Well, long time no see. I haven’t posted in a while but I decided to write this. As you all know, Mario Kart Super Circuit is a game that means a lot to me. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t have some favourite tracks. In this article, I will be going through some of my favourite tracks. Note that these won’t be in any particular order what-so-ever.
1. Snow Land
I think this track is definitely a memorable one for me. The background, the scenery and the icy track are the elements that definitely make the whole thing into one beautiful track. Not to mention almost all of the coins that you can possibly collect on this track are all in a straight line, and this can prove to be a challenge as you have to drift and turn precisely just to collect them all in one go. I like how there are random snowmen around the area and the inclusion of ice patches and puddles on the tracks is a good touch. Another reason why I happen to like it is because of the music. If you play the track or listen to the music, you may find it to be quite catchy, you may not. It all just depends on the experience you have honestly. Either way to sum it up, this is a great track.
2. Bowser Castle 3
This track is one of my top favourites. Not only did I play this for Super Circuit, but I also played this on Mario Kart Wii. It definitely had an interesting layout and I enjoyed playing this track. The music was excellent and it was an amazing track to drive on. There are a bunch of platforms with ramps which allows you to bounce onto the next platform with ease so this gives your thumbs a bit of a break, doesn’t it. I like that Intelligent Systems made sure to include the Thwomps as a Bowser Castle track isn’t a Bowser Castle Track without the good old Thwomps. The coins are not the easiest to collect, but they’re not the hardest either. In all honesty, it just depends on your drifting angle. By the way, anyone happen to notice Kamek casually hovering around on a broomstick just before the starting line? Sadly, he isn’t there on the Wii Version.
3. Shy Guy Beach
Well this is definitely one I loved too, and also featured on Mario Kart Wii! TO begin, it’s noticeable that the track is sand and water surrounds it, but it’s has surprisingly good traction, so drifting, turning and what not is a simple task. You do tend to see palm trees with the coconuts and collecting coins on this course has to be one of the easiest things you can do. They even have a shortcut which leads you to an area of sand covered in coins. The music is great and definitely fits in well with the theme. Apart from all of that, the Shy Guy Ship in the background is definitely the highlight of the entire track and also worth mentioning the cannon balls that hit the ground. In the Wii version, they explode when they hit the ground, so it kind of sucks that they didn’t explode in this GameBoy version. Either way, this track is definitely one of my favourites to this date.
4. Rainbow Road
Where to start? Right, everything. Well, as the track itself is called Rainbow Road”, the track is coloured in a rainbow style just like the ones in Super Mario Kart and Mario Kart 64. This definitely isn’t the easiest track to drive on as there are lots of turns and speed panels. Not to mention I can’t even make that one jump from the speed bump to the long narrow road covered in speed panels. Not a whole lot of features to be honest though, even though there is a monument in the sky. I may have thought it could be Bowser’s Castle or his ship carrying Peach’s Castle, I don’t know. I’ll need a more accurate answer. I, personally am a huge fan of this track as it’s the memorable one of them all. Even though we haven’t seen Super Circuit’s version of Rainbow Road in a while, it is predicted that it will make a return in the next Mario Kart (Mario Kart 9). The music is super catchy and the outline of the track is covered in speed bumps. That’s about it, I guess.
5. Yoshi Desert
I’d have to say, this track is definitely one of the more unique tracks the game has to offer. The reason why I say it’s unique is because it seems to give off that impression, you know? There’s not really a whole lot to talk about this track, but the sand track seems to have a bit more resistance, in my opinion. You see a lot of pyramids around in the landscape and a “Yoshi Sphinx”?! There are multiple oasis’s around the track and that one thing I hate about this track is the quicksand area where the piranha plants engulf you for a few seconds and then spit you out. I just hate that moment, don’t you? Anyways, the music fits in well, the inclusion of cacti is great and thats about it I guess.
7. Sky Garden
I’ve definitely been waiting to cover this one. Sky Garden is one of my top favourites and there’s a lot to talk about. To begin, I really like the environment. It’s all in the sky, the track is more of a stone road, and it’s all held up by clouds and beanstalks surround it too. It seems to remind me of Jack and the Beanstalk, unsurprisingly. The music for this track is one of my favourite sounds from Super Circuit. There are coins scattered around the track and are fairly easy to collect. It even has a shortcut where you can launch off a ramp, collect an item cube and drift right. Another point to add is that you can see a Luigi Blimp in the air and this raises some eyebrows for me? Is Luigi Circuit right below this track? That seems to be my theory as they each have the same blimps. I always like to take Toad out on the run with this track and I just have fun every time I play this track. To end this paragraph, This is definitely a top “must-play” track if you ever play this game
8. Ribbon Road
I may have covered the entire Star Cup, haven’t I? This is an interesting one that’s on this list today. To start off, this track is called “Ribbon Road”, so you have an idea pretty much what to expect. The track is basically a long red ribbon and you see a load of giant presents, ribbons, pillars and clouds. One thing you’ll definitely notice are the speed panels planted at random parts of the track. These are definitely hard to catch even if you’re drifting. Not to mention that there are also coins scattered around and it’s equally hard to collect those. Even though this track reappeared in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, I was slightly disappointed as the music didn’t sound similar to the original, but I still liked the track as it looked amazing and had a sweet background. To end off on this one, this track has the potential of being one of the Top 10 Tracks in this game.
9. Peach Circuit.
This one is more of the “generic” one and one that I thought would be interesting to talk about. Looking at the actual map to the bottom-right, you can tell that it’s a track that’s simple and takes a small amount of time to complete (one lap, that is). The coins are pretty easy to collect and the music is one of the more regular sounds in this game. Of course you can see Peach’s Castle and some of the trees and all of that, sort of a similar look to one of the Mario Bros games for the SNES. I don’t think this track is really considered as a Top 10 Track and instead seen more as a track just to put in a couple of laps for if you want to play but don’t have a lot of time. Basically, it’s one of those tracks where you can just play at least one to two games at lunch or dinner and then keep it aside. I actually tend to go for a lap or two if I want to play Super Circuit but not a lot. At least this is a good track to play.
10. SNES Donut Plains 1
This track is definitely cool, so this is definitely going on this list. I like the background of this track. The trees, the sunset sky and the jungle backdrop make this track one of my favourites. Coins seem difficult to collect seeing as they’re located at turns and turning seems kind of hard despite the fact that these sections are wide. By the way, if you look at the outline of the map, it actually looks like a bear looking up. This track is suited more of the lightweight characters for better turning, so don’t go using heavyweight characters like Wario, Donkey Kong and Bowser. It basically looks a lot similar to Riverside Park and the music is wonderful. Sounds exactly like how the Donut Plains music should sound, even playing it on Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Either way, this is a good one, despite the fact this isn’t a track I wouldn’t really want to play this track actively.
All in all, this wraps up the article on some of my favourite tracks from Mario Kart Super Circuit. I may do a Part 2 or not, but let me know if I should. Thanks for reading this article and I will see you soon.