Mario Kart Reviews (2/8)
I would like to start saying that i never had played "Mario Kart 64" (1996) prior to this experience. Being a kid from the 2000s made me start playing with the DS and Wii Mario Kart games. I had the oportunity, already in the 00s to play "Mario Kart Double Dash" (2002) in an acquainted's house, and later i would also end up playing "Super Mario Kart" (1992) in SNES emulators. But i never tried the N64 one. I'm saying this because this is a game a lot of people have a ton of nostalgia for, an nostalgia that won't play a role in my review, because i can't simply relate to (wait for the DS review).
I know, as a huge Mario Kart series fan, that i had to play this one. Is regarded by many people as a classic and was a big hit back in the day. But also, that maybe i wouldn't like this one that much.
At the time, this game was somewhat criticized for being to much alike to its predecessor, in here lies most of its virtues, but also, most of its flaws. To be fair, i don't think this game play out exactly like SMK, that one feels like an standard racing game with battle elements, this one inaugurate the Kart racing genre in its totality, and honestly feels distinct from other forms of Arcade Racing. The great problem is that a lot of what hindered the original game, hinders this one also, altough, not in the same extent and definitely not in the same way. This game feels pretty much like what the SNES
iteration should've been since the beginning, but couldn't because of the atrocious track design and troll in-track hazards. This is, by every mean, an needed step up, but at the same time, is not an outstanding game by any means.
First thing, its handling. The first game of the series was an extremely heavy game to control, so they needed to change it, and they lost the tone completely while doing it. Now the kart feel extremely light, and hard to control by the exact opposite to why the last game was hard to control, although anyone would have to admit that the control on this game is better than its predecessor. A lot of times you try to make the curve and your Kart will go towards the open part of the curve and a lot of time will get outside of the track way easier than you would expect. The major problem is that is a pain in the ass to dodge from oncoming hazards, particularly at short range, a lot of times you will make the correct move in the joystick and the kart won't move. But also, if you lean to hard to the side, your kart will try a full turn. Either way, you have to eat a loss. Beside that the game feel miles better. Having an effective and manual drift helps a lot, although a little bit difficult to control (not in the good technical sense, but in the clunk sense), and the fact you barely don't have to slow down in this game, make it being so much more dynamic and allow much more options during the race.
The visuals are outstanding, the characters are full of charm and the tracks are in general nice to see too. The OST is cool too.
The items are mostly to 1 vs 1, like the last game, not being a particularly item heavy Mario Kart, although it does a little better in that department. The Thunder item and the Blue Shell helps a lot with position managing, particularly dealing with the higher standings, but still lacks items that help lower standing racers to catch up. An complaint would be that the speed boost, both the normal mushroom and the newly added gold mushroom, feel really weird, as it the boost is not that relevant at some times.
For god sake the game don't punish you so much with in game hazards as SMK. My only complaint is that clearly some of the hazards ignore Bots and go directly towards you, like the Thwomps in "Bowser's Castle" or the Chomp Chomps in "Rainbow Road". But differently from SMK that falling out of the track had a reasonable time to get back to the race, here, falling out of the track means that you probably start at the 8th position, even if you was in 1st place, is just too long, and in some cases, like "Yoshi Valley" is an eternity.
The roster is nice, altough they feel less different from each other compared with the last one.
Every single Mario Kart have some deegree of Balancing issues, in this one the heavy characters are way easier to play, since the handling is so light, while winning most of the phyisical matchups, that play a significant role in this game.
I know that in the N64 era, the fact that the console could put up to 4 controllers made Nintendo highly focus on multiplayer experiences. "Golden Eye 007" (1997), "Super Smash Bros." (1999), "Wave Race 64" (1996) and the entire Pokemon Stadium and Mario Party trilogies. "Mario Kart 64" is not only not an exception to this, as it is probably the premier multiplayer experience in N64. This multiplayer is decidely fun, the battle mode is amazing, way more dynamic than SMK one, an not as broken as the battle mode became from Wii onwards, also, the joy of playing Mario Kart split screen with 4 friends is unmatched. That being said, this game hardly lacks in single player content. Only 4 cups, no unlockable characters, and the only thing you unlock is the mirror mode. This is the kind of game you would own to play only when your friends were at your house.
The track design is mixed. Most of it is nice, having cool concepts, but in general, being really limited, restricting a lot the player creativity and being somewhat repetitive internally. A lot of them have a cool gimmick, but some of them like "Kalimari Desert" and "Yoshi Valley" altough cool in concept, are quite annoying in the race. There are not many that allow you to take shortcuts or use your skill and creativity to express yourself and do cool things, and a lot don't even have offroad and are just track lines with aesthetical themes.
Mushroom Cup Tracks
Luigi Raceway- The Bland generic first track that every single mario kart game have. It is a necessary evil, allows begginers to play without paying attention to gimmicks or distractions. Not bad, but nothing special, could have a better racing layout tho.
