Mario Kart 64

is a racing video game for the Nintendo 64 game system; it can share up to four players. It is the sequel to Super Mario Kart for the SNES. Players take control of characters from the Super Mario Bros. video game series by racing around a variety of tracks while using several weapons; including items that make the racers speed increase, turtle-shell projectiles, and slippery banana peels. The game was developed and published by Nintendo and released on December 14, 1996 in Japan, and on February 10, 1997 in North America. Music for the game was composed by Koji Kondo, who has also composed scores for many Nintendo games, and Kenta Nagata.

Notable changes

Mario Kart 64 features a number of changes from Super Mario Kart.

Each track now requires three laps instead of five (but the tracks are much longer).
Tracks now have hills, slopes, bumps and jumps.
Tracks are no longer reincarnations of each other, like Mario Circuit 1, Mario Circuit 2, Mario Circuit 3, Mario Circuit 4 etc. Each track has its own unique location.
Koopa Troopa and Donkey Kong Junior have been replaced by Wario and Donkey Kong.
Coins have been removed, so the player does not spin out unless he/she crashes into a heavier opponent or turns too dramatically.
Feathers have also been removed to prevent cheating from the computer-controlled players. The CPU players from Super Mario Kart would sometimes "cheat" by jumping over weapons released by the human players.
Several items were added, such as Golden Mushrooms, Fake Item Boxes, and Spiny (Blue) Shells. Items could also be bunched into groups to heighten a player's advantage, including the Green and Red Shells (three), Mushrooms (three), and Banana Peels (five).
Item boxes reset themselves after being hit, making them available to players on every lap.
CPU racers are no longer exclusive to their own infinite disposal of an item. However, they are still limited to using only certain items. In short, they can use any item except for any kind of shell. Also, Thunderbolts will only be seen when a leader somehow falls to the back of the pack.
It is now possible to drift by hopping and tilting the control stick. If the control stick is moved left and right while the kart is drifting, it is possible to gain a small boost in speed, called a Mini-Turbo. The Mini-Turbo was subsequently included in every Mario Kart game, as was drifting (with the exception of Mario Kart Super Circuit, which only lets you have a mini turbo if you turn more than 90 degrees while sliding).
- Skilled players have been known to continuously employ drifting in order to exploit Mini-Turbos.

Modes of gameplay

Mario Grand Prix (GP)

One to two human players compete with computer players in a group of eight around a series of four courses per cup. A player selects one of the four cups at the beginning of the game as well as a difficulty level, measured by engine size (50, 100 or 150 cc). The higher the engine size, the faster the karts go and the more difficult the cup is. Extra Mode (where the courses are mirror images of normal) can also be unlocked by winning of all four cups on 150cc difficulty. A player needs to place in fourth place or better in order to move on to the next track.

Time Trials

A single-player mode. A player may play any course in any cup. In time trial, the player is given a triple mushroom item, and the kart has a 100cc engine. The top five best course times and the best lap time are recorded on the cartridge, and the aim is for the player to beat his or her own records. Completing a race may result in a ghost appearing on the player's next attempt—the ghost is the route taken for the best time that the player has completed in his or her current session, and can be saved on a controller pak for later use. The ghost cannot appear on the next attempt if a message is displayed near the upper right hand corner saying that ghost data cannot be saved. This message will display in the event that the player pauses the game during the run, falls off the course, or gets hit by something (e.g. the Chain Chomps in Rainbow Road). The message occasionally appears at random or by too much time being taken.

There are several online communities dedicated to keeping track of time trial records, and some are still as active as ever, many years after the game's release.

Versus Mode

In this game for two, three or four players, players can race head-to-head against their friends without computer players. Players need not play an entire cup, but select individual courses to play. Players also select the engine size/difficulty level.

