Mario Kart 64 (Wii)

Discuss Review + Want + Have Contribute

Description

Mario Kart 64 races eight familiar faces, including Mario, Bowser and Yoshi, on four progressively tougher four-track circuits. Wide curves and gentle banks mark the Mushroom Cup tracks. Your commute gets notably tougher on the Flower Cup, though. The player will have to dodge semis rumbling on Toad's Turnpike and bounding boulders on fogbound Choco Mountain! Star Cup tracks range from the icy surfaces of Sherbet Land to the lava lakes of Bowser's Castle. The true test of karting competence, though, comes on the four tracks in Special Cup. Zip through the dark caves and green hillsides of Donkey Kong's Jungle Parkway, cling to the sheer cliffs of Yoshi Valley and hustle over haunted Banshee Boardwalk before tackling the longest track in the game: neon-lit Rainbow Road.

The game offers two camera angles and three engine sizes: 50cc, 100cc and 150cc. You can gain even more speed by mastering the power slide technique or grabbing Super Star power-ups. Each kart has distinctive handling, acceleration and top speed capabilities. Light karts like Princess's smoothly steer through tight corners, but run the constant risk of getting flattened by heavy karts, like Donkey Kong's. Shells that you fire at rival racers, Bananas that make them skid out and Lightning Bolts that make them small and very slow are just a few of the game's unique power-ups.

Screenshots

Alternate Titles

• "马里奥卡丁车64" -- Chinese Title (Simplified)
• "Mario Kart R" -- Early pre-release title
• "マリオカート64" -- Japanese Spelling

Part of the Following Groups

• Genre: Kart racing
• Mario games
• Mario Kart series

User Reviews

There are no reviews for the Wii release of this game. You can use the links below to write your own review or read reviews for the other platforms of this game.

The Press Says

Nintendo Life	Jan 27, 2007		90
Jeuxvideo.com	Aug 12, 2009	17 out of 20	85
Mag'64	Sep 03, 2009	8.25 out of 10	82
Virtual Console Reviews	Jan 26, 2007		80
videogamer.com	Feb 02, 2007	8 out of 10	80
IGN	Jan 30, 2007	7.9 out of 10	79
Wiiloveit	2007	19 out of 30	63
Eurogamer.de	Mar 12, 2007	3 out of 5	60

Forums

There are currently no topics for this game.

Trivia

1001 Video Games

The N64 version of Mario Kart 64 appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Bonus courses

If you complete all the tracks in the 150cc class, the game opens up new tracks. The new tracks are actually reverse images of the original set.

Japanese version

In Mario Kart 64 in the Japanese version lots of the signs are take offs of brands, the only one apparent in the western version is the Koopa Air (Nike Air), but one interesting one is a sign that says MarioBro which was changed to Mario Bros. This of course was originally a takeoff of Marlboro cigarettes.

MagiKoopa

Originally, MagiKoopa (an enemy from Super Mario World) was intended to be one of the racers. However, he was later replaced by Donkey Kong before the game was released. You can still see MagiKoopa in some of the earliest screenshots of the game (back when it was still called Mario Kart R)

Title change

The game was originally going to be called Mario Kart R but was changed because Nintendo felt it was to similar to Sega's upcoming racing game Sonic R.

Virtual console version

For the Wii Virtual Console version of Mario Kart 64, the Ghost Trial Data, (which allowed players to race against a ghost kart of their best times), has been disabled.

Awards

• Retro Gamer
  • September 2004 (Issue #8) – #80 Best Game Of All Time (Readers' Vote)

Information also contributed by Chris Martin, Guy Chapman, MegaMegaMan and Warlock

Related Web Sites

• Mario Kart 64 at Wikipedia (Contains general details about Mario Kart 64, free to edit by anyone.)
• OC ReMix Game Profile (Fan remixes of music from Mario Kart 64.)