Mario Kart 64 is one fun racer that will keep you and your friends entertained for hours.
Lows: Only 8 characters to choose from, CPU racers can be annoying, battle mode is disappointing.
VerdictL One of the best racers on the N64 if not the best one out of all of the N64 racers.
After the success of Super Mario Kart 4 years back on the SNES, Nintendo decided to bring the series to their new N64 and take advantage of the new hardware, and they did a wonderful job of doing so. They brought us Mario Kart 64, released for the N64 in 1997. In MK64, you have 8 characters to choose from and they are: Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, Toad, Koopa Troopa, Wario and Donkey Kong, and you choose any character to win Grand Prix mode, or race against your friends in an all out race. The controls are nice and smooth as you have complete control over your kart. The settings of the stages are very interesting and unique as one is in a desert, one on an island, one on a freeway, and more. The track design is excellent as the tracks are fun and challenging and easy for newcomers to get used to. There are lots of items to choose from like mushrooms, shells(red, green, blue), invincibility stars, and the newly introduced Golden Mushroom. This is also one of few Mario Kart games where you can get a mushroom in 1st place along with 3 green shells for protection. The replay value is very high as you will be playing for hours alone or with friends, the music is unforgettable as some tracks have been reused in future Mario Kart games, and it's just a lot of fun to play. However, there are problems. The battle mode isn't very fun, as there aren't any CPU players to fight, it's just 4 player, The CPU racers in the Grand Prix mode can be annoying, most notably when you're in first when you try to get rid of them with everything you can but they still catch up to you. Even on the easiest difficulty this happens. There are only 8 characters to choose from as future games in the series offer more characters to choose from. But overall, Mario Kart 64 is still a very fun, enjoyable game. Copies of MK64 have gone up in price a little but, as copies on Amazon usually start off at around $30, but that's not too bad. This game is also avaliable on the Wii Virtual Console, so check out MK64 whenever you get the chance because this is one game you don't want to miss out on.