Battle Mode

In this game for two, three or four players, players compete in one of four arenas filled with items. Players have three balloons attached to their go-karts and lose them when they are spun-out by either being hit by a player in a higher weight class or spun out with an item. In three and four player modes, players that have lost all of their balloons come back once as a bomb that can move around to crash with another player and thus remove one balloon. The winner is the last one with balloons left.

The arenas are:

Big Donut
Block Fort
Double Deck
Skyscraper

Difficulty

In Mario GP, players can choose between four difficulty levels of game play. These levels include:

50cc - Easy (fairly slow-paced)
100cc - Medium (medium speed)
150cc - Hard (fast-paced, the player may spin out if they drive erratically, and occasionally the AI cheats by letting computer characters drive far faster than the player can)
Extra - Same as 100cc, but all courses are mirror images of themselves. All left turns become right turns and vice versa. Additionally, in the Toad's Turnpike course, the traffic approaches the racers head-on. Players can unlock the Extra mode by winning first place (a gold cup) on all four cups in 150cc mode.

Characters

There are eight playable characters in Mario Kart 64, divided into three weight categories: light (Peach, Toad, Yoshi), middle (Mario, Luigi), and heavy (Donkey Kong, Wario, Bowser). Technically speaking, these categories are not balanced too well, and the lightweights are the recommended characters for best results in all modes of play (Time Trial, Grand Prix, Versus and Battle Mode). The heavyweights have roughly equal advantages in Battle Mode as the lightweights, and are a suitable alternative for Battle.

The lightweights have the best acceleration and highest top speed, and can jump the highest (as in, when crashing into a wall for the purpose of jumping over it). The notable difference between them is that Toad is lighter, i.e. a head-on collision in Battle Mode will cause Toad to spin-out. However, these differences do not appear to affect Time Trials in any significant way. Lightweights also have the best speed in off-road conditions.

The heavyweights have very poor acceleration, and will take the longest to reach top speed from a stationary start. They also slow down the most when in off-road conditions, and cannot jump as high. These factors make them a poor choice for Time Trial. However, due to their weight, they cause a spin-out if they slam into a lighter opponent. In Battle Mode, a spin-out costs the victim one balloon, and can be used strategically in close combat. Unfortunately, the heavyweight's lack of acceleration can make them "sitting ducks" after a crash, especially if the rival player has 3 red/green shells in tow, making it easy to knock out all 3 balloons by shooting the shells as soon as the victim recovers. A lightweight has a better chance of avoiding such an attack, with a quick AB-spin (holding accelerator and brake and then turning to do a donut).

The middle-weights are a middle ground, but they get spun out by heavyweights and have almost as poor speed and acceleration as them. As such, they are not recommended drivers when playing either Time Trial or Battle Mode.

In addition to the drivers, Lakitu runs the race. His responsibilities are signaling the start of the race, notifying drivers when they complete a lap, warning those who are going in the wrong direction, and rescuing racers who go "out of bounds".

Items

Items can be acquired by hitting an item box, a rainbow-colored box with a spinning question mark. The lower one's current position, the higher his chance of getting a powerful item (i.e. Starman, Thunderbolt, etc.)