Moo Moo Farm- The concept is pretty cool and god bless this game don't have the annoying Mounty Mole like the last one. But the layout is not interesting and the lack of offroad or any interesting thing happening make it so limited and boring. Moo Moo Meadows shown us later on how to do an way better track with the exact same concept.
Koopa Tropa Beach- Your Standard beach track. While not being "Peach Beach" level, is quite cool, with some parting ways and some nice ways of using speed boost and shortcuts.
Kalimari Desert- The concept is cool, the execution not so much. The timing of the train in the first lap is bad, and you always have to stop and wait the train twice, and beside the train gimmick, there's not much more to be have.
Flower Cup Tracks
Mario Raceway- This one is very pleasant. While the concept being the standard Mario track, this one excels at it. The layout is very very cool, have a lot of interesting curves to drift, some places to use speed boost and overall a very good track.
Frapee Snowland- Boring. While not being atrocious as the snow tracks in SMK, is a quite boring track. You can't see where the offroad ends and is just bland and generic overall.
Choco Mountain- Nice track. Is ugly visually, but have some elements going for, the falling rocks and the fact you can fall and get into the other part of the track for instance.
Toad's Turnpike- Nice concept, awful execution. While it have to be 8 shaped? Really repetitive and boring, you pretty much do the same thing the whole track.
Star Cup Tracks
Wario Stadium- Fun concept, and have some things happening. Overstays its welcome a little bit. The problem is: a good design for a track, is not just the layout and the gimmicks, but how well it ties to the game handling. This game is not fit to extremely tight curves. In SMK you would hit the wall inside the curve, here you hit the wall outside the curve.
Sherbet Island- This a classic. Quite remarkable. There are two different stages, while having a fun layout and a lot of interesting things happening, one of the most fitting for handling.
Royal Raceway- There are better Peach tracks, but this one is not bad. But is nothing special either. At least have some offroad that you can speed boost through.
Bowser's Castle- This track is amazing, one of the best in the entire series. I normally always like Bowser's Castle tracks, even the SNES one if you ignore some atrocious design flaws. But this one is special. Have a lot of different levels with its differing challenges, a really cool layout, some fun drifting parts and a lot of fun you can have trying stuff here. But this face the same problem with Wario Stadium, 90o angles are ass to make in MK64, this is why this feels so much better to race in the Wii version. Also, the goddamn Thwomp that ignore other racers and follow you in GP Mode.
Special Cup
DK Jungle Parkway- Quite quite fun. Have some different levels, the bridge is really fun to trap other racers, the coconut being shot in the forest is interesting and the cave have a nice place to speed boost to. The only problem is that the big jump across the river is really poorly handled in this version and you loose all the momentum. Another track that is better at the Wii version.
Yoshi Valley- Cool concept, awful execution. The parting ways are nice, but the fact that you don't know in which position you are although fun at first, quickly become annoying. Not a fan of that one.
Banshee Boardwalk- I hate that one. Not the concept and overall execution, this is ok. Is literally an enhanced "Ghost Valley" concept. But the layout does not fit the 64 handling, but way worse than Wario Stadium and Bowsers's Castle. When even the AI on 50cc consistently hit the walls during the track you know that is not a fit. This is just not fun, while also not being the very best track in the world, but i can't stance how better it is to race this one in DS.
Rainbow Road- This track had everything to be amazing really. The layout is really fun, and feel fun to play, stancing the strong points of the game handling. But there are two major problems. 1- Goddamn the Chomp Chomps clearly follow the player in Single Player. Very cheap 2- Overstays its welcome. If it was shorter would be way more enjoyable.
So overall, the tracks are ok. Some bad ones, not many awful and some great, most of it just fine.
The last element that i want to talk about is the rubber band. Rubber Band difficulty is not bad itself, and to be fair, most games use it, but here is just too much of rubber band, in an EA Sports fashion, particularly when you're faring well, and the way they strecht the challenge, just as EA Sports, is really really cheap, mostly for giving an unfair speed boost to the other racers. That is why is almost impossible to gain separation from the 2nd place, even if you are able to pull up some really cool stuff with drifting and speed boosts, or take shortcuts. And is really annoying having the other racers pretty much in your back the entire race. It do create a challenge, but just feels overall cheal and lazy, and you feel that you don't have much control in the outcome of the race.
If "Super Mario Kart" was cheap fun just at times, and mostly a bad game, this one is great at times and mostly cheap fun. Is a nice game, and i don't think is fair to call it a bad game, but is far from being a great one. I know that most people that have this as its favorite Mario Kart, have out of nostalgia, but to me is outrageous to say this one is better than "...Double Dash", "Mario Kart DS" (2005) or "Mario Kart 8" (2014). If you can play that with friends, i would not pass the opportunity.
