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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic game, but it comes with a warning, January 5, 2002
Happy New Year everyone! I just received a Game Boy Advance as a Christmas present. I had some doubts about the Mario Kart series going hand-held, but, as a big fan of the series, I still decided to make this game the first of my new Game Boy Advance collection. What a surprise! This game is actually just as good as its predecessors! With vibrant graphics, crisp sound, lots of tracks (so far I've discovered 24), tight play control, and all the characters from the past two Mario Kart games, the GBA Mario Kart is sure to keep the series alive and well! The best all-new features in this game would have to be the never-before-seen tracks. They are remarkably imaginative and beautifully detailed (especially Sunset Wilds), and although they're not very long (the longest one takes about 2 minutes and 45 seconds to complete 3 laps), they're loaded with obstacles that range from the quicksand traps of the Yoshi Desert to the blind mice of Cheese Land. Also, the play control is not only precise and varied among the weight classes, but you can even feel it getting more difficult among the more difficult tracks. In Yoshi's Desert, for example, you can actually feel the quicksand trying to pull you in, so it gets even harder to maneuver around the already tight turns. But let's not forget about the things we already know and love about the Mario Kart series. Some tracks are a blast from the past, too! After all, no Mario Kart game would be complete without Rainbow Road! Plus all your favorite characters are back, too: Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Toad, Donkey Kong, Wario, and Bowser are once again racing for the finish line! And the items are back, too--you can once again drop banana peels, shoot your opponent with a shell (green, red, or blue), blast ahead of the pack with a mushroom or a Super Star, become invisible with a Boo, and zap your opponents with a lightning bolt! So run, don't walk--or better yet, drive--to the nearest video game store and pick up this game! I'll see you at the finish line! P.S. The "warning" that I mentioned is that this game owes a lot more to Super Mario Kart (for the SNES) than it does to Mario Kart 64. The tracks are very 2-D, just like an official race track. Therefore, fans of Mario Kart 64 might miss the hills and jumps of the Wario Stadium, or the mountains and valleys of Choco Mountain and Yoshi Valley.
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