Mario Kart 64

Mario Kart 64 is the second installment of the Mario Kart series, as well as the first in the series to use three-dimensional graphics. It was released for the Nintendo 64, and later became available for the Wii's Virtual Console. It featured changes in playable characters, new courses, and was placed 4th in the 100th issue of Nintendo Power's "100 best Nintendo games of all time" in 1997. Mario Kart 64 has set many trends which have continued on in the Mario Kart series and introduced courses such as Sherbet Land and Wario Stadium that were used again in future Mario Kart installments.

Gameplay
Players must steer with the Nintendo 64's controller's control stick, holding the -button down to accelerate. The button is used for braking, and also allows the player to reverse by pointing the control stick downward. Items can be used by simply pressing the trigger. When the player presses the trigger, they will jump, allowing the kart to turn around tight corners. Turning too much or quickly, or turning side to side, will result in the player sliding and spinning around, making their Kart stop for several seconds. If a Banana is hit while the player is driving straight, the character will skid for a while before spinning out. If the player presses the button, a music note will appear over the character's head and they will not spin out but continue going straight, nullifying the effect of the item (this effect is also included in Mario Kart: Super Circuit).

As opposed to the previous game in the series, Super Mario Kart, a standard race now has three laps rather than five due to the much-longer raceways compared to those found in Super Mario Kart. Additionally, the race tracks are not flat in this game and feature different forms of terrain. To get items, the character must get an Item Box. Once the character gets an Item Box, an item-roulette will appear with medium sound, and, when stopping, will sound four "dings".

There are four cups, designated as Mushroom Cup, Flower Cup, Star Cup, and Special Cup. These cups are further divided into three different difficulty settings of 50cc, 100cc, or 150cc. An unlockable Extra, known as Mirror Mode, allows the player to race courses in the opposite direction usually raced, which sometimes increases difficulty. In order to unlock this feature, the player must win the Gold Cup on all the cups in 150cc. When the title screen changes, it means that the player has unlocked Extra. A Time Trial mode and a Battle Mode are also available, which pit the player in different Kart scenarios that don't necessarily require racing.

In the Time Trial mode, the players must race against their own previous times, represented by a ghostly form of their player-of-choice.

In Battle Mode, each player starts with three balloons, and loses a balloon when hit by any item. It is also possible to lose a Balloon if a heavier player such as Bowser hits a lighter player like Toad or Yoshi with great enough speed (more details here). When a player has lost all of their Balloons, they will lose, while the other player simply "wins" that round.

The rival system in this game is the more common 2 Rival system seen in most similar games, whereupon two randomly selected rivals will fight with the player, and will use the "Handicap" feature to situate themselves on level with the player. They will always stay on the same, no matter what the championship standings are.

On a side note, when the player plays the 150cc and Extra mode, two random CPU racers may receive a huge handicap, and even when hit with an item such as a Red Shell, they will recover rapidly. Sometimes there is also one player that receives an even larger handicap and when ahead, it is almost impossible to stop them without cheating.

Nintendo 64

 * - Accelerate, Rocket Start
 * - Brake
 * - Zoom In/Out
 * - Switch screen positions
 * - Use items, stop Item Roulette
 * - Select option during the Menus/Pause or resume during gameplay
 * - Use items, stop Item Roulette
 * - Drift
 * - Lower music volume
 * - Steer
 * - change option during the Menus

Classic Controller

 * - Accelerate, Rocket Start
 * - Brake
 * - Use items, stop Item Roulette
 * - Use items, stop Item Roulette
 * - change options during the Menus
 * - Steer
 * up - Zoom In/Out
 * right - switch screen positions
 * down - Use items, stop Item Roulette
 * - Use items, stop Item Roulette
 * - Drift
 * - Pause/Resume during gameplay
 * - Lower music volume

GameCube Controller

 * - Accelerate, Rocket Start
 * - Brake
 * up - Zoom In/Out
 * right - Switch screen positions
 * down - Use items, stop Item Roulette
 * - Pause/Resume during game play
 * - Use items, stop Item Roulette
 * - Use items, stop Item Roulette
 * - Lower music volume
 * - Drift
 * - Use items, stop Item Roulette
 * - Steer
 * - Change options during the Menus.

Technical
The original release of this game on the Nintendo 64 used 123 pages of the Controller Pak to record Ghost Data, which would occupy all the space in the Controller Pak. However, later versions of the game used 121 pages on the Controller Pak, leaving only 2 pages free.

Because of the available controllers without a Controller Pak Slot, it is impossible to record Ghost Data on the Virtual Console version of the game.

Drivers
Characters are divided into three classes depending on their weight: Light, Medium , and Heavy.

* indicates that the character is a New Driver for the Mario Kart installments overall.

 

Lightweight drivers have the best acceleration and moderate top speed, and excellent handling. However, they tend to slide out more than most of the drivers. If a Heavyweight player such as Bowser rams into a Lightweight player such as Toad, the Lightweight player will lose a small amount of speed and acceleration and sometimes slip out(in rare cases even getting flattened without needing to be shrunk by a lightning bolt). Lightweights will also slow down when driving up hills because of their weak engines, so it's best to use mushrooms on inclines to counter this weakness.