I would like to start saying that i never had played "Mario Kart 64" (1996) prior to this experience. Being a kid from the 2000s made me start playing with the DS and Wii Mario Kart games. I had the oportunity, already in the 00s to play "Mario Kart Double Dash" (2002) in an acquainted's house, and later i would also end up playing "Super Mario Kart" (1992) in SNES emulators. But i never tried the N64 one. I'm saying this because this is a game a lot of people have a ton of nostalgia for, an nostalgia that won't play a role in my review, because i can't simply relate to (wait for the DS review).
I know, as a huge Mario Kart series fan, that i had to play this one. Is regarded by many people as a classic and was a big hit back in the day. But also, that maybe i wouldn't like this one that much.
At the time, this game was somewhat criticized for being to much alike to its predecessor, in here lies most of its virtues, but also, most of its flaws. To be fair, i don't think this game play out exactly like SMK, that one feels like an standard racing game with battle elements, this one inaugurate the Kart racing genre in its totality, and honestly feels distinct from other forms of Arcade Racing. The great problem is that a lot of what hindered the original game, hinders this one also, altough, not in the same extent and definitely not in the same way. This game feels pretty much like what the SNES
iteration should've been since the beginning, but couldn't because of the atrocious track design and troll in-track hazards. This is, by every mean, an needed step up, but at the same time, is not an outstanding game by any means.
First thing, its handling. The first game of the series was an extremely heavy game to control, so they needed to change it, and they lost the tone completely while doing it. Now the kart feel extremely light, and hard to control by the exact opposite to why the last game was hard to control, although anyone would have to admit that the control on this game is better than its predecessor. A lot of times you try to make the curve and your Kart will go towards the open part of the curve and a lot of time will get outside of the track way easier than you would expect. The major problem is that is a pain in the ass to dodge from oncoming hazards, particularly at short range, a lot of times you will make the correct move in the joystick and the kart won't move. But also, if you lean to hard to the side, your kart will try a full turn. Either way, you have to eat a loss. Beside that the game feel miles better. Having an effective and manual drift helps a lot, although a little bit difficult to control (not in the good technical sense, but in the clunk sense), and the fact you barely don't have to slow down in this game, make it being so much more dynamic and allow much more options during the race.
The visuals are outstanding, the characters are full of charm and the tracks are in general nice to see too. The OST is cool too.
The items are mostly to 1 vs 1, like the last game, not being a particularly item heavy Mario Kart, although it does a little better in that department. The Thunder item and the Blue Shell helps a lot with position managing, particularly dealing with the higher standings, but still lacks items that help lower standing racers to catch up. An complaint would be that the speed boost, both the normal mushroom and the newly added gold mushroom, feel really weird, as it the boost is not that relevant at some times.
For god sake the game don't punish you so much with in game hazards as SMK. My only complaint is that clearly some of the hazards ignore Bots and go directly towards you, like the Thwomps in "Bowser's Castle" or the Chomp Chomps in "Rainbow Road". But differently from SMK that falling out of the track had a reasonable time to get back to the race, here, falling out of the track means that you probably start at the 8th position, even if you was in 1st place, is just too long, and in some cases, like "Yoshi Valley" is an eternity.
The roster is nice, altough they feel less different from each other compared with the last one.
Every single Mario Kart have some deegree of Balancing issues, in this one the heavy characters are way easier to play, since the handling is so light, while winning most of the phyisical matchups, that play a significant role in this game.
I know that in the N64 era, the fact that the console could put up to 4 controllers made Nintendo highly focus on multiplayer experiences. "Golden Eye 007" (1997), "Super Smash Bros." (1999), "Wave Race 64" (1996) and the entire Pokemon Stadium and Mario Party trilogies. "Mario Kart 64" is not only not an exception to this, as it is probably the premier multiplayer experience in N64. This multiplayer is decidely fun, the battle mode is amazing, way more dynamic than SMK one, an not as broken as the battle mode became from Wii onwards, also, the joy of playing Mario Kart split screen with 4 friends is unmatched. That being said, this game hardly lacks in single player content. Only 4 cups, no unlockable characters, and the only thing you unlock is the mirror mode. This is the kind of game you would own to play only when your friends were at your house.
The track design is mixed. Most of it is nice, having cool concepts, but in general, being really limited, restricting a lot the player creativity and being somewhat repetitive internally. A lot of them have a cool gimmick, but some of them like "Kalimari Desert" and "Yoshi Valley" altough cool in concept, are quite annoying in the race. There are not many that allow you to take shortcuts or use your skill and creativity to express yourself and do cool things, and a lot don't even have offroad and are just track lines with aesthetical themes.
Mushroom Cup Tracks
Luigi Raceway- The Bland generic first track that every single mario kart game have. It is a necessary evil, allows begginers to play without paying attention to gimmicks or distractions. Not bad, but nothing special, could have a better racing layout tho.
