Mario Kart is one of my favorite series of all time, even within the greater Mario franchise. I've played all eight of its games countless times and I know their tracks like the back of my hand, so I knew that this was a series I wanted to thoroughly review one day. So let's start at the beginning with Super Mario Kart. I remember when this game was praised to high heavens and held up as one of the reigning best games in the series, but nowadays, I think Super gets a lot more flack than it really deserves. Between the slippery controls and flat Mode 7 tracks, it's easy to pass this one off as archaic and hard to go back to. But if you really give Super Mario Kart a proper chance and really invest some time into getting better at it, it's a fun early racing game with a damn solid difficulty curve. Each track iterates on the last with increasingly complex and challenging layouts, and by the time you beat Rainbow Road, you will really feel like a pro.
Mushroom Cup
Mario Circuit 1
Mario Circuit 1 is obviously the beginner track, so it's short, simple, and very open. There's a lot of space to move around, and the only obstacles you'll need to deal with are a few pipes peppering the turns. The first turn is similarly incredible wide, and can be easily navigated without needing to use the drift at all, which gives the player a chance to get their bearings. The later turns are a bit tighter, but they're still fairly light. Of course, this simplicity does mean that Mario Circuit 1 isn't the most fun track to replay for advanced players, with the only really notable shortcut being skipping a turn near the end of the track. It's a solid tutorial and that's all it really needed to be.
2/5 Stars
Donut Plains 1
I like the Donut Plains tracks a lot, they have a really nice flow to them. Donut Plains 1 immediately amps up the complexity, but without feeling like some massive difficulty spike. You get your first split wall shortcut, along with both a snaking road near the start of the track along with your first few full 180-degree turns. Despite this, Donut Plains 1 remains fairly generous. Most of the earlier turns can once again be easily navigated without needing to drift, and the 180-degree turns offer a lot of space for you to figure out the controls. And most importantly, there are no obstacles this time, Donut Plains 1 is solely about pulling off turns well. Unlike Mario Circuit 1 though, I think this track still holds up really well for experts. As I said, the Donut Plains tracks have a really nice flow to them which makes them fun to replay, even if DP1 is still the least interesting of the bunch.
3/5 Stars
Ghost Valley 1
On the other hand, I'm a bit mixed on the Ghost Valley tracks due to their pretty sparse and dull aesthetic, but I think I've been a bit too harsh on Ghost Valley 1. This track introduces sharp 90-degree turns, but they're so wide that you don't really need to use the drift at all, which in turn makes this probably the easiest track for me. However, GV1 does have a few nuances that give it some points. Ramps are introduced as well and are iterated on really cleverly. First you have a mandatory jump in a safe area, then you have two ramps on the sides right behind item boxes. You can choose to either use the ramps, dodge them entirely, or hop over the ramps to get the items behind them. Then you get another mandatory ramp, but this time over a pit. And finally, the track ends with a shortcut over a pit but there's no ramp to get you there, so you'll either need a mushroom or feather to use it. Ghost Valley is also known for its unique walls which break away if you bump into them, which does add a bit of urgency but races don't tend to last long enough for them to be an especially serious threat. Overall, Ghost Valley 1 has a really boring layout, but the way it introduces the ramps almost makes up for it.
2/5 Stars
Bowser Castle 1
In a way, Bowser Castle 1 is basically Ghost Valley 1 but better. These tracks are similarly focused on sharp, angular turns, but Bowser Castle 1 is a much tighter track and there are now sharp 180-degree turns to deal with as well. You'll also now have to deal with multiple ramp jumps in quick succession over pits of lava. However, BC1 also has its own new gimmicks that it introduces quite well. This is the first track to have speed boosters, though they're once again introduced in a pretty safe area, and BC1 also has the first Thwomps in the game. Thwomps in Super Mario Kart are pretty cool because they only start moving on the second lap, giving you a chance to scout their location and learn the track before you start having to dodge them. And BC1 does not hesitate to start putting its Thwomps in some devious places, often right at the corner of the major turns. While the overall layout of BC1 is still fairly simple, it once again expands on the concepts introduced in previous tracks and can be a pretty chaotic time.
