Overview

Mario Kart 64's title screen

Gameplay

Mario Kart 64 can be a simple racer in order to appeal to a casual player, but offers more advanced techniques to keep a more experienced player interested.  At its most bare-bones, Mario Kart 64 only requires a player 

DK's Jungle Parkway

The game is separated into four play types, Grand Prix, Versus, Battle, and Time Trial.  In each of these modes you choose from 16 race tracks and 8 playable racers, each of which have different attributes such as speed, acceleration, and weight.  These attributes affect how each character handles.  The Grand Prix mode has four difficulties, 50cc, 100cc, 150cc, and Mirror, each progressively faster with more difficult opponents.  The 16 tracks are divided into 4 cups, and you are tasked with racing these cups to win trophies.  If you achieve all gold trophies in all the cups in each difficulty, you are rewarded with a new title screen.  Versus and Battle mode allow players to compete with up to four of their friends via split screen.  Versus allows friends to race together on any of the single player tracks, and battle allow players to fight in large arenas using items.  Time Trial has a player racing against the clock.  This mode will display a "ghost" of your best time, which is a translucent recording of your previous best lap.

Characters

The playable characters are:

Player select screen

Lightweight

• Toad
• Princess Peach
• Yoshi

Middleweight

• Mario
• Luigi

Heavyweight

• Donkey Kong
• Wario
• Bowser

Lightweight racers have quick acceleration and excellent handling, but have slow top speeds and are easily knocked around.  Middleweight racers are good all around racers with middle of the road attributes.  Heavyweight racers have high top speeds and are very difficult to bully, but have slow acceleration and can be difficult to handle.  

An early version of the game featured the character Magikoopa instead of Donkey Kong. 

Tracks

The 16 tracks in Mario Kart 64 are:

Sherbet Land

Mushroom Cup

• Luigi Raceway - A simple course that slightly resembles a Nascar track.
• Moo Moo Farm - A bumpy dirt course that circles a farm pasture.  Watch out for jumping Monty Moles.
• Koopa Troopa Beach - A sandy beach island course.  A rocky interior is to one side and the ocean to the other.
• Kalimari Desert -  This course is a desert course that weaves across train tracks.  Make sure to stop for trains.

Flower Cup

• Toads Turnpike - A simple freeway made difficult by oncoming traffic.  Avoid getting hit at all cost.
• Frappe Snowland - A snowscape littered with explosive snowmen and thick snow dunes.
• Choco Mountain - Race along chocolate cliff overhangs and dodge falling boulders.
• Mario Raceway - A twisty thin track with pirana plants and a huge green pipe tunnel.

Star Cup

• Wario Stadium - Resembles a dirt bike race course.  Many great jumps and full of shortcuts.
• Sherbet Land - An ice course around a freezing lake.  Avoid the sledding penguins big and small.
  

  Rainbow Road from Mario Kart 64
• Royal Raceway - Windy and thin asphalt course.  Watch for the hidden Mario 64 castle.
• Bowsers Castle - Filled with menacing traps and hazards.

Special Cup

• DK's Jungle Parkway - A Jungle course with a large jump across a river.  Watch out for the ferry.
• Yoshi Valley - A thin twisting multi path course.  It has many bottomless pits.
• Banshee Boardwalk - A rickety wooden course with ghosts and a haunted house full of bats.
• Rainbow Road - A long course in space made of rainbows.

Reception

Mario Kart 64 initially received relatively positive reviews.  Some reviewers found fault with the gameplay depth and single-player experience, but rated it fairly well overall.  Commercially Mario Kart 64 is one of the most successful Mario Kart games in the series.  It sold 5.5 million copies in the US and 2.24 million in Japan.