So we recently got Mario Kart Wii. Great game, yes? Many would argue it's one of the best games in the series. I, too, consider it so, but one Mario Kart installment has yet to be surpassed, and that's Mario Kart 64. This was my second videogame, fresh off of Super Mario 64. The N64 version was a critical and commercial success, so it was a good choice to put this game on the Virtual Console, at the cost of 1,000 Wii Points. 10 dollars; that's a good value for a game that I would place in part of the advanced group of 9/10 games. But no tricks? No Wi-Fi? How does a game without those exceed Mario Kart Wii, that has all those things and more?
Gameplay: 9/10
One may consider the gameplay a bit of a step back from Super Mario Kart, but... yeah. Well, the apparently-liked coins system is removed from this game, so that will come as a disappointment to those who played it. The goal is to finish the race in the highest place possible, what did you think? But to assist you, there's the Mario Kart feature that is just one of the things that makes it superior to any other racing series - Items. Just drive into an Item Box, watch the roulette spin, and get your item. You get better items the lower place you are, in case you didn't know. Note that this game marked the first appearance of the often-despised Blue Shell. More about the Blue Shell and the rest of the items will be discussed in the Items section.
Mario Grand Prix is the main mode of the game, where you race in one the 4 cups to try to get as many points as possible. If you come in first, you get 9 points. If you come in 2nd, 6 points, 3 for 3rd place, 1 for 4th place, and anyone below that gets nothing. This mode is quite addicting if not unusually easy, but the game really shines bright in the multiplayer mode. Mario Kart 64 is one of the best games in history for multiplayer, possibly even my favorite. You can play with up to 4 players in different modes. First, you can compete in Mario Grand Prix alongside a friend, which I don't exactly consider a highlight of the game but many people seem to like it. There’s the basic VS mode, where it's just you and your friend(s) racing against each other on a single track of your choice. And there’s the Battle Mode, a favorite of mine, in which each player is given 3 balloons. Driving around one of four arenas, your objective is to pop all of the opponents’ balloons using items in a game of survival. Multiplayer is a big reason why this game is such a great value.
Mario Kart 64 hosts some physics and mechanics unique to this installment, the drifting and powersliding system for instance. Drifting is quite powerful here, allowing extremely sharp turns, but the main idea of it is not too much different from the rest of the series. You have to make your drift sharper while keeping control to be able to get a powerslide. Once the little marks coming from your kart are dyed orange, you can let go for a burst of speed. This speed boost actually isn't visible, since the motor doesn't expel flames or anything. Your character will simply release a cry of excitement, but yes, you do get a speed boost. You have to be careful when drifting, though. If you only keep the sharpness of the turn at the bare minimum, there's a cool little slipping noise to let you know that you screwed up, nice going. If this happens, you'll lose the progress you got in the powerslide and a fraction of acceleration. Just don't abuse your drift too much to avoid this problem; as a matter of fact, the need to drift is more seldom here than any game in the series. Regular turning works quite sharply, but that doesn't mean one will want to avoid drifting altogether.
Another one of these physics elements involves crashing into objects at high speeds. In most Mario Kart games if you do this, you'll just come to a complete halt. If that doesn't happen in Mario Kart 64, something worse will happen. Occasionally if you hit a wall at a high speed, your character will spin out as a result. It's not as common with typical walls as it is with certain other objects, however. Thwomps are the most notable, where it is easier to trigger this mechanic by speeding into them. A related physic is activated by steep hills. Let's say you're on a road and the off-road part of it is in the shape of a steep hill. If you go off-road and high enough onto the hill, you character will be sent tumbling down and lose the acceleration they likely had at the moment. This can also occur when falling off these steep hills. The Choco Mountain course is probably where you'll have to be most careful with this, as falling off a hill near the end of the course can result in a very problematic situation.
By default, during races you'll have
a typical interface screen with you, with the 1st-4th places on 1 corner
of the screen, the item roulette in another, a map of the track, and a
pretty well zoomed-in camera. You have increased control of the interface
using various buttons. On the GameCube controller, press Z once to turn
the music volume down significantly, press it again to turn it off altogether,
and Z once more to put it back on regular volume. You can tilt down on
the C Stick to zoom the camera in and out to fit your desires. By tilting
the C Stick... some... other direction, you can give yourself some different
displays on the screen. One of them makes the border of the screen act
as a secondary map, showing how far everyone's gotten in the course. My
favorite alternate display shows a gauge that tells you how fast you're
going at the moment. Not an important feature, to be sure, yet the dominion
you have over what the screen displays gives the game more customization.