3/5 Stars
Mario Circuit 2
It might seem underwhelming that the final track of the first three cups is always a Mario Circuit, but trust me, on a mechanical level, these are some of the best tracks in the game. Mario Circuit 2 is the perfect final challenge for this tutorial cup, it has pretty much everything. It starts with a fairly snakey road, then you have two 90-degree turns, then the track sharpens, and then you have the tightest hairpin turn so far immediately followed by the largest jump in the game. The pipes are back from Mario Circuit 1, and the more harmful oil slicks are introduced as well. But easily my favorite thing about MC2 is its shortcut potential. There's already a bunch of places to cut through the sand with mushrooms, but nothing really tops that final shortcut. After the final jump, there's a hard-to-spot ramp hidden just out of bounds. If you can angle yourself and land on that ramp, you'll be able to bounce off it and skip the final turn entirely. This is the best shortcut in the game, it's challenging to pull off, punishing if you fail, but immensely satisfying if you succeed, and it doesn't require a mushroom. Mario Circuit 2 is a great track, a strong finale for the first cup in the game, and boasts a lot of replay value.
5/5 Stars
Flower Cup
Choco Island 1
Choco Island is far and away my least favorite biome in the game, mostly focusing its difficulty around messing with your controls. The ground is slippery, and there are often ramps litered everywhere that can send you off the track if you're not angled correctly (at least Super doesn't lock your movement like the DS version though). That being said, this is the better track of the two. Thankfully, Choco Island 1 is fairly open so navigating it doesn't get too frustrating yet. There's a bunch of coins and item boxes hidden right after ramps so you have to decide which ramps you want to use or if you just want to hop over all of them, and I like how that final stretch has chocolate puddle hugging the insides of each turn forcing you to choose if you want to risk slogging through them to make the turns faster or play it safe. Honestly, this track isn't half bad. Dare I say, it's actually pretty good?
3/5 Stars
Ghost Valley 2
Ghost Valley 2 is... strangely underwhelming? Like, it does iterate on Ghost Valley 1. The turns are a lot more frequent forcing you to be constantly zigzagging back and forth across the track there are more gaps for you to fall into, there's yet another gap shortcut that requires you to turn immediately after taking it, and if you pull off the final turn well enough, you'll get rewarded with a speed booster right before a ramp. However, this track is also really short, as in most laps last around 15-20 seconds. It always feels like GV2 ends just as it's getting good, and I don't think I got that feeling from any other Super Mario Kart track.
2/5 Stars
Donut Plains 2
Donut Plains 2 is another great Donut Plains track, and a solid jump in difficulty for Super Mario Kart. The first stretch of the track has you navigate a tight, snakey road next to a lake of water you can fall in, immediately followed once again by a bunch of increasingly tight 180-degree turns. Amping up the stakes even more, there are now Monty Moles to dodge as well, so the safety net of Donut Plains 1 has been pretty much completely removed. As per the usual, this track has a really satisfying flow to it once you get use to it, and you can pull off some impressive tracks and shortcuts as well with enough skill. I was able to use a mushroom to skim across the lake and cut through that entire first section, and it made me feel like a god.
4/5 Stars
Bowser Castle 2
Hoo boy, am I split on this one. Bowser Castle 2 is obviously most known for its infamous dead end, and yeah, that's pretty inexcusable. It doesn't matter if you can see it on the map, and it doesn't matter that you can use it as a feather shortcut, no other Mario Kart track has a dead end like this and it makes BC2 stick out like a sore thumb. Not to mention that immediately afterwards, you get an incredibly tight and constrictive maze area that always felt awkward to navigate. It's a shame because once again, this track has some good aspects. This is the first Super track to really introduce multiple pathways. The first stretch has a bunch of ramps over lava placed on both halves of the track subtly encouraging you to pick a path, only for the final stretch to wall them off completely. And for all the flack I give that maze section, I like how the harder paths come with perks like a speed booster and an item. But ultimately, I think it's the Thwomp placements that save this track for me. It's as if the developers know exactly where your average player is going to turn and placed each of the Thwomps at just the right spots to mess with them, and there's no gaps between them this time either.
