How Do You Feel About Mario Kart 64?

It looked better than the SNES game, had those sweet train and highway tracks, battle mode was SO GOOD, you could drive up to Peach's castle in that one track, Rainbow Road had the sickest shortcut ever, Sherbet Land was fantastic, and that Yoshi Valley track was ass.

SNES driving I remember being tighter, and the game overall was more charming, but I played the ever-loving shit out of both.

Sorry, but Mario Kart 64 is just a badly-designed game. There are at least three tracks that have shortcuts that are clearly unintentional. Like, for example, how you can launch yourself left off that big drop in Rainbow Road and skip half the track...

Or jump over the walls in Wario Stadium...

Or trick the game into thinking you've completed a lap in Yoshi's Valley when you didn't...

And these are the ones that I can still remember. Frankly I'm surprised it doesn't come up more when people talk about this game. Mario Kart 64 is flat-out broken in so many places. Are you telling me that my friends and I are the only ones who rendered the game unplayable by exploiting the hell out of this crap?

Its pretty brutal playing it now but looking back on it, I loved it, plus it was my first N64 games.

it's the worst mario kart. and it was my first.

Second only to the original

I absolutely loved Mario Kart 64. It's not technically the best in the series (because it was the first 3D MK and for the N64,) but I definitely think it was the most fun. The SNES version was fun back in the day, but I find it really hard to go back to the pseudo-3D driving. It feels soo weird, but back in the day I had no comparisons.

Personally, I think MK 64 is my favorite simply because it's the simplest 3D installment, followed closely by the DS version (which I didn't play much of,) and Double Dash. Including and after Double Dash, they just started piling unnecessary features on. The 64 version had cut-and-dry character selection, a normal selection of items, and mostly straight forward tracks.

I guess I'm an exemption to the golden rule since I played the SNES Mario Kart as a kid when it was released, and I played a lot of it, but it's not my favorite at all. Also, as a side note, if anyone wants to play a really bad version of MK, play the GBA one.. it controls like ass.

Before the end of the first lap, and a shot for the loser? Damn, all we did was you had to finish your drink before the end of the race, and while you were drinking you could not touch the A button.

Diddy Kong Racing is better.

The shot thing almost never happens because doing that repeatedly isn't always a fun time. But the "finish your beer before the 1st last ends" was the way to ensure the person was properly intoxicated before proceeding further into the race. And allowing you to actually drive forced some people to show off their skills at driving one handed. Some impressive innovation arises from drinking Mario Kart.

I can't judge because it's one of several Mario Karts that I never played much of, if at all. That being said, those that enjoy it, more power to you. I do like the N64 tracks that they included in Mario Kart 8, though. The N64 Rainbow Road is arguably better than the new one.

These were great! You missed the skip for DK's Jungle Parkway though. They were all hard to pull off unless you really practiced at them so attempting them and not succeeding could put you at a disadvantage. But even if you were good at pulling them off does that really break the game among friends? No such thing as a gentleman's agreement?

@kevin_cogneto: I don't think that's brought up in conversations about the quality of the game because a large majority of early 3D games are completely flawed in the same ways. That has less to do with the specific games and more to do with the infancy of 3D development.

Yeah. I mean, isn't it possible to glitch your way through Ocarina of Time in like half an hour?

I remember having a lot of fun with multiplayer. Maybe.

It is proof that your first Mario Kart is not always your favorite. It was the first one I played yet Double Dash is my favorite. Never really got into 64 too much.

Mario Kart 64 is the first game I ever played. It's also not as good as Diddy Kong Racing.

I loved playing it with friends

My first Mario Kart was Super Mario Kart on the SNES and my favorite at this point is probably Mario Kart 7. The GB staff's notion of your first always being your favorite doesn't hold up well under even moderate scrutiny.

We typically used it as pre-gaming before it was "too early" to go to a party, a bar, or the occasional class (which my roommate convinced me it was a good idea to drink before). So we would typically pace ourselves by typically racing a cup. Occasionally the person with the fewest points overall drank another beer or took a shot. Eventually we adapted a few other N64 games into our alcoholic games, such as Mario Party,Tennis, and Golf, but none were quite as satisfying as drinking Mario Kart.

Sure, but Ocarina of Time isn't a competitive game. There's little-to-no point in glitching your way through a single player game, since all you're doing is skipping the content. At least in a multiplayer game I'm skipping a bunch of content while dominating my friends in the process. Besides, I don't think that OoT glitch was discovered until years later. I'm pretty sure I discovered that Rainbow Road cheat/shortcut within a week of buying Mario Kart 64.

As for giving early polygonal games a pass purely because they're early polygonal games, sorry but I don't buy that logic. Forgiving something that you know to be inferior simply because of the time in which it was made is basically the textbook definition of nostalgia. Hell, my 56K modem was the fastest connection on the block back in the day, it doesn't mean I want to go back to it. Not that I'm saying that there were no good games from that period, I'm just saying that Mario Kart 64 isn't one of them.

fwiw I made a list testing my personal preferences to see that hypothetical aphorism held true for me.

Turns out more often the first game I played in a series was not my favorite (it was only 38.9% of the time), although mario kart was one where it was (due to battle mode which my friends and I loved, I like the grand prix mode in Double Dash! )

http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/slag/lists/my-first-game-in-a-franchise-is-my-favorite-38-9-o/85383/

I think the "Mario Kart" Rule applies here for me.

I had a Genesis growing up so I had never played the SNES Mario Kart. The first time I played a Mario Kart was on the N64. That's my favorite one I've played to this day.

I've played almost all the Mario Karts, and I think MK64 is the only bad one. Those controls just didn't do it for me, they were too slippery. I think it took them two tries to get the cart handling feeling right in a 3D MK game. And the courses I thought were pretty dull too (which bums me out even more because MK8 has more MK64 retro courses than any other MK game).

