members of the family can join in! Yes we've all moved on, but who cares? This game is still a blast to play even today!