Super Circuit features the same cast of playable drivers as in the previous installment, each placed in one of three weight classes. There is the traditional balloon-popping battle game, in which the player must use items to pop an opponent's three balloons while defending their own.
Time Trial – This single-player mode has the player to finish any of the forty courses in the fastest time possible, with the best time being saved as a ghost, a copy of the player's performance that they can race against in later runs.Collecting 100 coins in each of these cups will allow players to unlock all 20 tracks from Super Mario Kart known as the Extra Cups. At the end of the cup, there will be an award ceremony for the top three drivers, where they will get a bronze, silver, or gold trophy and in addition, they will get a ranking based on their performance ranging from E to a triple-star. Like with the first Mario Kart game, the player is given three flags ranking out with no flags remaining will cause the game to be over.
Just like in the previous two installments, placing fifth or worse at the end will give a "rank out" and the race must be replayed until the player placed fourth or better. After the player crosses the finish line, the positions of the computer-controlled characters are immediately locked in and they are given points based on those positions, ranging from zero to nine in addition, the finishing order gets carried over to the next race as the new starting grid. There are 20 tracks, divided into five cups: Mushroom, Flower, Lightning, Star, and Special. Since all karts go faster when using higher engine sizes, the three classes serve as difficulty levels. The player can choose to race using three different engine size classes: 50 cc, 100cc, and 150cc.
There are five game modes in Super Circuit: Mario GP, Time Trial, Quick Run, VS., and Battle. This is the second Mario Kart game to include coins, which increases the engine power of the karts. Some items, such as shells and banana peels, allow the player to hit others to slow them down, while other items, such as the star power-up, render them temporarily invincible to attacks. Like in the previous installments, players can pick up item boxes to receive a randomly selected item and use it to impede the opposition and gain the advantage. The game screen indicates the current standings in a race, the number of laps needed to finish and incoming weapons. The game retains traditional game elements of Mario Kart set by its predecessors. Super Circuit is a kart racing video game in which the player races in a kart against other teams in different courses. Bowser, Yoshi, DK, and Wario are seen racing on Peach Circuit, the first Mushroom Cup track.