Projectiles

Green Shell - A simple projectile. Travels in a straight line and bounces off of walls. When the shell collides with a racer, he or she will crash. The player can hold a green shell behind him or her for protection against Red Shells and other projectiles. The player can also fire it off backwards which is much safer than firing it off forwards since, depending on the track, the shell may ricochet back toward him or her.
Triple Green Shell - Three Green Shells orbit the driver until each of them is fired away. When fired, they act as single Green Shells do. While orbiting, they act as a shield that deflects any other attacks; however, each attack deflected takes away one shell. When a single Green Shell is fired from the circle of shells, it goes forward from the shell's location, not from the character's location. This causes green shells to be a less accurate.
Red Shell - A semi-intelligent projectile. It locks onto the person one position in front of the player and attempts to crash into him or her. A Red Shell will fly out in front of the player who fired it; however, if the driver who was in front of the player slips back, the shell will turn back and may hit the firing player en route to the target character. Red Shells are also a good way of clearing out fake item boxes, bananas, etc. Players can trail a Red Shell behind them, in the manner of a Banana or Green Shell, but they will always fire off forwards. The homing takes a second to activate; because of this, if a player fires a shell at a wall, it is wasted. If a player is in sixth, seventh, or eighth position, the homing program changes slightly: the shells follow the middle of the track instead of heading directly for the next player. This also happens when the firing player is in first place: the shell travels the track in circles aimlessly.
Triple Red Shell - Three Red Shells orbit the driver until each of them is fired away. When fired, they act as single Red Shells do. They act as a shield in the same manner as triple Green Shells. When a single Red Shell is fired from the circle of shells, it goes forward from the shell's location, not from the character's location. This causes Red shells to be less accurate, up to the point where it starts homing in on its target. Triple Red Shells do not appear in the Battle mode.
Blue (Spiny) Shell - Targets the player in first place (even if the person who uses it is in first place) and hits anything (including other racers) in the way. Once it has started, the only thing that can stop it is another blue shell. The player can trail a Spiny Shell behind him or her, and unlike a red or green shell, the blue shell can be used to crash as many opponents as possible until fired. These shells follow the exact curves of the course, smashing anything in the way. Like their red counterparts, Blue Shells that are aimed at a wall will disappear. They are the rarest item in the game, and some tracks contain a single item box which can only be reached with timing or precision, but will always yield this item. Blue shells do not appear in the Battle mode.

Hazards

Banana - These can be laid on the track, and cause players to spin out. The player can trail a single Banana behind him or her or he or she can throw them forward with limited accuracy. If the player drives over a Banana while driving straight, he or she can hit the brake immediately to try and stop himself or herself from spinning out (a musical note appears above the driver's head if he or she succeeded).
Banana Bunch - A group of five bananas trail a player until they are released one by one. When released they act as normal bananas do, but while in a chain behind a player then can be used to spin out a player that is following too closely. If something touches the chain, all the bananas fly off in different directions.
False Item Box - These resemble item boxes (the question mark is upside down "¿"), but when touched cause a driver to lose all speed and explode into the air. Like bananas, they can protect the player from incoming Red and Green Shells. One method of deployment is to lay the box amongst real ones, as it is difficult for players to realize that one of the boxes is fake until it is hit.

Mushrooms

Mushroom - Increases the driver's speed to 80 km/h (top speed is usually 70 km/h) for a few seconds.
Triple Mushroom - Allows a driver to use a mushroom three times.
Golden Mushroom - Allows a driver to use an infinite amount of mushrooms for a short, fixed amount of time.

None of the Mushrooms appear in Battle mode.

Miscellaneous

Starman - Makes a player invincible to attacks and increases speed. If a player collides with someone with a Starman active it will cause him or her to explode into the air. Additionally, no speed is lost if the driver drives off-road while using a Starman. Driving through certain objects (such as trees) in Starman mode causes them to be blasted away.
Boo - May steal a random weapon from another player and will make the driver invisible to other drivers for several seconds. While invisible, the player can go through things like trees and other racers.
Thunderbolt - Causes all other players to spin out of control and become small. As a consequence of their diminished size, players move slowly. This state lasts for several seconds during which the user can flatten other drivers by colliding with their miniature form. Also, the collision of two miniaturized drivers causes them both to be flattened and stopped completely. In addition, any major jumps, such as the one in Wario Stadium, cannot be made when small. After a miniaturized driver is flattened, or if he falls off the race course, he will be restored to his original size, regardless of whether other drivers have been restored to their original sizes. Players that are invincible via Starman and invisible via Boo are invulnerable to Thunderbolts, as are those in the middle of a boosted jump or in the midst of being fished back onto the track. Thunderbolts do not appear in Battle mode.

