Mario Kart 64

Five long years I've been waiting...

Super Mario Kart for the Super Nintendo was a game that snuck up on me and locked a vice grip around my brain. How could a game this silly looking be so completely and utterly engrossing? - I used to think to myself. I became addicted to the game. As a one player experience it offered plenty of challenge and discovery but as a two player competition, Super Mario Kart was perfection. The racing component of the game in itself was superb, but the ability to launch a variety of special weapons from your vehicle (a la James Bond) at your hapless opponents pushed the playability of this game over the top.

As every month after my initial addiction to Super Mario Kart passed, I used to wonder when we'd hear about a Super Mario Kart sequel. Certainly there was more that Nintendo could do with this idea for the SNES.

No news of a sequel came.

Then the Ultra 64 was announced.

I Want More

One of the first titles named for what was to become known as the Nintendo 64, was an update of Super Mario Kart. It was going to feature three dimensional environments, improved mobility and simultaneous four player capability. Anticipation for this game caused me to hyperventilate on several occasions.

I wanted to play Mario Kart 64 as much as I wanted a Nintendo 64. I've always felt that Super Mario Kart and The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past were the two best reasons for owning a SNES (and two of the best reasons to enjoy videogames period) and I felt confident that history would be repeating itself.

Well (it hurts to say this), as good as Mario Kart 64 is, it still can't top my memories of the original Kart. I'd definitely say it's one of the best Nintendo 64 games available but frankly, that's not a very difficult feat to accomplish these days.

I didn't enjoy Mario Kart 64 anywhere near as much as the incredible Super Mario 64 or the impossibly innovative Wave Race 64. To my dismay, I'd have to say that Kart 64 is equally as rewarding as Pilot Wings 64. You do have the four best games available for the machine here, but I was really hoping, no, expecting, that Mario Kart 64 would come out on top.

Here's why it didn't:

The game feels short even with 20 immediately playable tracks.
The game feels slow - it's just no where near as death defying as Wave Race 64
You can't do any stunts with the Karts - where's the loop de loops, flips and two wheel action we could have had?
The worlds aren't interactive enough - there should be more than just obstacles. Creatures should jump onto the Karts or reach out and grab the Karts.
The collision detection is a little soft in places - how can we pass right through the paddle boat in the Donkey Kong Jungle level?
The power-ups aren't very imaginative or terribly effective - mushroom boosts don't seem to give you anything more than a second of breathing room because the other vehicles all seem to get faster when you use it. And hitting your opponents barely slows them down.
Despite the cheapness of the computer AI, the game still manages to be much easier than the original Kart.
There are hardly any options to tinker with - you can't change the amount of laps, alter the music (other than turning it off) or tweak your vehicles.

But, most of all, after the vast game play improvements of Super Mario 64, I really felt like I was cheated by this almost note for note duplication of the original Super Mario Kart. A few new weapons, a 3D take and cleaner visuals can't hide the fact that this is essentially five year old game play that Nintendo could have done in its sleep. It's like an update to a movie that has almost exactly the same story as the older one but features better flash (read: the similarities between the more expensive, Desperado, and the equally great but much less sparkly, El Mariachi).

Now, I'm not saying I didn't like Mario Kart 64, because, actually, I love the game. But I know that this has more to do with my connections to the original Kart than with any great brushstrokes of interactive ingenuity expressed here.

It's A Party

Of course, the one thing that this Mario Kart does exceedingly well is allow small groups of people to participate at once. For the first time in Mario Kart's history, four human racers can compete at the same time. As a showcase for your N64's four controller ports, there are no better cartridges available right now. It may be difficult to see everything on the tiny squares of television screen real estate that each contestant gets but that depends on the size of your tube (in this case, size really does matter).

Two player races are cut from the same cloth as the SNES Kart. Things get scrunched, detail and clarity are compromised but still, everything is present and the racing does get harried. If you are competing against a friend who's at about the same skill level as yourself, be prepared to learn some new curse words as the two of you battle for first. In Mario Kart, there is only winner. Second place finishers not only get to be humiliated by the winner but the computer has fun by blowing them up and embarrassing them by forcing them to do vehicle gymnastics in the air.

A fun thing to do if you're in first place and your opponent(s) are right behind you, is to try and hold on to your special weapons (the multiple-hit banana bunch is the best) until the last minute and then go nuts ejecting them behind you just as you're crossing the finish line. The resulting collisions should make at least one of you smile.

If racing becomes too much for your party, the two, three or four of you may decide that a battle is just what the doctor ordered. Battle Mode in MK64 is a pumped up 3D version of the Battle Mode in the SNES Kart. The three balloons around your kart represent the difference between winning and losing, so your task is to protect them at all costs. Meanwhile your opponent(s) are trying to pelt you with turtle shells, bananas and fake surprise boxes.

The battles take place on a series of ramps and levels. You can scurry to the top of a structure and look down on your opponent - hell, you can even jump right on top of them if you're feeling particularly inspired. Because of the enclosed areas that the battles take place in and the blocky-futuristic look of the ramps and structures, Battle Mode tends to feel a little like Psygnosis' excellent Assault Rigs. Considering that Battle Mode is an extra addition to the Kart package (albeit an expected addition because it was in the first Kart), plus the fact that up to four players can join in, this game is more than a worthy purchase.