2/5 Stars
Mario Circuit 3
Mario Circuit 3 is another infamous track, more for its frequent appearances in the later entries as a retro track. I don't think it's that bad though, especially Super where it's probably one of the most replayable for me. Mario Circuit 3 has an incredibly satisfying rhythm to it, each turn flows seamlessly after the next, and you'll rarely be spending much time in a straightaway. The highlight of MC3 is easily the three back-to-back 180-degree turns, one of which being arguably the tightest hairpin turn in the game. It's a tough but memorable challenge, and getting good at it feels very rewarding. There's also a shortcut and speed booster, but aside from two oil slicks, there aren't many hazards here. This is the only Mario Circuit to not have pipes to dodge and while I like that it allows you to focus on the turns, it does make MC3 feel somewhat empty compared to the tracks that directly precede and come after it.
4/5 Stars
Star Cup
Koopa Beach 1
Despite their simplicity, I like the Koopa Beach tracks. They're fun breathers in the middle of the game's harder cups, and Koopa Beach 1 in particular is a really unique track, focused around hopping across a bunch of islands. Turning isn't really a concern here, Koopa Beach 1 is basically a wide circle, and there's a lot of wide open space to drive around in allowing the player to chart their own path. And while the water slows you down a bit, you can circumvent that by hopping which allows you to take a ton of neat little cuts across the track without a mushroom. It's just a fun time through and through.
4/5 Stars
Choco Island 2
Choco Island 2 blows, this is hands down my least favorite track in Super Mario Kart. I already voiced my reasons for not liking this specific biome all that much, but CI2 amplifies these issues tenfold. Choco Island 1 was at least fairly wide and open, but Choco Island 2 immediately starts by asking you to wrangle its low traction on thin paths. The middle section forces you to slog through a huge chocolate river which slows you down and messes with your controls even more, and the track ends with a slew of haphazardly placed jumps immediately before one of the tracks' sharpest turns. Everything about Choco Island 2 feels like it's meticulously designed to annoy the heck out of you, and it's the only track in this game that I find outright miserable to play. But hey, at least it's not the Mario Kart DS version.
1/5 Stars
Vanilla Lake 1
Here's probably my biggest hot take, I like the Vanilla Lake tracks. Despite being known for being slippery, I find these courses a lot more palatable than the Choco Island ones as they tend to be more open, less sluggish, and offer more shortcut potential. Vanilla Lake 1 has a bunch of patches of snow to hop over, split paths, and cracked lakes to skip across. However, it does have some fundamental issues. Like Koopa Beach 1, it's pretty much a circle, but unlike in Koopa Beach 1 where cutting across the water is a legitimate challenge, hugging the inside of the track in Vanilla Lake 1 is hands down the easiest route. Most of the actually dangerous lakes are on the outside and are thus incredibly easy to avoid because of how open and generous the turns are. I'm also not a huge fan of having to break ice blocks in your way, but that's mostly an issue in the first lap or two.
3/5 Stars
Bowser Castle 3
SNES Bowser Castle 3 is often held up as one of the best Mode 7 Bowser Castles and yeah, it really is. This track does everything right, it's the perfect final challenge for this specific biome. It starts with a turn into a narrow path that you can get caught on, immediately setting the tone for how hard this track will be. There's a bunch of sections with multiple paths, with the ones closer to the inside of the track often being faster. There's Thwomps completely blocking a path pretty much forcing you to carefully squeeze through them, speed boosters and item boxes hidden right after ramps, and some very satisfying 90 and 180-degree turns. Bowser Castle 3 is the complete package, easily one of the best tracks in Super Mario Kart.
5/5 Stars
Mario Circuit 4
Mario Circuit 4 is basically Mario Circuit 3 but with a few minor tweaks and more pipes. The hairpin turn isn't as sharp as in MC3, but it tries to make up for that by having it immediately precede a thin strip of road. In theory, this should make Mario Circuit 4 the better track, but I'm not all that sure. It doesn't feel quite as good to navigate as Mario Circuit 3, and the more generous hairpin turn doesn't feel quite as satisfying to nail. And ultimately, the fact that the Star Cup's final track is just a modified version of the Flower Cup's final track is a bit of a let-down, especially off the heels of Bowser Castle 3. This is a solid and challenging track though, don't get me wrong, it's just not my favorite Mario Circuit.