Moo Moo Farm- The concept is pretty cool and god bless this game don't have the annoying Mounty Mole like the last one. But the layout is not interesting and the lack of offroad or any interesting thing happening make it so limited and boring. Moo Moo Meadows shown us later on how to do an way better track with the exact same concept.
Koopa Tropa Beach- Your Standard beach track. While not being "Peach Beach" level, is quite cool, with some parting ways and some nice ways of using speed boost and shortcuts.
Kalimari Desert- The concept is cool, the execution not so much. The timing of the train in the first lap is bad, and you always have to stop and wait the train twice, and beside the train gimmick, there's not much more to be have.
Flower Cup Tracks
Mario Raceway- This one is very pleasant. While the concept being the standard Mario track, this one excels at it. The layout is very very cool, have a lot of interesting curves to drift, some places to use speed boost and overall a very good track.
Frapee Snowland- Boring. While not being atrocious as the snow tracks in SMK, is a quite boring track. You can't see where the offroad ends and is just bland and generic overall.
Choco Mountain- Nice track. Is ugly visually, but have some elements going for, the falling rocks and the fact you can fall and get into the other part of the track for instance.
Toad's Turnpike- Nice concept, awful execution. While it have to be 8 shaped? Really repetitive and boring, you pretty much do the same thing the whole track.
Star Cup Tracks
Wario Stadium- Fun concept, and have some things happening. Overstays its welcome a little bit. The problem is: a good design for a track, is not just the layout and the gimmicks, but how well it ties to the game handling. This game is not fit to extremely tight curves. In SMK you would hit the wall inside the curve, here you hit the wall outside the curve.
Sherbet Island- This a classic. Quite remarkable. There are two different stages, while having a fun layout and a lot of interesting things happening, one of the most fitting for handling.
Royal Raceway- There are better Peach tracks, but this one is not bad. But is nothing special either. At least have some offroad that you can speed boost through.
Bowser's Castle- This track is amazing, one of the best in the entire series. I normally always like Bowser's Castle tracks, even the SNES one if you ignore some atrocious design flaws. But this one is special. Have a lot of different levels with its differing challenges, a really cool layout, some fun drifting parts and a lot of fun you can have trying stuff here. But this face the same problem with Wario Stadium, 90o angles are ass to make in MK64, this is why this feels so much better to race in the Wii version. Also, the goddamn Thwomp that ignore other racers and follow you in GP Mode.
Special Cup
DK Jungle Parkway- Quite quite fun. Have some different levels, the bridge is really fun to trap other racers, the coconut being shot in the forest is interesting and the cave have a nice place to speed boost to. The only problem is that the big jump across the river is really poorly handled in this version and you loose all the momentum. Another track that is better at the Wii version.
Yoshi Valley- Cool concept, awful execution. The parting ways are nice, but the fact that you don't know in which position you are although fun at first, quickly become annoying. Not a fan of that one.
Banshee Boardwalk- I hate that one. Not the concept and overall execution, this is ok. Is literally an enhanced "Ghost Valley" concept. But the layout does not fit the 64 handling, but way worse than Wario Stadium and Bowsers's Castle. When even the AI on 50cc consistently hit the walls during the track you know that is not a fit. This is just not fun, while also not being the very best track in the world, but i can't stance how better it is to race this one in DS.
Rainbow Road- This track had everything to be amazing really. The layout is really fun, and feel fun to play, stancing the strong points of the game handling. But there are two major problems. 1- Goddamn the Chomp Chomps clearly follow the player in Single Player. Very cheap 2- Overstays its welcome. If it was shorter would be way more enjoyable.
So overall, the tracks are ok. Some bad ones, not many awful and some great, most of it just fine.
The last element that i want to talk about is the rubber band. Rubber Band difficulty is not bad itself, and to be fair, most games use it, but here is just too much of rubber band, in an EA Sports fashion, particularly when you're faring well, and the way they strecht the challenge, just as EA Sports, is really really cheap, mostly for giving an unfair speed boost to the other racers. That is why is almost impossible to gain separation from the 2nd place, even if you are able to pull up some really cool stuff with drifting and speed boosts, or take shortcuts. And is really annoying having the other racers pretty much in your back the entire race. It do create a challenge, but just feels overall cheal and lazy, and you feel that you don't have much control in the outcome of the race.
If "Super Mario Kart" was cheap fun just at times, and mostly a bad game, this one is great at times and mostly cheap fun. Is a nice game, and i don't think is fair to call it a bad game, but is far from being a great one. I know that most people that have this as its favorite Mario Kart, have out of nostalgia, but to me is outrageous to say this one is better than "...Double Dash", "Mario Kart DS" (2005) or "Mario Kart 8" (2014). If you can play that with friends, i would not pass the opportunity.