Mario Kart 64

Developer: Nintendo EAD Publisher: Nintendo

Released: February 10, 1997 Rated: E 9/10

Mario Kart 64 is possibly the greatest game in the N64 library that still has to fight the hardest against its own successors. When it comes to expectations of what Mario Kart is, as during time of writing, we are anticipating the release of Mario Kart World, the cavalcade of additions the series has made with each entry makes it impossible to temper expectations of what the series was in its infancy. Even if the simplicity of Mario Kart 64 is, in its own way, somewhat refreshing, getting into the mindset of that simplicity is nearly impossible in this day and age for anyone who has frequented the likes of Rainbow Road or Waluigi Pinball.

It starts off with a flat-out look at what we have for content: 16 courses, eight characters. A far cry from booster passes, retro cups, and a variety of vehicles and costumes to choose from. But those 16 courses? All bangers. Well, mostly. Choco Mountain might not get much of a pop from most of the crowd, but even then, an agreed-upon bottom tier course is still memorable in and of itself, like the Water Temple being most dreaded temple in Ocarina of Time, or Oddjob being despised in Goldeneye multiplayer. The singular misstep makes the rest of the content shine all the brighter in comparison. And our cast of characters? Sure, they don’t offer nearly as much gameplay influence between them as you’d come to expect, but this is it. This is the classic cast: Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad, Wario, Donkey Kong, Bowser, and Wario. Take away Toad and Bowser because they’ve got other jobs to do, and you’ve got the cast for the first two Mario Party titles as well, for good reason. It’s so odd to have the content itself be so perfectly balanced, and to have this game essentially be the blueprint of the Mario spinoff ensemble, because it makes it feel like Mario Kart 64 doesn’t have that weird extra thing going on. It doesn’t have a trivia question character or a course you forgot existed. Everything from Mario Kart 64 returns because it’s exactly the game you remember it being when you boot it up, while Mario Kart itself is so different.

Even mechanically, Mario Kart 64 manages to achieve the series’ most important characteristic of being accessible, and yet the passage of time has made this true almost to a fault. Almost any player should be just fine snagging a controller, taping down the A button, and steering the rest of the way, with an item or two thrown in. Powersliding is still a thing as far back as this entry, but even that gimmick is weirdly subtle and, personally, has always thrown me off due to the resulting boost having so much less pizazz than in future installments. And even then, it’s not really required to engage with the mechanic if you want to win, even on the highest speed setting. Effective item use and smart planning can get you most of the way, possibly even more on the complex tracks than on the early, simple ones. And the items themselves fall into the same category as the character/track selection — this is the classic layout. Red, green and blue shells, banana peels, mushrooms, fake item boxes. The only two that might take a second to remember exactly what they do are Boo and the lightning bolt, and even then, one use and it comes right back and clicks. You’d be forgiven for thinking that Bob-Ombs or something like that are missing, but nothing you’ll pick up in an item box is unexpected.

This makes Battle Mode a surprisingly simple option as well, as with only four arenas to choose from, there’s definitely a little less content than you’d like. Still, as with the regular races, it’s all dripping with replayability, even if there are other titles on the system that will give you more unique experiences by comparison. It won’t take more than a night to see everything Mario Kart 64 has to offer, even with a couple of friends, but as long as you have those friends with you, it’ll be hard to spend anything less than a whole night playing one more battle or one more race on Rainbow Road.

If anything about Mario Kart 64 really sets it apart from the rest of the series at this point, it would actually have to be the presentation. Graphically, 64 sits at a very specific time for both the series and for Nintendo’s hardware, wherein 3D was the selling point of the system, but much like Super Mario 64, even the system’s touchstone releases blended spritework and polygons in a very specific way. The fact that your kart and driver are specifically still shown with sprites despite being front and center for the entire game gives Mario Kart 64 one of the most distinctive visual styles on the system, before a more prevalent use of 3D came along within the year for titles like Star Fox 64 and Goldeneye 007. The low-intensity of the visuals even with largely polygonal backdrops, though, doesn’t mean that the charm of a varied set of themes and set-pieces has aged this entry so much as to not be interesting. Major visual highlights such as the riverboat on DK’s Jungle Parkway or the traffic on Toad’s Turnpike are classic and distinctive features that help Mario Kart 64 remain a joy to behold even against its simple gameplay.

Sound design also remains a major milestone for the system and for Nintendo as a whole. Though the number of voice clips, as always, is a bit limited, the characterization of each of the drivers through their short outbursts and wails of pain still goes a huge way in creating the overall aesthetic. One can only imagine how massively important this was as one of the first titles to deliver this method of characterization for the franchise as a whole and the majority of these characters. The soundtrack, once again, is simply rife with classics. The one weakness the soundtrack has is that the sound font can feel a little subdued for the action (Choco Mountain, I am once again looking in your direction), but the list of compositions itself includes some of the system’s best music. Rainbow Road, Moo Moo Farm, 3 Raceways, Bowser’s Castle — some of the best on offer, and dripping with nostalgia, of course.

Mario Kart 64 still does all of the things and exemplifies all of the reasons that it’s accepted as a true gaming classic and one of the highlights of the franchise. It really captures the greatness of the gameplay and its universal appeal of the series in a way that its Super Nintendo predecessor doesn’t, by comparison. Even if Diddy Kong Racing ultimately creates a greater lasting appeal in a single player capacity — one player in Mario Kart can only access Grand Prix and Time Trials — the reason that Mario Kart 64 is still one of the first games you would buy for your N64 collection today is still true. It takes next to no time to pick it up and know exactly what you’re doing, and for all the memories that go along with that simple and exciting gameplay to begin flooding back with it. Get your friends to come by to revisit the N64 like the old days and don’t be surprised if even with a smattering of other carts at the ready, Mario Kart 64 stays in that slot the entire night.

Continuing Legacy

Mario Kart is, as you may be aware, one of the highest-selling franchises of all time, with every main series release being in the top five best selling games on its respective system. Each entry contributes a massive amount to the series overall, but as the second entry in the franchise, a lot of what it does serves as foundational to the series. Every one of its 16 tracks has been remade in a future game with the exception of Wario Stadium, though that track received two direct follow-ups in Mario Kart: Double Dash: Wario Colosseum and Waluigi Stadium. Mario Kart 64 is, of course, available on Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pass.