Description
Mario Kart 64 races eight familiar faces, including Mario, Bowser and Yoshi, on four progressively tougher four-track circuits. Wide curves and gentle banks mark the Mushroom Cup tracks. Your commute gets notably tougher on the Flower Cup, though. The player will have to dodge semis rumbling on Toad's Turnpike and bounding boulders on fogbound Choco Mountain! Star Cup tracks range from the icy surfaces of Sherbet Land to the lava lakes of Bowser's Castle. The true test of karting competence, though, comes on the four tracks in Special Cup. Zip through the dark caves and green hillsides of Donkey Kong's Jungle Parkway, cling to the sheer cliffs of Yoshi Valley and hustle over haunted Banshee Boardwalk before tackling the longest track in the game: neon-lit Rainbow Road.
The game offers two camera angles and three engine sizes: 50cc, 100cc and 150cc. You can gain even more speed by mastering the power slide technique or grabbing Super Star power-ups. Each kart has distinctive handling, acceleration and top speed capabilities. Light karts like Princess's smoothly steer through tight corners, but run the constant risk of getting flattened by heavy karts, like Donkey Kong's. Shells that you fire at rival racers, Bananas that make them skid out and Lightning Bolts that make them small and very slow are just a few of the game's unique power-ups.
Alternate Titles
- "马里奥卡丁车64" -- Chinese Title (Simplified)
- "Mario Kart R" -- Early pre-release title
- "マリオカート64" -- Japanese Spelling
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Trivia
Bonus courses
If you complete all the tracks in the 250cc class, the game opens up new tracks. The new tracks are actually reverse images of the original set.
Japanese version
In
Mario Kart 64 in the Japanese version lots of the signs are take offs of brands, the only one apparent in the western version is the Koopa Air (Nike Air), but one interesting one is a sign that says MarioBro which was changed to Mario Bros. This of course was originally a takeoff of Marlboro cigarettes.
MagiKoopa
Originally, MagiKoopa (an enemy from
Super Mario World) was intended to be one of the racers. However, he was later replaced by Donkey Kong before the game was released. You can still see MagiKoopa in some of the earliest screenshots of the game (back when it was still called
Mario Kart R)
Title change
The game was originally going to be called
Mario Kart R but was changed because Nintendo felt it was to similar to Sega's upcoming racing game
Sonic R.
Virtual console version
For the Wii Virtual Console version of
Mario Kart 64, the Ghost Trial Data, (which allowed players to race against a ghost kart of their best times), has been disabled.
Information also contributed by
Chris Martin,
Guy Chapman,
MegaMegaMan and
Warlock
