Forget all of the remakes over the years, the original Super Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo is the only one worth playing in my opinion. I got it for Christmas 1992, the same time our family got a Super Nintendo. For a long time it was the only I was playing on, it took the prime playing spot in my spare time.
I worked my way through the Grand Prix usually using Toad or Kooper as my kart of choice. But it wasn't until later on that I really unraveled what made the game so special to me which was the time trial option. At times I would literally spend hours at a time trying to perfect some of the levels. I remember one weekend when my step-brother and I took it in turns to try and reduce our best times on the first Ghost Valley track.
I don't think there has been another time in all the years I've been gaming that I have strove for such perfection.The kart of choice was Bowser as he had great speed and once you got used to the handling he could smash anyone's time. Getting a time in the top five for overall race time was good, but it was the lap time that we were after. It was a case of power-sliding around each corner with virtually nothing between you and knocking into the wall. It was instinctive driving at its finest, something that the realistic driving sims of today can't pull off.
Super Mario Kart had a lot of variety with the different kart types , each with their own attributes, and the clever level design, ending in the remarkable Rainbow Road. Again, Nintendo were able to hit that certain something which makes a game so special. It may not be so much fun to play today because of the graphics and controls, but at the time, it was a sublime piece of game development.
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