Hyper Street Kart is a crossover ROM hack, created by hacking duo The Real Phoenix and Ten Shu, for the SNES game Super Mario Kart which takes the Street Fighter universe and uses it to reskin Mario Kart.
Created in 1992 for the SNES by Nintendo, Super Mario Kart is a kart racing game and the first in a long line of Mario Kart games to come following Super Mario Kart‘s groundbreaking success. It is credited for creating the “kart racing” subgenre spawning an influx of similar games such as Sega‘s Sonic Drift, Ubisoft‘s Street Racer, and Atari‘s Atari Karts, to name a few. Super Mario Kart changed the rules of driving games and provided the world with one of the most addictive multiplayer experiences ever.
New Game Features
This game has the following new features
- New Tracks
- All New Graphics
- 8 Street Fighter Character
Game Description
If you want to see a video of Hyper Street Kart in action, check out the video below.
Hyper Street Kart brings to the fandom what fans have been missing out on all these years: a kart racing game featuring Street Fighter characters. Thanks to the efforts and talents of The Real Phoenix and Ten Shu we can finally experience one of the few genres that Street Fighter has not clawed its way into.
The tracks in the game were completely altered and designed after Street Fighter levels that should be familiar such as the water level of this hack being themed after Ken’s stage in Street Fighter II.
While there is a great amount of effort showing in Hyper Street Kart, there are a handful of places where it could have been perfects. I imagine it was difficult to come up with in-universe representations for some of the power-up that at least made some sense in regards to their original, but seeing Star Power and Banana Peels (this one isn’t so bad) throws off the theme a bit.
Title Screen
The title screen in this hack is a significantly altered version of the original game’s, as seen below.
Graphics
Hyper Street Kart has completely reskinned the original game of SMK and replaced the sprites, tracks, and some items, and some background elements with Street Fighter accurate imagery. Each of the sprites are meticulously crafted and extremely well designed (in particular the giant E.Honda blip on the Victory Screen got a good laugh out of me).
Gameplay
Hyper Street Kart presents the same gameplay of the original game with the new characters taking the place of their respective counterparts in the character select page (Ryu in the place of Luigi, for instance). As far as I can tell, the characters play just as they would in the original SMK if you were to pick whichever particular slot they would be in (Ryu playing like Luigi/Mario).
Sound
Unfortunately, no sounds were altered in this hack. It would have been the stomp to finish it off if Street Fighter music had been implemented.
Download
If you wish to play this game you can download the Hyper Street Kart Rom by clicking here.
Conclusion
So is this game worth a try? Hyper Street Kart is a fun little hack which cross-themes SMK with Street Fighter. The sprites and redesigned items, as well as tracks and backgrounds, are well designed and offer a new flavor for long time SMK players. The hack offers little else besides graphical changes and could benefit from implementing more elements, such as changes to the functionality of items or tweaks to certain characters stats, from the Street Fighter universe.
If you have played this game please let us know what you thought of the game by leaving us a comment.
