Mario Kart 64.
Don't get me wrong, I like me some 64 Mario Kart, but this game being this first one to make the 3d transition did have a few drawbacks that makes me refrain from coming back to it, but first, let's talk about the positives:
Since this game made the 3d transition, all of the stages are a lot more well designed making good use of the 3d aspect, and all of the courses are great. Another perfect thing is the traditional weight class being fully solidified: Light are fast but can get destroyed easily, medium is an all rounder, and heavy are top in speed but have a slow acceleration. I love all of the tracks with them being mostly fair, but Yoshi Valley and a couple of others is where I draw a line. I don't know why they hid the cup placement in a stage where it can be a but confusing to know the path, and even then even if you do know the path, you wouldn't know what place you're in unless you're attention. Another stage that isn't bad but could be fixed is Toad's Turnpike. The song is a banger, but the stage isn't really. But I mostly blame the controls.
The controls for this game is a lot loose, and when pairing it to TT, you can end up getting hit a lot by the trucks and the card and due to having no invincibility frames, you can end up getting chained by the cars giving you the last places very quickly. This is especially when playing this stage in Mirror Mode. Oh my gosh. Rainbow Road is another troublesome one, although it's not the tracks fault. It's just the fact that a whole lap takes around 1-2 minutes to complete. And it's not like the Mario Kart 8 one where it's evenly divided j to sections of laps 1, 2, and 3--youll have to go from the beginning to the end for the first lap which can easily be mind bending. Unless you know how to do the Rainbow Road Skip.
Another issue that I find with the gameplay is the rubber banding.. This game has the worst of it where you'd feel like you would be in first place for like a couple of seconds and your opponents will somehow catchup to you making it extremely difficult to stay in first place. This has already been proven to be a secret gameplay element that's done under the limitations of the 64, but this reason alone is why I gave this game the same rating as Double Dash. It's been already proven that removing not only the rubber banding but the cheating methods that the CPUs use can make them barely win the stages AT ALL..
Multiplayer is fun, with having awesome tracks like the Big Donut, Block Fort, and the family favorite, the Skyscraper. This one just looks fucking epic to do Ballon battle with and it along with Block Fort are two of the best Ballon battle tracks of all. The Big Donut reminds me of Kirby Air Ride with the Destruction Derby nodes too and who knows if that's a nod to the Big Donut.
Don't get me wrong, I like me some 64 Mario Kart, but this game being this first one to make the 3d transition did have a few drawbacks that makes me refrain from coming back to it, but first, let's talk about the positives:
Since this game made the 3d transition, all of the stages are a lot more well designed making good use of the 3d aspect, and all of the courses are great. Another perfect thing is the traditional weight class being fully solidified: Light are fast but can get destroyed easily, medium is an all rounder, and heavy are top in speed but have a slow acceleration. I love all of the tracks with them being mostly fair, but Yoshi Valley and a couple of others is where I draw a line. I don't know why they hid the cup placement in a stage where it can be a but confusing to know the path, and even then even if you do know the path, you wouldn't know what place you're in unless you're attention. Another stage that isn't bad but could be fixed is Toad's Turnpike. The song is a banger, but the stage isn't really. But I mostly blame the controls.
The controls for this game is a lot loose, and when pairing it to TT, you can end up getting hit a lot by the trucks and the card and due to having no invincibility frames, you can end up getting chained by the cars giving you the last places very quickly. This is especially when playing this stage in Mirror Mode. Oh my gosh. Rainbow Road is another troublesome one, although it's not the tracks fault. It's just the fact that a whole lap takes around 1-2 minutes to complete. And it's not like the Mario Kart 8 one where it's evenly divided j to sections of laps 1, 2, and 3--youll have to go from the beginning to the end for the first lap which can easily be mind bending. Unless you know how to do the Rainbow Road Skip.
Another issue that I find with the gameplay is the rubber banding.. This game has the worst of it where you'd feel like you would be in first place for like a couple of seconds and your opponents will somehow catchup to you making it extremely difficult to stay in first place. This has already been proven to be a secret gameplay element that's done under the limitations of the 64, but this reason alone is why I gave this game the same rating as Double Dash. It's been already proven that removing not only the rubber banding but the cheating methods that the CPUs use can make them barely win the stages AT ALL..