Middleweight drivers are about even with everything, making them suitable for beginners. They don't have any low stats, nor do they excel at anything. They can make lighter drivers spin out by ramming into them, but if they attempt to ram into heavier drivers, they may spin out.

Heavyweight drivers are rather clunky, and they have the lowest acceleration of all the racers in the game. However, they have the highest top speeds in the game, and the most powerful engines. They don't lose speed when driving up hills, and if a skilled player executes powerslides and performs with precision, Heavy racers can build a lot of speed. Additionally, they can make lighter drivers spin out by ramming into them. Like in the original mario kart, power sliding tends to undermine the weaknesses of poor acceleration, so a skilled player is best off using heavy racers.


 * Additionally, players can drive a Mini Bomb Kart when all of their balloons disappear in battle mode. The Mini Bomb Kart can drive around and explode on other players, but it only has one use for exploding before completely disappearing.

Enemies

 * Bat
 * Boo
 * Chain Chomp
 * Crab
 * Mini Bomb Kart (in VS mode only)
 * Chubby
 * Penguin
 * Piranha Plant
 * Snowman
 * Spiny
 * Thwomp

Non-Playable

 * Cheep-Cheep
 * Cow
 * Lakitu

Obstacles

 * Train (Only at Kalimari Desert)
 * Lava (Only at Bowser's Castle)
 * Water
 * Icy Water (Only at Sherbet Land)
 * Grass
 * Sand
 * Mud
 * Cactus (Only at Kalimari Desert)
 * Boulders (Only at Choco Mountain)
 * Cars/Trucks (Only at Toad's Turnpike)

Items

 * Banana
 * Banana Bunch
 * Boo
 * Fake Item Box
 * Green Shell
 * Triple Green Shells
 * Red Shell
 * Triple Red Shells
 * Blue Spiny Shell
 * Mushroom
 * Triple Mushrooms
 * Golden Mushroom
 * Star
 * Thunderbolt

References to Other Games

 * Super Mario 64 - In the track Royal Raceway, there is a part where the racer can turn off the road and arrive at Princess Peach's Castle exactly as it appeared in this game. It is also where the award ceremony is held.
 * Donkey Kong Country - This is the first appearance of the Donkey Kong Country version of Donkey Kong in the main Mario franchise.

References in Later Games

 * Mario Kart: Double Dash!!: The name "Sherbet Land" is reused in this game.
 * Mario Kart DS: The name "Wario Stadium" is reused in this game. Also, the courses Moo Moo Farm, Frappe Snowland, Choco Mountain, Banshee Boardwalk, and the battle course Block Fort reappear in this game.
 * Mario Kart Wii: The course Moo Moo Meadows is based off of Moo Moo Farm. Also, the courses Mario Raceway, Sherbet Land, DK's Jungle Parkway, Bowser's Castle, and the battle course Skyscraper reappear in this game.
 * Mario Kart 7: Some of the music are remixed or rearranged versions of themes from Mario Kart 64, like Rainbow Road. Also, the courses Luigi Raceway, Koopa Troopa Beach, Kalimari Desert, and the battle course Big Donut reappear in this game.

Awards

 * Longest Track in the Mario Kart Series - Rainbow Road - Guinness Book of World Records Gamers Edition 2009 - 2013

Executive Producer

 * Hiroshi Yamauchi

Producer

 * Shigeru Miyamoto

Director

 * Hideki Konno

Music Composer

 * Kenta Nagata

Beta Elements
Kamek was originally intended to be one of the playable characters, but ended up being replaced by Donkey Kong. The Character Select screen was also different, the characters faced the player, and Kamek can be seen in Donkey Kong's space. The working title of this game was Super Mario Kart R. Boos from Banshee Boardwalk had also a different look, the HUD was different from the final version, and item boxes were also completely black with colored question marks on them. The Cape Feather, which was in Super Mario Kart, was also intended to be included, as seen in a certain screenshot of Super Mario Kart R. This particular screenshot can been seen on the back of the packaging of the Nintendo 64 system.

Glitches
This glitch can be performed in any mode with any character on Rainbow Road. Players must use a Mushroom speed boost just as they cross the finish line. Just before the elevation of the road goes down, they should rocket off the edge of the course and land again on the opposite side of the course, more than halfway through.

Trivia

 * The lightning effect was changed in the release on the Virtual Console to a less intense flash, most likely to prevent seizures.
 * In the English version of Mario Kart 64, "Circuits" were renamed "Raceways". The exception is Royal Raceway, which was known as Peach Circuit in Japan instead of Royal Circuit.
 * In the Japanese version, Luigi, Toad, Peach, and Wario have different voice overs than their American counterparts, while other characters do not. The Japanese voice overs were used in the first two Mario Party games and Mario Kart: Super Circuit.
 * If the results screen is left on for 50 minutes (64 loops), a hidden section of the tune starts playing twice, before reverting to the original tune.
 * This is the only Mario Kart game in which Fake Item Boxes can block incoming objects. Additionally, players cannot throw that item forward, which is possible in the later Mario Kart titles.
 * On the Animal Crossing series, there is an unlockable item called "star man" which plays the Mario Kart 64 star theme when placed in a room.