GBA console itself. Gameplay screenshots published in an issue of CoroCoro featured a different super deformed art style, depicting characters with large heads. Items from early versions were also absent in the final release. Super Circuit was the only Mario Kart game developed by Intelligent Systems. It uses a similar graphical style to Super Mario Kart on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, particularly with its use of parallax scrolling and Mode 7-style scaling. Nintendo released Mario Kart: Super Circuit in Japan on July 21, 2001, in North America on August 27, and in Europe on September 14. It released not long after the GBA itself, which launched in March in Japan and June elsewhere. It was the third entry in the Mario Kart series, after Super Mario Kart and Mario Kart 64 (1996), and the first released on a handheld console. Nintendo intended to release Super Circuit in mainland China through iQue, which localized Nintendo games for the region. A Chinese translation was created, but its release was canceled due to significant piracy of iQue's first batch of localized GBA games. The game was rereleased for the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U's digital Virtual Console. On the 3DS, it was released free on December 16, 2011 for members of the Ambassador Program, eligible for entry to anyone who accessed the 3DS's eShop service before the console received a price cut. It was made available for purchase on the Wii U in 2014 in North America and 2015 in Europe and Japan. Super Circuit was also rereleased on the Nintendo Switch as part of an expanded tier of the Nintendo Switch Online subscription service on February 8, 2023. Reception Mario Kart: Super Circuit received "universal acclaim", according to the review aggregator Metacritic. The game was successful commercially, selling 5.91 million copies worldwide—the fourth-bestselling GBA game and the system's bestselling non-Pokémon game. In the United Kingdom, Super Circuit sold 350,000 units by 2005 and was the bestselling GBA game in the region, and by 2006 had sold 2.1 million units in the United States. The game was added to Nintendo's "Player's Choice" lineup in 2006. The single-player modes received praise. Reviewers said the game had significant replay value due to the grading system and large number of tracks. IGN praised the "ghost mode" that allows players to race their friend's saved best time, which they said contributed to replay value. The multiplayer