Also, while we're disproving the "Mario Kart Alpha Theory", my first was Super Kart, but my favorite is Double Dash! (MK8 could displace it eventually, time will tell).

Edit: I wouldn't be surprised if most people's favorite Mario Kart is simply the one they could play the most with friends.

This. This x100. I'm pretty sure people that like MK64 have not played that game in 10 years. It's by far the worst MK game.

MK64 is great. Has some of the most memorable tracks/arenas in the whole series.

Fun game, it's Mario Kart; hard to screw up.

While I did play the SNES version first - N64 is still really the best one to me (controversial, I know.)

I was probably too young for the SNES one when I played it & N64 was the go to for Beerio Kart (Mario Kart Drinking Game) in college. Fond memories.

I don't really get why the bombcrew is so vitriolic towards the Mario Kart 64... I'm pretty sure Brad even said he barely remembers the SNES one... the one that he said he considers the best? so, I'm at a loss. I don't really hate on the Mario Kart series...

It has the best battle mode - but only on The Block. Seriously, every arena in every Mario Kart battle mode sucks compared to this simple set up of ramps, bridges, and levels. Shit baffles me that they can't get that right in any other Mario Kart game.

As for the racing in 64 I'd have to agree. Pretty meh.

Mario Karts past, present, and future have got nothing, NOTHING I SAY, on Crash Team Racing.

Nothing.

I know I played it during the 64 era, but I don't actually remember anything about it.

Diddy Kong was the kart racer for me

Well, that doesn't make sense to me. I don't think the ability to break a game immediately discounts how fun that game can be to play. Once you start talking about the technical quality of it, you get into a weird grey area where almost an entire generation of games, with your logic, are to be considered absolute garbage. Some of the biggest games of all time, which are subjectively still fun to play - Mario 64, Ocarina of Time - should be considered bad for no other reason than because of the technology at the time. It's a much more opinion-based system than comparing a 56K modem to a cable modem - one of those is 100% clearly better than the other.

I prefer MK64 because of the controls, tracks, and mechanics - completely subjective things that are easily compared to the modern games.

I never played a lot of Mario Kart 6⁴, due to not owning a Nintendo 64. I remember thinking the track with the train was pretty cool, and the skyscraper battle stage.

It's not the best Mario Kart (that's Double Dash!!) and it's probably not the worst (Super Circuit). It's a Mario Kart. Wahoo!

I love Mario Kart 64 purely for the fact that the battle mode is still my favorite to this day. It seems like they keep changing aspects of the battle mode with every game, but they never can seem to get it right. Also, F being able to inflate new balloons Mario Kart DS.

When I was a kid 4 player split-screen Mario Kart 64 was a revelation. That said, I'm totally willing to admit that maybe it's not actually that good a Mario Kart game, I have no idea, I haven't played it in a very long time. I've liked games like Mario Kart DS, Wii and 8 more.

I played some of it, can't say its my favorite since the SNES was my first... :3 I played the shit out of that game for sure.

The tracks were okay but I really didn't like the Donkey Kong Country-style sprites for the racers. It was disappointing seeing my fancy new N64 using SNES graphical tricks.

I remember the game fondly, and I'm pretty nostalgic about a lot of the course themes. Having bought and played the game again within the past year however, I realized how bad it looks and controls.

The fact that the characters are still just sprites made to look 3D is painfully clear once you're made aware of it, and it looks downright ugly. It beats Diddy Kong Racing when it comes to the courses, as every course in DKR isn't nearly as meticulously designed and they're pretty bland with bad textures, but at least the drivers and karts are actually polygonal in a game where everything else is polygonal.

After having played Wii, 7 and now 8 the steering feels so loose and wrong. Because of that, I feel like if you asked people with little experience with games to sit down and play Mario Kart 64 now it'd be a mess and you'd want to stop playing right away, which is in stark contrast to the newer ones.

The battle mode on the other hand has never been as good as it was in 64. It isn't fun if you have to play with AI, especially more than 2 characters. Nintendo needs to stop carrying over all these arbitrary parameters from the regular race mode and start downsizing it into something small and intense again if they want people to care about that mode again.

I'm always excited when they remake classic courses from the N64 over any other incarnation, because then I can experience what I loved about those courses as a kid without having to deal with the reality of how unfun they are to play in the original.

If everyone knows the shortcut glitches, then I don't see what the big deal is. It's up to you whether you exploit them or not after all.

The only Mario Karts I like are Double Dash and 8.

It was my first Mario Kart, so I'm fully okay with being a little biased about it, but I love the game. I don't have nostalgia for specific tracks or anything like that, but it was a great game in its time.

Im not a fan, even though it was the first MK I played (so much for that theory). I preferred Diddy Kong Racing.

Like most n64 games I fondly remember it is probably terrible now, but I remember liking it a lot. So yes I do like Mario Cart 64 warts and all.

It's garbage; Diddy Kong Racing is far superior

THE MOST EXTREME

i wish more of the MK games (as much as i like/love them) would have the crazy sort of crashes and jumps that 64 had.

Hey, Mario Kart 64 had four players, Super Mario Kart had two.

Case Closed: MK64 Wins.

I actively dislike 64, Wii and Double Dash. The SNES, DS and 3DS versions were pretty great and MK8 looks excellent.

Nay 64 all the way. Such a disappointment.

Mario Kart 64 has the best battle mode. BAR NONE. Block Fort is the only reason that I would play that game to this day.

Mario Kart 64 was my first Mario Kart and I really have no love for it at all.

Crash Team Racing is the pinnacle of kart racers.