Mario Kart 64

I rarely play racing games, but this one was my favorite for the N64. Having been launched alongside Super Mario 64 in 1996, Mario Kart 64 no doubt boosted both Mario's and the system's popularity. While it's dated by modern standards, it still has its appeal.

The roster has 8 characters, each with newly introduced weight classes. Toad, Toadstool, and Yoshi were fast lightweights, Mario and Luigi were balanced middleweights, and Bowser, Donkey Kong and Wario were slow but durable heavyweights. You'll race across 16 exotic and well-designed courses; some of them are the series most fun and memorable, like Kalimari Desert, while others are just a pain, like the infamous Banshee Boardwalk with lots of sharp turns, limited lighting, narrow tracks, and swarms of bats that would fly into you and slow you down.

Since the game had so much content, the N64 couldn't handle a fully 3D rendered Mario Kart game, so the racer models and items were substituted with 2D sprites, but it still looked good and helped the game run smoothly. New features included 4-player mode, split-screen, and the ability to wield three shells at once as a shield or to hit other players. New items included the super mushroom, the fake power-up, and the always dreaded Blue Shell.

The characters all had quirky and hilarious voice clips, especially Toad and Wario. The sound effects from the karts and powerups were cool and there was great, memorable music on every course, courtesy of Kenta Nagata, like the triumphant sounding trophy theme, the bright and charming, steel drums of Koopa Troopa beach, and Toads Turnpike with its soothing and unique techno theme.

Unfortunately, there were some serious flaws that made the game infamous to many players. First off, the games difficulty on single player was a real pain. Like Mario Party released in 1998, the CPU drivers are given unfair advantages. The rubber banding is the worst as the CPU's suddenly accelerate to impossible speeds and stay right behind you, making it hard to make 1st place. Even outside that, the controls are difficult, and handling feels stiff. There's lots of hazards to watch out for too, like an unavoidable banana peel for you to slip on and a large amount of falling hazards on some of the stages that will likely ruin your chances of winning first place if you're not careful.

While still a fun and classic game to play once in a while, it's more enjoyable on multiplayer. And even then, this one hasn't aged that well. Some people even say it's inferior to the original Mario Kart on the SNES. So, you might be better off playing more modern releases, like Double Dash and Mario Kart 8.

2 words: Rubber banding. I never heard that term before but once you play you'll know exactly what I mean. It's impossible NOT to notice cause it's very prevalent in this game while racing.

Otherwise this game is a great N64 game that holds up well! I just think the more recent Mario Kart editions are even BETTER! Wario stadium is easily my favorite track cause it's so big and full of opportunity. It deserves to be played by everyone at least once. :)

OK, let's get something out of the way. Two player battle mode in Mario Kart 64 is the most fun you can have with a multiplayer game this side of GoldenEye. Now, for the bad news. Although the control is exceptionally tight (a Nintendo trait if ever there was one), and the new power slides are very intuitive, there is a MAJOR problem with the AI. For one thing, unless they pick up a weapon while you watch, they always have banana peels. Now, in the original Mario Kart each computer controlled opponent had their own distinctive weapons, but that was OK, since you had whatever you picked up to use. Now, not only does the computer have unlimited peels, they can also use your weapons against you. That's a minor gripe; here's the big one: rubber band AI. To maintain all races tight to the finish, the computer can never really be left behind too far, they mysteriously bound back. Gone are the days of lapping Toad (sucker!). Besides that, this is a great game for the N64.

This was the first game I brought for my N64, because I loved the SNES version, but I remember at the time I was really disappointed with it. I think it's down falls were due to the fact that the levels were much longer not like the short fun ones on the SNES, I think they should have made more short levels as opposed to the fewer long one's. Also the AI in this game was bad as mentioned in another review, no matter how fast you went the other racers were close behind, often getting speed boosts from no where and over taken you. I did like however, the graphics and the controls, also the multiplayer mode was alot of fun, but I didn't get into it as much as I did in the SNES version. I think that if you've never played the SNES version you will like this game alot, because it is a good game with alot of replay value, I advise you to buy the GBA version because it combine the SNES and N64 versions into a much better game.

It is customary for a Mario game to be very light and fun because they don't bet on a sad, heavy or something very dramatic story, but Mario Kart 64 has a difference. The difference of this game is that it is much lighter than the others because it is just a racing game, without very big challenges. The characters in the game are very cool, the visuals of the levels are also cool, and all the game mechanics are very interesting. There is a considerable drop in quality from Super Mario 64 to this game, mainly in terms of graphics, but this is something that does not matter much, since the proposal is completely different and this is probably due to the fact that it is a simpler game. If you want to have fun playing a game alone, try playing any game in the Mario Kart franchise.