Multiplayer is fun, with having awesome tracks like the Big Donut, Block Fort, and the family favorite, the Skyscraper. This one just looks fucking epic to do Ballon battle with and it along with Block Fort are two of the best Ballon battle tracks of all. The Big Donut reminds me of Kirby Air Ride with the Destruction Derby nodes too and who knows if that's a nod to the Big Donut.
11 Comments
@RedBackLoggd I've edited this review to cover the rubber banding and the ways the game actually makes the CPUs cheat to their advantage. Something that I didn't cover is that when you get struck by lightning in this game,, the speed of the CPUs DON'T CHANGE.
Ah the rubberbanding, now it all adds up haha. Yeah, can't defend that - still feel my blood pressure rise at hearing Mario's "yiiiiiiiiiiiipeeeeeeeeeee"
And never knew that about the lightning not afflicting CPU velocity, that's really interesting.
And never knew that about the lightning not afflicting CPU velocity, that's really interesting.
@RedBackLoggd You know exactly what u am talking about. You understand that pain. Playing this game with friends too was great but we all know that the later entries are a bit better to play. Although I need to find some people that are actually into Retro games to play cause it's hard for them to play the games I enjoy cause I stick to being old School.
Tbf, I feel like later Mario games, while they did cull the rubberbanding, they made-up for it in ways via spamming blue shell spawns for lower level enemies.
lmao, sorry, not lower-level enemies meant low-place racers
@RedBackLoggd maybe that's why my brother doesn't commonly play Mario Kart 8 Switch. He's telling me that he gets mario Parted all of the time, snd I don't know if that's becsuse of what you've said that the game has.
I definitely know that Mario Kart 7 and Wii are the most in terms of spamming it. I barely see the blue shell in 64, Super Circuit, Double Dash, and DS however.
I definitely know that Mario Kart 7 and Wii are the most in terms of spamming it. I barely see the blue shell in 64, Super Circuit, Double Dash, and DS however.
LOL, Mario Parted
Yeah, I haven't played MK7 or Wii, but Double Dash definitely had the best balance IMO. The Great thing about 64 was, IIRC, there were ways to avoid the blue shell like using the Ghost power-up or a mushroom last second. They removed those options in later entries save the Starman of course.
Yeah, I haven't played MK7 or Wii, but Double Dash definitely had the best balance IMO. The Great thing about 64 was, IIRC, there were ways to avoid the blue shell like using the Ghost power-up or a mushroom last second. They removed those options in later entries save the Starman of course.
@RedBackLoggd I believe it was an attempt to make the game more balanced with the First Player not always sticking to first place. I can understand this for Online Matches but for single player it can be a bit of a hassle to deal with. Double Dash after you got me to play it I can see what you mean, but I still need to get used to triple shells, golden mushroom and bombs being exclusive items. But if you play as King Boo and Petey Pihrana, they're able to use every Special Attack and for the reason? I don't know.
I also meant Mario Karted because that's a fan term for them you just get hit by a bunch of obstacles that it makes you in last place instantly.
I also meant Mario Karted because that's a fan term for them you just get hit by a bunch of obstacles that it makes you in last place instantly.
Yeah I get it, but the problem is it doesn't make sense for someone in the last few places to get the item b/c it's not like it's gonna help them get past their opponents. It'd make far more sense if it was available to 2nd/3rd player and that it carried an AOE risk of self-injury. I can't tell you how many times I died b/c some jackass in 7th place Hail Maryed a blue shell and that led to 2nd place taking over at the last minute.
Yeah but that's always been the case with Mario games no? That the higher place you are, the more likely you are to get useless shit like coins, single green shells, bananas?
Actually didn't know King Boo and Petey had special attacks, that's interesting haha. Feel like every racer should be granted one.
It's a dang good term that I may adopt in my vocab should I ever review a Mario Kart game haha.
Yeah but that's always been the case with Mario games no? That the higher place you are, the more likely you are to get useless shit like coins, single green shells, bananas?
Actually didn't know King Boo and Petey had special attacks, that's interesting haha. Feel like every racer should be granted one.
It's a dang good term that I may adopt in my vocab should I ever review a Mario Kart game haha.
Congrats on the front page!
RedBackLoggd
3 days ago
Agreed, Rainbow Road drags way too long.
I'm confused though, were those three stages really enough to knock down a star?