"Nostalgia does well to hide the truth. *sigh*"

To start off, I must say I have loved MK64 forever, and after reviewing Double Dash, I found it right to review this too. Upon inspection of the game, from a reviewer's standpoint, I have now noticed some big flaws with the game.

Premise: The idea of a Mario-themed racer is of course great because it can have a mood of light-hearted fun as opposed to conventional racers like Need for Speed. Smart thinking.

Gameplay: Pick a character, a difficulty, and 1 of 4 cups in the Grand Prix to start racing against other well-known Mario icons. Controls allow drifting, and hopping (yes... hopping) and, of course, accelerate/brake. Throughout the level are mystery boxes which will give a random expendable power, like the mighty triple Red-Shells (essentially homing missiles), mushrooms (speed boosts), or bananas (dangerous obstacles). If you place in 5th or below you must retry the level; at the end, the points you get for each place are totaled and decide your end ranking.

Tracks: Several are straightforward (in the sense of gameplay) and have little differences. Others are have little 'extras' that make the game more entertaining, be it a train in Kalimari Desert, a HUGE ramp in Royal Raceway, or the boulders of Choco Mountain. The only level unlike the rest of the game is Toad's Turnpike which is literally an interstate with cars and trailers on it. In extra mode (reverse) this is driving against traffic and gets pretty hectic. Most other levels on extra are simple mirrored and aren't really any better than before. The only level that can truly be called awful is Rainbow Road, sadly, as it is literally just a path floating in nowhere and consists simply of a dozen or so turns and a Chain-Chomp running down the road. While most other levels are good, for the final level in the final cup, Rainbow Road is just terrible.

Music/Sound: "Yahoo!" Great sounds or screeching and motors running, as well as dialogue, and many levels have catchy little themes.

Graphics: One of the most obvious issues: despite being on a 3D console and having 3D maps, players and obstacles are still sprites. No real reason as to why. I think its okay though...

AI: Unfortunately, it uses rubberband AI, meaning on the higher difficulties, pretty much nothing you do will keep you in the lead, as the (top 3 AI racers only, actually) will always catch up with you, somehow. By the way, it seems the only powers the AI ever get are the obstacles (bananas, fake mystery box), never shells of other offensive weapons!

Multiplayer: A co-op mode is available for the Grand Prix as competitive racers and there is also the battle arena levels, where up to 4 can 'fight' each other for points. Probably one of the best parts of the game.

Replayability: After getting gold on all four difficulties in all four cups, there are no more achievements and single-player will get stale somewhat quickly, however, with friends this game will last a lot longer, with co-op Grand Prix and of course, battling.

Buy/Rent: All in all, the fun in the game is mainly from nostalgia (for me): its always seemed more fun than it actually is. The rubberband AI, the rather poor graphics, and a few dull tracks combine to have brought the game down a lot. Well, I suppose buy anyways just because the parts done right, were DONE RIGHT. I may have given this a 7/10 rating instead of a 6/10 because of nostalgia, but it is a fact the mood of game is perfect, and the three problems mentioned above were the only issues, and the graphics wasn't a huge deal.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 11/23/11, Updated 04/02/12

Game Release: Mario Kart 64 (US, 02/10/97)