REVIEW: Mario Kart 64 1996/1997, Nintendo 64
	By: Nintendo Type: Racing Players: 1-4 Difficulty: Easy

Big sequels bring big commotions. The original Super Mario Kart is one of the SNES' most beloved games for it's 2-player thrills and spills (said to be the best-selling 16-bit game of all time, in fact), so when an N64 follow-up was announced, it was hotly anticipated. Go-kart racing with the Mario gang is universally agreed to be one of the biggest bursts of fun one can have. No doubt the N64 version would be great, but would it be able to live up to the glory of it's precessor?

 
(left) Koopa's castle, where many feet get licked, Full-on 4-player carnage (right)

Well, for the most part it does, but there are some noteworthy differences in the playing style of Mario Kart 64, which fans of the SNES original will surely notice. Your first impression of this game will be that you've landed in Mario Kart heaven. Chunky, colourful characters zip around on marvelously detailed tracks with catchy tunes playing along in the background and amusing voice samples as the icing on the cake. Looks and sounds, although not exactly filled with spectacular mind-blowing effects, certainly do their job of drawing you into a fun and light-hearted atmosphere very well.
 
Some may frown upon this game's reliance on 2-D sprites. While the tracks are made up from proper polygons, the drivers and most of the trackside extras are plasticky rendered sprites. For most games of the N64 era, this is a sign of sloppy work, but Mario Kart 64 is an exception; the blend of sprites and polygons actually works well here. Not only because the sprites that are used are drawn very well, but also because they manage to maintain an illusion of chunkyness throughout. You'll end up hardly noticing the 2-D ness of most sprite-based objects. Instead, you'll find yourself very pleased at the convincing tracks with their varied, colourful scenery filled with nice touches. The fat cows staring aimlessly on the Moh Moh Farm track, the little "sound effect" blurbs that pop up whenever you collide with something and the bubbling lava of Bowser's castle that casts a red glow over the track are but a few examples. No over-the-top flash is needed to create visuals that are enjoyable to see nonetheless. Most of it looks good and solid even after the game has aged a few years.

Yoshi's Club Med vacation goes terribly wrong

The gently upbeat tunes are equally likeable and accompany the frantic racing very well, while some of the music will get stuck in your brain for quite some time. The sound effects and voice samples sprinkled over the whole thing are just as much of a delight. It's immensely fulfilling to smack a rival driver with a Koopa shell, complete with a loud wha-boom noise, squeals of agony from your victim and shouts of joy from your driver (vice-versa, it is pure agony to be on the recieving end of such a blow). It would have to be the voice samples that steal the show in the presentation stakes. From Wario's bellowing sadist laugh to Toad's shrieking and Yoshi's tardemark Mario World soundbyte, everyone has their own distinct vocals which you'll grow very fond of. For one thing, it adds "personality" to the game.

Okay, so looks and sounds are very decent overall. It's more tricky to give a fair judgement about the way this plays. Not that there's anything -really- wrong with the gameplay to begin with. Quite the contrary; the controls are easy to get the hang of and work very well, everything functions smoothly enough. After some practise, you'll find yourself pulling off powerslides and balancing weapons like an expert. Any qualms one may have with the gameplay come from a different source.

Peach will put any chliché about women drivers to rest soon

It's widely agreed that the 1-player mode in this game is a bit pants. And sadly, that is quite true. The solo mode sees you competing in a grand prix against 7 other CPU-driven bloodhounds. And they fight dirty. They literally cheat in the sense that they can rip off state-of-the-art weaponry and catch up with you at blinding speed, even after you have dealt a blow that should have left them miles behind you. But that's the only tricky thing there really is. For the rest, the single-player grand prix is mostly devoid of serious challenge. All it takes to get through is time and some dead-on determination to out-sneak the CPU and you've got it. I will say that winning a 1-player race does give you quite some thrill, but it's mostly cheap kicks.

Chaos on the Ajaccio-Corte highway, as usual

Luckily, the rest is almost entirely great. Believe it or not, this is a racing game where even the -time attack- mode is fun, mainly becuase the lush and varied tracks are a joy to zip around on, with cunning shortcuts to discover with some efforts. Of course, everyone knows that the meat of Mario Kart lies in it's multiplayer frenzies, and Mario Kart 64 delivers plenty of those. Up to four of you can go for a drive around the game's funky tracks in Versus mode. The enjoyment you'll get out of that is almost unlimited. It's pretty damn obvious that throwing in multiple players will multiply the fun, but Mario Kart 64 pulls this off with more flair than anyone else. The way everyone takes a liking to one particular character and driving style, the distinct hazards and sights of each track, the delightfully tense weapon-flinging battles, the dozens of ingenious secret shortcuts to find and master and the way the scales can sometimes instantly be tipped in favor of the underdog (the players in last place always get better weapons); everything has been calculated to provide the maximum of multiplayer hilarity. Get some friends (or even enemies) around, and you could be playing Mario Kart 64 forever, mostly thanks to the design of the tracks which really shines. This game was -made- for multiplayer fun.

Pick and mix! Or, just select your driver...

There is also the much-trumpeted battle mode, which was one of the most beloved features of the SNES original. Basically, you zip around a small arena with three balloons strapped to your kart. Pop the balloons on your opponents' karts using weapons to win, and make sure that no weapon-strikes will wipe out your three balloons. However, it's a bit of a doubtful affair in the N64 version. Already, two of the four battle arenas are a bit rubbish (Big Donut is just dull, and the Skyscraper arena is a bit too chaotic). Luckily, the other two are really amazing, with Block Fort in particular providing hours of sneaky and brutal fun. Overall, battle mode is very entertaining, but SNES purist might take badly to it, and just plain racing around the exciting tracks in Versus mode is usually more amusing.

Speaking of SNES purists, they will be the only ones who will find some serious grumbles with this game. Mario Kart 64 has some differences in it's style to Super Mario Kart; there are no more coins to collect, far less booster strips, slightly different weapons, much lighter subtelties between drivers and and overall more easygoing challenge. Wether this makes Mario Kart 64 better or worse than it's prequel is a different story, which is also of little relevance here. It's still Mario Kart, albeit with a slightly different flair to it. And whatever way you look at it, this is a huge dose of pure, frantic and hilarious fun. It's a game you will be coming back to for years on end, just because the multiplayer mode's fun and thrills almost never fade away. An essential buy. - Toasty 94%

[Key to the reviewing system]