Courses

Mushroom Cup

Luigi Raceway
Moo Moo Farm
Koopa Troopa Beach
Kalimari Desert

Flower Cup

Toad's Turnpike
Frappe Snowland
Choco Mountain
Mario Raceway

Star Cup

Wario Stadium
Sherbet Land
Royal Raceway
Bowser's Castle

Special Cup

DK's Jungle Parkway
Yoshi Valley
Banshee Boardwalk
Rainbow Road

Records

The largest Time Trial community is the Mario Kart 64 Players' Page, a volunteer fansite established in 1997. Videos of some of the best records produced by the community are showcased in the Speed Demos Archive.

Pre-Release

The working title for this game was Super Mario Kart R.
In pre-release screenshots, a Magikoopa (possibly Kamek) was seen as playable. Before the game's final release, he was replaced by Donkey Kong. Some had mistaken him as Geno from Super Mario RPG.
Also, in the pre-release images, there were signs with the names Marioro, Luigip, Yoshi1 and Koopa Air. The first three signs allude to the brands Marlboro, Agip, and Mobil, respectively, while the last sign has the color scheme of Goodyear's logo. For the American release, the first three signs were replaced due to legal action.

Trivia

The Kalimari Desert track is named after a cross between the real-life Kalahari Desert and the food item calamari. It can also be interpreted as a portmanteau between the aforementioned desert and the name Mari(o).
The racers are not 3D models, but 2D, pre-rendered images. Every frame of the racer was rendered as a separate frame from the high res-3D model, and what frame is shown depends on the angle of the camera.
Mario Kart 64 is the first non-Rare game to feature the Donkey Kong character design made by Rare for the Donkey Kong Country series, and is credited as being used with their permission. After repeating this practice for numerous subsequent Mario character games, Nintendo amicably obtained the rights to this design at the time Rare was bought by Microsoft to develop Xbox games. Nintendo now uses this design of Donkey Kong almost exclusively.
The game is notorious for its large number of shortcuts. Eleven of the 16 tracks have shortcuts that are executable in Time Trial mode for a faster time. Several others are possible in GP mode, where a Star and Blue shell are available, and Versus Mode, where a "friend" player can be rammed with a Mushroom boost to make very large jumps. Most of the shortcuts in the game are a result of unforseen tricks, jumps or glitches. On Wario Stadium, it is possible to jump back and forth over the wall to go "around" the flag, and complete the entire race in under 13 seconds. On tracks such as Luigi Raceway, Toad's Turnpike, Choco Mountain and Rainbow Road, it is possible to jump over barriers to cut off major portions of the track. Yoshi Valley, D.K. Jungle Parkway, Frappe Snowland and Royal Raceway have shortcuts that require confusing the game at regions near the finish line into triggering the lap completion when the full lap has not been raced. Kalimari Desert has two difficult shortcuts, one of which requires to sail up and over the railtrack from a high bounce off an angled polygon, the other requires glitching through the fence of the railtrack to ignore most of the lap. The Mario Raceway shortcut of jumping over the T-junction in the brick wall is widely accepted as being intentional, judging by the very fast time required to change the flashing text on the title screen (it specifically flashes the best time trial time for this track, as it is the developer's favorite). Not surprisingly, the series successor, Mario Kart Double Dash, had no jump function and out-of-bounds conditions were very strict. As a result, only one shortcut has been discovered in that game.
Luigi, Wario, Princess Peach, and Toad have different voices in the Japanese version, which were also used in Mario Party 1 and 2, as well as Mario Kart Super Circuit. The announcer's voice is also different.
This is the first game where Yoshi's neck and tail are smaller.
In Royal Raceway there is an easter egg where you can drive around Princess Peach's castle that resembles the one from Super Mario 64. This area of the track is also used for the Mario GP winning ceremony.

External links

1996 computer and video games | Mario Kart games | Nintendo 64 games | Vehicular combat games

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