Graphics: 6.2/10
I'm gonna just go straight to the point here - ugly character models. Well, ugly's a bit of a strong word, let's say... sub-par. I like that word. =) While their models are indeed 3D, from the point of view you'll be getting it looks a lot like they're just fancy 2D models... from the back, anyway. The models aren't too much of a step up from blurry pixel clusters. In the occurrences where you can get a good view of your character from the front, they seem to appear more 3D than from the back but nonetheless odd and clunky.
Aside from the character models, the game's graphics are quite average. The tracks have a similar graphic style to Super Mario 64, just with a bit more detail. The textures are sort of blurry, mostly the roads that you're driving on. There’s quite a bit of billboarding here; again like in Mario 64, it's mostly with the foliage: the trees in most courses, the bushes in Bowser's Castle, the cacti in Kalamari Desert and such. The graphics are probably the biggest flaw of the game, but that just makes one all more thankful the biggest flaw is under a category of low importance.
Music and Sound Effects: 7.9/10
Second only to Mario Kart Wii as the best music in the Mario Kart series. Easily the most recognizable theme in the game or perhaps even the entire series is the circuit theme. While not the best theme in the game, I'm certainly not gonna forget this one any time soon. It's used in quite a few tracks, as are a fraction of the basic themes of the game, but some are exclusive to individual tracks. Kalamari Desert has an admirable theme; one of my favorite musical scores for one of my favorite tracks, I like it most notably for the end part of the song near where it will start to loop again. It’s the same with Bowser's Castle, surely one of the eeriest themes in the series with a chorus humming a very fitting hymn. But the best theme in the game is away from the courses: the credits theme. Very, very well composed and actually sort of motivational, it still remains a favorite among Mario Kart enthusiasts.
Voice acting in the game is pretty standard,
each character has quotes for speeding up, taking damage, winning, and
other events in the races. Pretty much the only character whose voice acting
is less than pleasing is Toad, who sounds hyper and feminine, although
his "AAAAAAH!" always makes me laugh. A few NPCs possess some voice acting
as well, like Chomps or penguins. Thwomps sound much different in this
game; instead of their typical, angry grunt they normally have, they instead
have a cool evil laugh sounding like "AH, HA HA-HA-HA-HA!" I actually kinda
like this better. >.>
Tracks and Battle Courses: 9.5/10
Best course selections in the series, in my opinion. Mario Kart 64 houses some of my all-time favorite Mario Kart tracks. To list a few... Kalamari Desert, because of the unique gimmick of sometimes having to stop before the train tracks to not get hit by the train, and the great music. Frappe Snowland, for the snowy nighttime atmosphere that I adore. Royal Raceway, for that big, dramatic jump and the cool little Mario 64 easter egg. Bowser's Castle... because it's my favorite Mario Kart course ever, though I do kind of like the Mario Kart Wii incarnation of it a little better. There are very few tracks that I've grown to dislike; in fact, the only one I can really think of is Moo Moo Farm for being overly simple and having annoying music.
While not as good as the others mentioned above, there are 2 unique tracks in this Mario Kart that are worth noting. The Rainbow Road, for one thing, is the single longest track in the franchise, taking approximately 2 minutes to complete 1 lap. The more notable one is Yoshi Valley, easily the most unique track in the game. This large canyon has so many different routes that the game can't keep track of the positions until the end of the race. Though troublesome at times, it is highly interesting indeed.
There are four battle courses so I can
cover them all individually. Big Donut is a humorously-named course taking
place on a large, circular arena with a circle filled with magma in the
middle. Block Fort is far and away my favorite battle course in the series.
It takes place in a square-shaped arena with 4 different colored block
buildings, each of them with 2 floors and bridges interlinking them all.
Double Deck is a maze-like area consisting of 2 floors. And Skyscraper
is a large, octagonal stage with plenty of open space and a few pits. Like
I said, I really, really like Block Fort. The rest of the stages are at
least pretty good, but I really could have used some more of them, 1 or
2 more would have done it.
