Mario Kart 64

UK box art.

Mario Kart 64 is a Mario-themed racing video game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64 on 1996-12-14. It's the second game in the Mario Kart series, and part of the Mario universe. The game is a major advancement over the original.

In the game, you choose a character from the Mario universe to drive a go kart. There are 16 tracks for traditional racing, where you try to finish first after three laps, and an additional four for battle mode where you try to defeat your opponent by smashing them. Unlike real life go karts, the game contains all sorts of weapons and hazards like the ability to hit your opponents with koopa shells, drop banana peels to cause them to skid out of control, and use boo buddies to become invisible.

Personal

I first saw this game being played by the boyfriend of the older sister of a girl I was dating at the time (around 1997) and thought it looked really fun, even if the polygon count was abysmal. I first played it at the house of some friends who I played Magic: The Gathering with. Though I was quite terrible, I was rather impressed with the game. I've now gotten pretty good at it, and can E-slide fairly well. I despise the rubber band AI so much I never really tried to beat it for few decades. I finally changed my mind set of the game, to play it less as a competition, and more objectively, and I was able to muscled my way through the AI and beat all four circuits on 150cc finishing on 2021-11-18, and then beating extra mode on 2021-11-21.

I own this game, I have come in first on all four circuits on 150cc and extra mode.

Review

6	7	6	7	10

Best Version: Nintendo 64

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• For the time, the game was pretty great looking. And, even now, each track has its own feel and the designers incorporated a lot of Mario elements.
• Kenta Nagata's music, which appears to have been purposely made simple as to not interfere with the game, makes a wonderful backdrop for the tracks. Rainbow Road and the ending theme ("Victory Lap") are especially good.
• The variations of driver attributes (acceleration, top speed, mass, steering, etc.) accommodates different play styles nicely.
• The multiple race modes (AI race, human race, battle more, and time trials) give the game more life.
• The ending sequence is quite nice and it's enjoyable to see the tracks for angles you don't normally see.
• Being able to unlock extra mode was a good reward for beating the hardest circuit at its most difficult level, and a nice way to give the game more life. Playing the tracks in mirror mode with more interesting obstacles is a lot of fun.

Bad

• The game does not properly maintain FPS in certain tracks with 3 or more players, like Moo Moo Farm. This might be a bug or the result of the GPU not being able to handle all four rendered screens and the programmers removing the frame-delimiter.
• Unlike with AI opponents, a race won't end until all human players finish. So, if a player is performing really poorly, or is purposely refusing to finish, you're stuck waiting for them. Had they designed the game to automatically end a race when the seventh racer finishes, they could alleviate this problem.
• The game doesn't let you end various sections prematurely. For example, you can't skip the long slow award ceremony. Also, if you want to retry a race because you're doing poorly, you have to first finish it.
• Only beating the special cup at 150cc unlocks new content. The developers missed an opportunity to give rewards for beating the other cups.
• Yoshi Valley is a neat idea, but the design is a bit off. The hardest routes should be the shortest, but that's not the case.
• Over the years, players have managed to find quite a few bugs with the tracks that can be exploited in multiplayer.

Ugly

• The game's AI is completely broken. I hate games where the AI gets an unfair advantage, and this game gives the AI an insanely unfair advantage. It uses a "rubberband AI" where, no matter how good you are, or how bad you damage the other racers, at least two opponent carts will always be passing you. They will constantly receive a speed advantage beyond what you can possibly achieve. It's not uncommon to hit an opponent with a shell knocking them into the water, only to see them pass you a few seconds later. And, when the AI gets ahead of you in the final round, even stars and blue shells won't be enough for you to catch up. They are also awarded items at regular intervals even when they don't get question mark blocks. This lazy approach to throttling difficulty, is very frustrating to play against, and it makes the game less about becoming good at driving, and more about being just good enough to stay near the front and holding a good item like 3 red shells in reserve until the very last section of the final lap.

Media

Box Art

• 

  The original Japanese art features a determined Mario with the names of the other drivers written on the wall of a tire in the background.

• 

  North America, UK, and Australia use this this art (Europe uses the same art, but with a thick black border). This shows Mario grinning as he takes the lead past the three heavy drivers with a nice motion blur indicating speed. I prefer this box art.

Documentation

• Mario Kart 64 - N64 - Manual.pdf

  Game manual.

• Mario Kart 64 - N64 - Operation Card.pdf

  Operation card.

• Mario Kart 64 - N64 - Manual (Australia).pdf

  Game manual (Australia).

• Mario Kart 64 - N64 - Manual (Europe).pdf

  Game manual (Europe).

• 

  Japanese ad.

Maps

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  Luigi Raceway.

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  Moo Moo Farm.

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  Koopa Troopa Beach.

• 

  Kalimari Desert.

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  Toad's Turnpike.

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  Frappe Snowland.

• 

  Choco Mountain.

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  Mario Raceway.

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  Wario Stadium.

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  Sherbet Land.

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  Royal Raceway.

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  Bowser's Castle.

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  DK's Jungle Parkway.

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  Yoshi Valley.

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  Banshee Boardwalk.

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  Rainbow Road.

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  Big Donut.

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  Block Fort.

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  Double Deck.

• 

  Skyscraper.

Graphics

• textures-resource.com/nintendo_64/mariokart64 - Textures.

Fan Art

• 

  Comic by Mr. Lovenstein.

Videos

Did You Know Gaming?

Son of a Glitch.

Longplay, 150cc.

Speedrun progression.

Frappe Snowland speedrun progression.

Choco Mountain speedrun progression.

Rainbow Road speedrun progression.

Strategy

To unlock extra mode, you have to play the Special circuit with 150cc and end with the most points to win the gold cup. This is especially difficult due to the cheating AI, and, if you fail to come in first at the end of the circuit, you must play all four races again from the beginning. However, there is a strategy you can follow to prevent you from having to replay the entire circuit which involves taking advantage of the fact that failing to place in the top four at the end of any track means you can't proceed to the next race. The game doesn't care how many times you fail to qualify, it will let you keep retrying the same track until you place in the top four. Because of this, if it's clear you aren't going to come in first, simply brake and wait for the other racers to pass you, then finish last and retry the race. This way, you can keep retrying the same track until you can get maximum points to help ensure a victory later on.

Titles

Language	Native	Transliteration	Translation
Chinese	马里奥卡丁车64		Mario Kart 64
English	Mario Kart 64
Japanese	マリオカート64	Mario Kato 64	Mario Kart 64

Links