First Miracle: Mario Kart: Super Circuit has made kart racing fun again. Who would’ve thought that after Bugs, Buzz, Diddy Kong, and Darth Maul, Mario, the one who started it all, would be the one to make kart racing exciting again? It seems like every conceivable franchise short of fast food chains has copied the kart formula without capturing the magic. If I had a nickel for every time I said, "Oh no, not another kart racer," I’d have quite a handful of nickels. I honestly didn’t think that anything new could be done with the genre. What I didn’t realize was that nothing new really had to be done. Mario Kart worked great. As they say, "If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it."

There have been a few changes made to the game, but they’re largely superficial. You’ve got the same characters, power-ups, and pretty much the same tracks, and it all works great. Yes, this is essentially a souped up version of the SNES game, but what a difference a few details can make. Besides the touched up graphics, Mario Kart reintroduces coin collection to your racing requirements, which had been featured in the SNES version, but was not in Mario Kart 64. In order to reach your top speed you have to collect as many coins as possible. It’s a nice little strategic addition that really pays off in gameplay. Your ranking is also affected by the number of coins that are collected through each circuit.

Second miracle: Mario Kart is the best looking game on the Game Boy Advance and better looking than a lot of games that have shown up on the original Sony Playstation. I simply cannot get over how good this game looks. The drivers are all beautifully rendered, the tracks all look gorgeous, and some of them have some great background animations that really add to the overall feel of the game. The game is bright, lively, and moves like a Lamborghini (not that I’ve ever driven one).

I have to admit that I was a little skeptical of how good the graphics really were. I’ve learned that you can get away with a lot when you’re dealing with a really small screen. But when I was at Wal-mart the other night, they were broadcasting vid-captures on their televisions throughout the store. I was struck by how much better the game looked when blown up on a 27" screen. Graphically, this game is about as flawless as they come.

The third miracle is the biggest on in my book; although it may have little relevance to you. Mario Kart Super Circuit got my wife interested in video games again. She hasn’t enjoyed playing video games this much since, well, uh, Mario Kart 64. For the last five years, I’ve been trying desperately to find a game that she would enjoy to no avail. Now, I just have to convince her to spring for a second Game Boy Advance so we can go head to head. She’s very close to caving in. I can just feel it.

Did I mention that the game also supports four players racing off of a single cartridge? With the single cartridge multi-boot, there are only a limited number of tracks, and one character available, but if each player has his own copy of the game (and anyone with a GBA should have their own copy) all levels and characters are available. There’s also a battle mode that only works for multi-player games. The only fault that I can find with the game is the fact that it doesn’t support a single player battle mode. I really would have liked the option of taking on the computer in a Kart to Kart confrontation.