Controls: 9.8/10
Mario Kart 64 comes so very close to
flawless controls, but misses the spot in a few areas. Press and hold A
to accelerate, use the control stick to move, X or Y to fire items, B to
brake, and L or R to jump or drift. I... really can't find much to complain
about here. The only thing I can think of is that the position of the C
Stick is sort of awkward, but that's just a really minor detail. I seem
to always have to come up with those, nearly all control schemes have at
least 1 flaw and I have a hard time giving this category a 10 for any game.
Characters: 6/10
This roster is very basic at best. You
have the lightweights: Peach, Toad, and Yoshi; the middleweights: Mario
and Luigi; and the heavyweights: Bowser, DK, and Wario. You may not have
known that this is DK and Wario's racing debut. Of course, DK Jr. was in
Super Mario Kart but really, DK is a more logical choice. Koopa Troopa
was removed to the slight disappointment of fans, and there are no unlockable
characters. Just note that this was when the series was new and on its
way to becoming Mario's most successful spinoff series, but it was about
a generation or 2 before that would happen. The point is, with the series
so young, a wide selection of characters would have been sort of overwhelming.
But no unlockables? Not even that Magikoopa that DK ended up replacing?
None?
Items: 9.4/10
Mario Kart 64 is the birthplace of a lot of the items used in modern Mario Karts. You got your Green Shells, Red Shells, Bananas, Quintuple Bananas, Fake Item Boxes, Stars, Mushrooms, etc. I'm not quite sure what items are new because I haven't played Super Mario Kart at the moment... Well, you'll learn after you buy it.
This is where the feared, sinister Blue
Shell came from and went on to be one of the biggest imperfections of the
series. Not in Mario Kart 64 though, because it's not just against the
player in first, it's against everybody in front of the user. That sounds
like it would be a lot more volatile, but for we veterans who like to keep
1st place to ourselves fairly and honorably, the Blue Shell isn't so biased
against us. Since it hits everybody now, players behind the one in 1st
can't steal the top spot, since they'll suffer just as much. And even so,
the Blue Shell is a very uncommon item here, and there's a good chance
that it will hit an obstacle and not make it very far at all.
Replay Value: 9/10
Even after beating all the cups on 50cc, 100cc, 150cc and the unlockable mode, the game can still appeal to you for a long time afterwards. As mentioned in the gameplay section, multiplayer mode is incredible, no matter how many players you have. At the moment I might not have that much of a say with it, because I don't have many people to play multiplayer with anymore. I do have the original cartridge, however, and I clearly remember playing it every time my best friend came over. Not only is the main Versus mode very fun, but Battle, which sets the game apart from other racers and makes it clever and refreshing. I'm surprised how little other franchises have ripped off from it.
Single player modes hold after-appeal
as well. After beating the game I still found myself going back to the
Grand Prix. It would have been better if there was a Versus mode like in
recent Mario Karts that would allow you to pick any level you want. In
Mario Kart 64, you can only race on all the courses in the cup that you
picked. For more control over this, though with no other racers, check
out Time Trials. With 3 Mushrooms you can race across courses for the best
time you can get. Some might be disappointed that you cannot save your
ghosts, but I'm not very annoyed by it, I don't use ghosts much anyway.
Fun Factor!: 9.5/10
Perhaps the thing that keeps most Mario
Karts from being as fun as this one is the frustration. Balance systems
have become a complaint, computers have gained much skill, and while it's
still a great series there are some growing flaws with frustration. In
Mario Kart 64, there is a very small amount of it to speak of. The balance
system is just how it should be so you don't have to be scared of being
in 1st place. The computers tend to go easy on you, but once or twice per
lap they'll go bumper-to-bumper with you and you're gonna be needing a
good Green Shell or Banana to get them off your back. This is exactly how
racing game difficulty should be, or so I think. This spot-on difficulty
assists the game in being a great joy to play.
Overall: 92/100
Honestly, it took me a while to notice the excellence of this game. When I downloaded it on the Virtual Console a while ago, I did just a few Grand Prixs and then just ignored it from there. After I played Mario Kart Wii and started to get a little bored with it, I decided to take Mario Kart 64 for a spin and just loved it. This game feels so much more refreshing after playing Mario Kart Wii, somehow, enough so to get in to the elite guild of 90/100s. Don't let those 6's I put in here fool you, this game is definitely worth playing even if those areas are below average. It's after playing games like this that I really love the Virtual Console; without it, I could have never recognized the greatness of Mario Kart 64.
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