3/5 Stars
Special Cup
Donut Plains 3
Donut Plains 3 is, in my opinion, the hardest track in the game. It's also my favorite. It tests you on pretty much everything you've learned throughout the game, from balancing on thin roads, dealing with water hazards, pulling off precise 180-degree turns, snakey paths, and a final stretch filled with Monty Moles to deal with. Most infamously, there's even a gap in the road that you need to hop over. Personally, I never found this particularly challenging like some other people have, the timing is quite generous, but I really like that the Special Cup demands early on that you know how to hop over gaps. Donut Plains 3 feels like a skill check to make sure you're good enough to see the rest of the Special Cup, and I love it for that.
5/5 Stars
Koopa Beach 2
Like its predecessor, Koopa Beach 2 is meant to be the breather track within the otherwise brutal Special Cup, and it does its job well. I like the concept of circling around an island (even if 64 does it better), and despite its fairly easy difficulty, there's already a lot of opportunities to utilize the jump. The midsection of the track has you go into the water and dodge a bunch of small deep sections that you can often jump over, and the end of the beach often has a lot of divots you can hop across as well. I'm not a huge fan of how the inner section of the island is entirely out of bounds though, it limits how much you can really snap this track in half like some of the other circular courses in this game.
3/5 Stars
Ghost Valley 3
Ghost Valley 3 is actually really good, far and away the best iteration of Ghost Valley. It further expands on what GV2 brought to the table, with more gaps in the walls, long stretches without any walls, pitfalls in the middle of the track for you to hop over, and of course, yet another feather shortcut. I also like that speed booster/ramp combo that can take over a bunch of pits that you'd otherwise have to avoid. Ghost Valley 3 manages to maintain the frenetic zigzagging of its predecessor, but it's also an actually decent length this time. It's a real shame this track never got remade yet, there's a lot of potential here.
4/5 Stars
Vanilla Lake 2
Vanilla Lake 2 is probably the most hated Super Mario Kart track, so of course, it just so happens to be one of my favorites. This track has you circling a giant lake formed by cracks in the ice, there's a lot of sharp divots and ice chunks floating around in the water. If you played the track normally, you'd probably have to deal with some sharp turns pushing you further out of the inner circle... but you don't have to. Vanilla Lake 2 is the kind of track that could only work in a Mode 7 game, focused entirely around using hops to skip over the water, bouncing across floating sheets of ice to save as much time as possible. It's tough and you're in much more danger of falling, but you can go far past the other CPUs if you're daring enough. And if you happen to get a mushroom or feather, the possibilities are absolutely limitless. My one big gripe with Vanilla Lake 2 is that one wall of ice blocks you need to break down to pass, they halt the pacing of the first lap pretty badly, but once again, everything is so strong that Vanilla Lake 2 manages to be a game highlight for me regardless.
4.5/5 Stars
Rainbow Road
Rainbow Road has always had this mystic around it, and for good reason. It's the only biome to have a single track, it's the only biome to not be based on Super Mario World, and it kinda just hits you out of nowhere. From an atmosphere perspective, Super's Rainbow Road is great... but from a track design perspective, I'm honestly not a fan? The big issue is the fact that the layout is really mediocre, being a rigid series of sharp 90-degree turns that are easy to pull off without even needing to drift. As a matter of fact, the only difficulty comes from the track not having any walls or off-roads, which only really serves to discourage you from drifting at all. Racing on Rainbow Road feels static, there's no shortcut potential or deviation from what's otherwise a pretty stale path. The one potentially cool shortcut is the ramp right on the split path near the end, but using a mushroom on it will send you flying off the track anyway. As a result, Rainbow Road doesn't really feel like a final challenge that tests you on the game's mechanics. Donut Plains 3 and Vanilla Lake 2 do a much better job at that if you ask me. That being said, I don't think this is a bad track. Once again, the Thwomp placements are great and I like how they actually spin you out this time, a legitimate stroke of genius. However, as a final track, SNES Rainbow Road feels underwhelming even by the standards of Super Mario Kart, primarily carried by its aura.
2/5 Stars
Final Rankings
Now that we have all the tracks reviewed, here's my final tier list:
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