Shiny

The look of this game is sensational. Three dimensional computer modeled characters spin and swerve around rock solid polygonal locations. The textures are excellent. Mud looks like mud, the roadways are effectively speckled and stained with age and use, and extras like the rolling surf of Koopa Troopa Beach will have you sitting slack-jawed.

The fiery red glow that creeps up the stone walls of Bowser's Castle does wonders to place you into the environment and away from the sides of creaky suspension bridges. Ice looks as slippery and frosty as it should and the light snow fall borrowed from Super Mario 64 aids the wintry experience. The enormous caverns and tunnels that the racers pass through are a welcome addition to the proceedings and represent a huge improvement over the sea of flat that the worlds of Super Mario Kart offered up.

I liked the new style of the characters in Mario Kart 64. With bulging and blinking 3D eyeballs, the character select screen is a little eerie. All of these colorful cartoon folk look as if they are antsy to get out of their window paned enclosures. I was especially pleased to see that Wario had been thrown into the Kart mix. He quickly became my character of choice. This decision was also based on the sampled dialog that each of the racers spout out during the contest.

The animation of the vehicles racing is vastly improved over the original Kart. In this game, the clean and defined look of the opponents makes them all look a lot closer to living cartoons. The karts themselves look and handle like real machines. The amount of smoke that these little eco-monsters spit out is a tad disturbing but once you do your first power-slide, you'll forget all about the pollution.

Sliding is much more advanced in Mario Kart 64. Not only is it easier to control yourself in the midst of a power-slide, it becomes apparent that success in this game, relies heavily on proper slide timing. Needless to say, improper timing can send your vehicle careening into a cliff side, or worse, over a cliff side, off the edge of a bridge, or into a spin out. Getting hit in Mario Kart 64 also affects you in three dimensions. You don't just twirl around like a mad figure skater, like in the original Kart, this time, a good smack will send you tumbling and flipping end over end like two cats in a fight.

Talkative Bunch

All of Mario Kart 64's characters are very vocal. You will get to know and love (hate?) their distinctive sounds through the course of racing as or against them. Wario's evil laugh and pomposity is as charming as heck. Mario, on the other hand, sounds about as annoying as you could ever possibly imagine. Every time the heroic plumber zips past an opponent he lets out a gleeful high pitched "Yippeeeeee!" that will cause your fingers to curl into a fist. Nothing feels better than beating this fancy pants.

Yoshi's familiar wheeze is either going to have you smiling or thinking, why couldn't they have come up with a better 64-bit sound for this cool lizard? (I was thinking the latter) Donkey Kong doesn't quite sound like an ape, but he does come pretty close to sounding like an electronic ape, so that's a step in the right direction. Peach sounds a little too much like squeaky Mario, which is a little scary (maybe it's the same voice actor?). In the same vein, Luigi may as well be one of the palette swapped ninjas from Mortal Kombat, for all of the original personality he's got.

It will be the mischievous Wario that will have you smiling the most. His delirious cackle whenever one of his weapons connects with an opponent, is much cooler than any of the other racers. I do have to admit though, I started to take a shine to Toad. This little mushroom capped runt gets bumped around on the road quite a bit but you just gotta love the little guy when he wheels past an opponent and yells out, "Yahoooo!", like some macho cowboy with the voice of a ventriloquist's dummy.

Instrumental Infamy

The music to Mario Kart 64 will have many people covering their ears in self preservation and just as many people smiling and bopping along like happy Christmas Elves. I fell somewhere in the middle. I did find a lot of the tunes to be impenetrably repetitive and grating but then other, more atmospheric melodies had me turning up the volume. Nintendo played it smart this time though and allowed for on-the-fly audio changes. If you don't like the tunes in the game, you can quickly tap the left shoulder button and knock 'em out.

The audio clarity of this cart is very good. It's not quite CD audio, but the over worked engine noises and the screeches of severe cornering are impressive. The Nintendo logo off the top even gets a nicely tuned engine purr overhaul and comes complete with a nifty Doppler effect. Every location in the game comes equipped with its own indigenous sounds. I enjoyed the gentle wash of the ocean on Koopa Troopa Beach, the grainy thud of falling boulders on Choco Mountain and the familiar ghostly echoes of Banshee Boardwalk.

Mario Kart 64 is a great sounding cartridge that is brimming with audio activity. There might be periods in the game where you'll find the sounds or music unbearable, but because of the diversity inherent in this racer, it won't be too long before you'll hear something you like again. I played with the volume up most of the time and if ever I found the music to be too much, I just tapped the L-button outta there.

Dropped Back From Pole Position

The trouble with making definitive games like Super Mario Kart is you have to be pretty damn remarkable with any kind of a sequel. Although I found Mario Kart 64 to be eminently playable, I just couldn't shake the feeling that it was a knock off of the first game. Nintendo gave us our minimum expectations with Mario Kart 64. Normally that would be fine but in a world where Super Mario 64 and Wave Race 64 can rest in our game libraries, producing the minimum is just not going to take home the trophy. Frankly, that's exactly what I expected Mario Kart 64 to do.

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