"A good reason to have friends."

The Nintendo 64 is not without its share of fans. I, for one, liked the N64 a lot, and consider one of the most underrated consoles out there. Perhaps it's just the memories I had with it, but I love it. Mario Kart 64 is somewhere in those memories. It's the sequel to the terrific SNES kart racer Super Mario Kart and stars all of the Mario franchise's most lovable characters – Mario, Luigi, Bowser, Yoshi, Peach, etc. And where this game stood out on the system was in the multiplayer crowd. One of the (in my opinion) many things that the N64 had over the PSX at the time was a strong multiplayer lineup, and that list includes the magnificent two- to four-player features of Mario Kart 64, and its number of tracks and addictive features made it one of the best multiplayer games on the market, and a must-buy for anyone who owned an N64. But unfortunately, a question is raised: What if you, at the time, don't have anyone else to play with?

If you don't know what Mario Kart 64 is or can't figure it out just by looking at the title, then perhaps you don't belong on GameFAQs in the first place. But here's the scoop anyway. MK64 takes all of the biggest characters from the Mario universe and puts them together in a racing game. This is the franchise that created the concept of “karts”, which is really just an excuse to allow the characters to ride around in cute little vehicles as opposed to enormous, macho Hummer-like , which is really just an excuse to allow the characters to ride around in cute little vehicles as opposed to enormous, macho Hummer-like bulks. Mario and his friends race their carts – excuse me, karts – around big tracks themed after various parts of the Mario world, and can use a supply of items to help them be first to the finish.

MK64's controls are simple and easy to the point that a kangaroo could be taught to play this game (kangaroo fans, don't take that last sentence too seriously). There's an acceleration button and a brake button, and you steer your little kart around with the analog stick. If you drive into a rainbow-ish cube on the track, you'll collect a random item that can be used with the Z trigger. Items vary and include shells (for launching at opponents), banana peels (for leaving on the road as traps), and mushrooms (which are used for boosts). Items play a big role in this game and help to increase the level of strategy that's needed. Also, if you tap the R button, you can hop over obstacles and jumps. If you hold the R button as opposed to tapping it, your kart will go into a sort of powerslide mode and you can slide through turns.

For what it's worth, though, MK64 feels decidedly like it was created for a console that lies somewhere in between the SNES and N64. The game is certainly too advanced to be an SNES game, because of the 3D environments that are obviously a step up from Super Mario Kart's Mode 7-style racing engine. But at the same time, MK64 just doesn't quite feel like it belongs on the N64 simply because it's still got a sort of two-dimensional feel to it (and this is coming just after Nintendo spoiled us with the incredible 3D wonder world of Super Mario 64). Characters are not 3D models, but rather sprites that very much resemble the ones in the SNES game, which doesn't entirely feel right. Plus, tracks and levels (though fully rendered in 3D) still have this somewhat flat, last-gen feeling to them. They, for the most part, fail to take advantage of 3D simply because they rarely have hills or anything similar (Wario Stadium is the exception).

However, MK64 certainly does exceed in being fun, at least when a lot of players are involved. Although now (as this game is nearly two generations behind) it's not like a group of friends are ever going to get together to play a round of this game, MK64 was fun for its time and managed to deliver some of the best multiplayer memories of my gaming life (those last two words sounded geeky and pathetic). The game was one of the first on N64 (and, indeed, ever) to support up to four players, and all that was needed were three friends, four controllers, a free night and enough snacks and (ahem, sugary) drinks to hold you over, and you were set.

MK64 doesn't really off anything spectacularly new or innovative (just about everything here, save for the 3D graphics, was done in Super Mario Kart), but it does offer plenty of tracks and enough characters to allow for good variety over long play sessions. Although some of the levels were kinda boring to play (there's one track where you're basically just kinda dodging traffic for the majority of the time, with no real obstacles or excitement), other levels were a complete and utter blast, such as the aforementioned Wario Stadium, which contains all kinds of hills, jumps, turns, banks, and obstacles to make it a really fun battle to the end. The items are all varied and extremely fun to use.

But easily the mode that my friends and I spent the most time with was Battle Mode. In this mode, there are no real tracks, but rather arenas, with no start and no finish. Players race around these arenas, grabbing items and launching them at the other players. Each character has three balloons, and the ultimate goal is to somehow pop all of your opponents' balloons while keeping yours intact. You could pop their balloons by firing shells at them, leaving bananas in their trail, or by slamming into them while you're invincible. Character's attributes played into this as well. Bowser, being one of the heaviest characters, can cause damage by slamming into pother players, while speedier characters like Toad can dodge easily. Also, when a player gets killed and there are still at least two opponents battling it out, that player can then turn into a bomb and, in an interesting gameplay-related twist, slam into another player to make them lose a balloon.

Where MK64 loses its steam is when there is only one player involved. I had a lot of fun with this game when there were even just two players involved. The problem is that when I was alone (and none of my family members play videogames, so this happened quite often), I had nothing to do. MK64 has an extremely dry single-player mode. In fact, the extent of the single-player game is a Grand Prix mode on three difficulties, in which you race against computer-controlled allies for trophies. But is there a point? The computer players “cheat” by using cheap old-school tricks to get ahead in races, and the tracks are too few to offer enough variety when you're not having fun yelling at the other people in the room (a feature that's lost when you're not playing with someone else). To make things worse, you can't even play Battle Mode with CPUs. What the hell? That's probably my favorite part of the game and having it limited to single-player is a bummer.

Pros

+ A classic as far as multiplayer goes.
+ Good selection of tracks and characters.
+ Nice, simple control scheme.
+ Battle Mode rocks!
+ Colorful, cheery visuals.

Cons

- Sadly lacking single-player.
- 2D-ish graphics made this game feel dated, even for its time.
- The audio department is pretty forgettable.

Overall: 7/10

Don't get me wrong – there are times when I absolutely loved this game. But, then again, there were times when I was very bored with it. The unfortunate truth is that when I didn't have any friends over, I wasn't having any fun with this game. Perhaps this affected me more often than other people because my friends aren't over every second of every day, and none of my family members are into videogames. But a game that can't provide a decent single-player experience just can't get my full, solid seal of perfection, even if the multiplayer aspects totally blew us away. And that's because I spend more time playing games solo than with my friends. What's worse is that this game is now overshadowed in several ways by Diddy Kong Racing, which had an excellent single-player campaign, even if its cast isn't as recognizable. Mario Kart 64 is a classic in some ways, but if you don't have anyone to play with, forget about it.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/18/05