Race with-a Mario!
I've never owned the game, but my cousin did, and I played and played until it was time to go to sleep...or in most cases, through the night!
Most other racing games were basic: accelerate, brake, turn, sharp turn. Now Super Mario Kart was a different story. Not only did it have the basics of a racing game, but it had other features as well, such as hopping, head starts, and weapons and items which had their own unique features.
My favorite item--which, sadly, never made it to a Mario Kart sequel--was the feather. It let you jump high, even over your opponents, and over medium gaps which were only attemptable with a mushroom or feather. (is "attemptable"
even a word?) The hop let you jump over items which were either placed on the field or thrown towards you. In Mario Kart games nowadays, the hop is useless; you can't jump high enough to make it over anything, so what's the point?
The game was challenging enough to keep you playing for years to come--or just me, at the very least. It was hard to complete on 150 class, then once I did, I opened up another harder difficulty level which, as I have just said, is even harder.
Multiplayer made the game even more fun than it already was. I liked doing a kind of co-op mission in Gran Prix where at least one of us would make it to the top four. We were usually like,"Forget me, save yourself!" They did.
So what I'm getting at is, play this game and enjoy it.
....It kinda makes me want to race a gorilla, but I'm afraid of what will happen to me if I don't let it win...