Mario Kart: Super Circuit, the 40 tracks of the Game Boy Advance

GameMario Kart: Super CircuitGame Boy Advance

Forty tracks on a single Game Boy Advance cartridge. Released in 2001, the third entry in the saga gives up 3D-modelled tracks to return to sprites, and makes up for it by pairing its twenty brand-new layouts with the twenty tracks of Super Mario Kart. This article details its technical gamble, its five cups, its eight pilots and the invention of the retro cup.

Mario Kart: Super Circuit is the third entry in Nintendo's racing series, and the first to fit in a pocket. It follows Super Mario Kart (SNES, 1992) and Mario Kart 64 (N64, 1996).

Its distinctive trait is a move against the current: where the saga strings together technological leaps, this entry deliberately steps backwards in order to fit on a handheld. From that constraint came the most enduring idea in the whole series : the retro cup.

Contents

• A pocket Mario Kart in 2001
• The sprite gamble after 3D
• Forty tracks on one cartridge
• Pilots, items and game modes
• The legacy of the retro cup
• Recap table
• FAQ

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A pocket Mario Kart in 2001

Known in Japan as マリオカート アドバンス (Mario Kart Advance), in line with the “Advance” naming of GBA releases, the game came out on July 21, 2001 in Japan, on August 27 in North America and September 14 in Europe.

Its spec sheet hides a production oddity: Nintendo did not hand the project to its in-house team, but to Intelligent Systems. It is the only main entry in the saga developed by this studio, a Nintendo subsidiary better known for Fire Emblem and for the Paper Mario series.

Hideki Konno, co-director of Super Mario Kart in 1992 alongside Tadashi Sugiyama and then sole director of Mario Kart 64, here holds the post of producer, as he would go on to do throughout the saga.

The commercial result followed: around 5.47 million copies sold worldwide, which places the title among the biggest successes in the Game Boy Advance catalogue, and among the best-rated games on the console at its release.

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The sprite gamble after 3D

It is worth remembering where the series came from. The very first entry made do with a flat plane seen in Mode 7, the Super Nintendo technology that had launched the formula: eight characters, items and a split-screen Battle mode.

Mario Kart 64 then switched its tracks over to genuine modelled 3D, with terrain, elevation changes and bridges, while keeping pilots as pre-rendered 2D sprites that pivoted with the viewing angle.

The Game Boy Advance could not keep up. Super Circuit therefore returns to a rendering built on sprites and backgrounds set in perspective: it is the last Mario Kart not to use 3D-modelled tracks, the series going back to them for good from Double Dash!! in 2003.

The trade-off is accepted, and it is the criticism most often levelled at the entry: the layouts are almost entirely flat, with no real elevation. Jumps, ramps and strongly themed scenery make up for it, giving each track an identity that reads clearly on a small screen.

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Forty tracks on one cartridge

The content is the clinching argument: twenty brand-new tracks spread across five cups — Mushroom, Flower, Lightning, Star and Special — at four races per cup.

• This is the first time the series moves from four cups to five : Super Mario Kart fielded four cups of five races, Mario Kart 64 sixteen tracks in four cups.
• The twenty tracks of Super Mario Kart are playable on top of the twenty new ones, in five extra cups of four races, making forty layouts in total.
• These bonus cups are unlocked coin by coin: you have to collect 100 coins across a cup's four races to open the matching retro cup.
• The game fields four Bowser Castles numbered 1 to 4 : no other Mario Kart has as many in a single entry.

As the tradition begun on Super Nintendo dictates, Rainbow Road closes the Special Cup and is therefore the ultimate test in the game.

Sunset Wilds remains the entry's signature layout : the sun sets there as the laps go by, the track darkens and the Shy Guys' tents fold away as the pack passes. Shy Guy Beach rains down cannonballs from a pirate ship, and Boo Lake is raced on wooden walkways above haunted water.

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Pilots, items and game modes

The cast is the one from the Nintendo 64 entry: eight playable pilots, Mario, Luigi, Peach, Yoshi, Toad, Donkey Kong, Wario and Bowser, in three weight classes — light, medium and heavy.

• The Grand Prix is raced in 50cc, 100cc and 150cc, rounded out by a Time Trial mode with ghost recording.
• The hop drift and the mini-turbo inherited from Mario Kart 64 are kept: they form the heart of the driving.
• The coins of the first entry make their return: they raise top speed and act as a shield, and losing them leaves the pilot exposed.
• Multiplayer supports up to four pilots over Link Cable, with a single-cartridge option offering reduced content, and a Balloon Battle mode with its own arenas.

The arsenal takes up the classics: green and red shells, single and triple, bananas, the Star, the item-stealing Boo, the Golden Mushroom and Lightning Bolt, the latter present in every main entry since 1992.

Two items deserve a mention. The blue spiked shell, born on Nintendo 64, is here making its second appearance : it rolls along the ground or can be dropped like an ordinary shell. The Thunder Cloud, for its part, is still only a plain scenery obstacle, before becoming a fully fledged item on Wii in 2008.

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The legacy of the retro cup

The entry is remembered not for its graphics but for one idea. Super Circuit introduces the first retro cup, holding as a bonus every track from the original game: a tradition that has lasted, in an integrated form since Mario Kart DS.

Its layouts have come back as retro tracks across almost the whole series: Peach Circuit, Bowser Castle 2, Luigi Circuit and Sky Garden on DS, Shy Guy Beach and Bowser Castle 3 on Wii, Bowser Castle 1 and Mario Circuit on 3DS, and then Ribbon Road and Cheese Land as downloadable content for Mario Kart 8, carried over into Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Its layouts have been reused from the DS to the Switch.

As the first portable Mario Kart, it opened the way to Mario Kart DS in 2005 and then Mario Kart 7 on 3DS in 2011. It remains easy to play: given to Nintendo 3DS Ambassadors in late 2011, re-released on the Wii U Virtual Console, and then added to the Game Boy Advance catalogue of Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack in February 2023.

Its 5.47 million copies look modest next to the 71.53 million of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe as of June 30, 2026. But it was on the most modest of machines that the mechanic keeping recent entries alive was born, in the days of the original Game Boy Advance, two years before the SP model.

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Mario Kart: Super Circuit at a glance

Type	Racing game
Console	Game Boy Advance
Developer	Intelligent Systems
Publisher	Nintendo
Release	July 21, 2001 (Japan), September 14, 2001 (Europe)
Tracks	40 (20 new + 20 from Super Mario Kart)
Pilots	8, in three weight classes
Sales	Around 5.47 million

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FAQ

• How many tracks does Mario Kart: Super Circuit contain?
  Forty in total: twenty brand-new layouts spread across five cups of four races, plus the twenty tracks of Super Mario Kart grouped into five retro cups.
• How do you unlock the retro cups?
  They are earned coin by coin: you have to collect 100 coins across a cup's four races to open the matching retro cup.
• Who developed the game?
  Intelligent Systems, a Nintendo subsidiary also known for Fire Emblem and Paper Mario. It is the only main entry in the series handed to this studio rather than to Nintendo's in-house team.
• Why does the game return to sprites after the 3D of Mario Kart 64?
  The Game Boy Advance required a rendering built on sprites and backgrounds set in perspective. It is the last Mario Kart not to use 3D-modelled tracks, the series going back to them for good from Double Dash!! in 2003.
• Can you still play it today?
  Yes. The game was re-released on the Wii U Virtual Console, and then added to the Game Boy Advance catalogue of Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack in February 2023.

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