Mario Kart 64 (N64) Playthrough - NintendoComplete
306A playthough of Nintendo's 1997 kart-racing game for the Nintendo 64, Mario Kart 64.
This video shows all four of the Mario GP cups played at the 150cc engine level:
0:45 Mushroom Cup (Mario)
12:29 Flower Cup (Toad)
24:49 Star Cup (Wario)
40:32 Special Cup (Yoshi)
56:26 Ending credits
Super Mario Kart was a runaway hit when it first appeared during the 1992 holiday season. Combining classic Nintendo personalities with frantic, family-friendly multiplayer action, it went on to become one of the SNES's best-selling and most fondly remembered titles.
Fast forward five years - the N64 had finally made its way into the hands of consumers, Super Mario 64 had already become the template for success with 3D platformers, and Nintendo was eager to repeat this success with other important franchises, but could they do it? Could Mario Kart 64 truly deliver a next-gen experience that stayed true to the things that made the first game an instant classic?
By all accounts, the answer for critics and players alike in 1997 turned out to be a resounding yes. Mario Kart was back and better than ever.
The N64's entry in the long-running series brought 3D to the Mario kart krew, and it delivered a far better sense of speed and motion than anything the SNES's mode-7 trickery could have ever managed - hills rise and drop, uneven surfaces affect kart handling, tunnels and hallways create choke points - there are so many changes to the track design enabled by the move to 3D that the entire game feels as fresh as Super Mario Kart did before it, and it all looks great. The layouts are clear and colorfully themed and the game runs at a generally smooth and consistent framerate, even in the manic split-screen multiplayer modes! Mario Kart 64 was a showcase title for the N64's hardware in 1997, and though it shows its age, the creativity on display here still manages to shine in spite of the low resolution, the blurry textures, and the chunky, dated prerendered sprites used for character graphics. And that music is still as insanely catchy as ever!
Mario Kart 64 also introduced a few new key mechanics. The power slide is introduced here and takes full advantage of the controller's analog stick, and items such as the feared blue shell, trick item boxes, and the multi-banana all make their debut in this entry. The slide mechanics add a lot of needed depth to the gameplay despite their fairly stiff learning curve, and the items maintain a reasonable balance that is lacking in some of the more recent games in the series. The only real complaint I've ever had about MK64 is over the rubber-banding AI in the single player races - you can lap the CPU players and still find them cheating you out of victory at the last possible moment thanks to some impossible recoveries.
Overall, Mario Kart 64 might not quite have the same luster today as it did twenty years ago, but as anyone that has ever sat with three friends late into the night playing battle mode can tell you, Nintendo's magic was firing on all cylinders when they created this.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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