Is Mario Kart 64 Actually Good? 

This was my first ever N64 game I got when my parents bought me and all my brothers an N64 for Christmas. I'll always love this game no matter how many years pass by.

Im sure i noticed, but there are features that make this game too unique. - Spinning out without even a Banana - Making light weights spin out from heavies, especially getting rammed from behind by mediums - Spinning as your sliding forward - Driving a bit further before spinning out by banana - Saving yourself from the banana - Barrel rolling forward when hit - Barrel flying forward when hit - The ground actually shakes when landing - Crash jumping (if you managed to time it right on PWOOMP!!!) - It is chaotically awesome!! So much madness in the game!

Back in the day, I remember spending hours in Mario kart 64 with my uncle. thanks for bringing me back so much good memories! Edit: wow, i got 68 likes, that’s almost nice

5:05 This comment aged well.

Absolute Legend! For me, it's only either MK 64 or MK 8 Deluxe. And in terms of battle mode, MK 64's even the ONLY go-to address for me. Nintendo never managed to fully recreate that original balloony feeling ever again.

A major reason the blue shell was so rare was because certain tracks had a special box that gives it to you gareenteed. Luigi's Circuit with the balloon at the beginning. The launch ramp leading to the line box on top of a rock. You got the item purely on a skill rather than luck, which is what made it the most balanced Mario Kart mechanic of them all.

Back in elementary school one of my teachers let a student bring his N64 to school and he let us use it during lunch period. We would play MK64 all the time. Such a great multiplayer experience, especially battle mode

Mario Kart 64 is my *favourite* Mario Kart... i still cry a bit when that credits theme starts 😢👍

To this day it’s still my favorite.

The Blue Shell in Mario Kart 64, you could actually do things about it. It could hit a wall, or if timed when going over a ramp it can miss. The later games decided to just make it fly above and hit the lead racer, which is why it IS TERRIBLE, if you're in first place you're only going to get like a banana, you can't defend against it no matter what, you have no counter play. They removed counter play, and that's not fun, especially when you're winning and get hit screwed at the end of the 3rd lap dropping from first to 6th because you got hit with 2 blue shells, several red shells and maybe some lightning for good measure. 64 the items could change a race but they didn't feel unfair.

It never was bad to begin with ..

Hands down best racing game ever, its so broken and full of opportunities to screw over your friends and always rewards bravery

It’s unique for sure! Seems the games after MK64 really just combined and went more for the SMK look and feel. It feels so different compared to the rest

Watching this video coincidentally after kamek was announced as a playable character lol

Still the best in the series and it's not even close.

Pretty sure the heavy characters have the highest top speed to make up for their slow acceleration. The Light characters have the slowest top speed.

I liked playing MK64 when at friends' houses but in my opinion, Crash Team racing is a superior game. The driving mechanics in that are more rewarding to learn and there is very little rubber banding. It came out a couple of years afterwards so I'm sure Naughty Dog played a lot of Mario Kart to get their ideas right.

With all those new tracks in MK8D I hope they'll also bring back the fantastic battle mode levels from MK64. I basically spent my childhood there.

I love that you go over the history and some technical details of each game in your review! Really makes them unique

The thing spoiling it for me was how much the CPU rubber banded. There was little point getting good at the game if playing against CPU racers, because they'll just catch you up whatever anyway

these videos are so underrated, the editing, script with good background and feedback, and engaging all around. love all the videos, keep it up!

I got this game for Christmas- the Japanese version in 1996 I believe. My Dad somehow brought my N64 to a shop to modify it so it could play Japanese imports. It was the first year I knew "the truth" about Santa Claus and it just blew my mind to have a game none of my friends had and had it so early. To this day it remains my favorite Mario Kart game.

Played SMK, MK64, MK7, MK8, and one more I think. In my opinion MK64 remains unmatched in gameplay. The controls are tighter and the game is much more focused on the driving than the items. The later games drive me crazy because the controls are comparatively sluggish and you just get demolished by items instead of having to outmaneuver the CPU drivers.

This game was like... A HUGE leap for the series in terms of getting it from its humble start to what we know it as today, and as such, I have a lot of respect for it, and I'm also pretty nostalgic about it as it was one of the ones I actually got to play during my childhood... That said, I unfortunately never had the opportunity to play it in multiplayer, so I don't know what that's even like, and I find it pretty rough going back to its single player mode nowadays... Let's face it, since the introduction of retro tracks in Mario Kart Super Circuit (you thought I was gonna say DS lol) going back to only 16 tracks is umm... Not a lot... And for all the improvements this game brought to the series, they've all been greatly refined in later games, so this one does end up feeling a bit jank in comparison... Now granted, to a lot of players, the jank is the frickin' selling point, and that's fine and dandy, but most of the time I prefer to appreciate this game from a distance these days...

My Grandma surprising beat me in Mario Kart 64 and we spent 45 minutes on rainbow road.

Mario Kart 64 is a pretty good game, but it has a lot of glitches and you can easily break tracks, it also has a bit small amount of characters, the CPUs are annoying and they rubber band which sucks and makes the game harder to get 1st place. So overall MK64 is an okay game, but not as good as Diddy Kong Racing.

I they abandoned the name Super Mario Kart R because of Sonic R around that time.

MK64 is definitely a classic in the series, but I really don't think it's aged as well as DD!!, Wii or DS. Sure, it does have a fantastic battle mode and some all time great tracks (Royal Raceway and Yoshi's Valley come to mind), I find the controls to be a bit janky and too annoying for me to say I fully enjoy playing it today, along with the infamous CPU rubber banding

"but hey maybe we'll see kamek return in the booster course pass or something" holy shit you where right

I love your videos dude, keep it up!

your videos are really fun and relaxing to watch!

looking forward to more videos in the future, keep up the awesome work

Fun fact: the drivers and items being 2D sprites of 3D renders were VERY common for games back then, even in Mario 64 with Bob-ombs and other things. Games like Starcraft and one of the sonic games, I think 3D Blast and maybe some others? Did this too. Plenty of companies were trying to toss as much as they could in, but artists at the time quickly realized that… the model itself would be nice, but the processing wasn’t there yet, but now they had the PERFECT reference to trace over or snapshot for Sprite or animation cutouts. So TLDR: it was very common because technical people realized at the same time the potential, but they also all realized how good 3D models were as 2D reference, which is still sometimes the case even today.

Turning 28 On July of This Yr , this was my Childhood , proud 1995 baby

I feel like I'm one of the few people in the world whose favourite Mario Kart is Super Circuit.

Great video bro - really enjoyed it :D

I played MK64 so much before I left for college. I've so many good memories of it even though I haven't played it in about 20 years now.

I'll be honest, I've played a LOT of Mario Kart games across the series (I grew up with Double Dash, Wii, DS, and 7), and I really don't like Mario Kart 64's controls. You said it was very good and most people will probably get the hang of it by Lap 2 of their first race, but I honestly can't say I agree. I've tried to pick up Mario Kart 64 multiple times, but even after playing a couple Grand Prixs, I just can't control my driver well. I'm always flying into the grass, drifting the wrong way, slamming into every wall. I just can't pick up this game's controls at all, and I'm not sure why.

light weights have the lowest top speeds and heavy have the highest. lightweights feel so fast because they are always at top speed.

im thinking of buying this game and supercircuit on the wii u eshop before it closes, i dont know if i should though

I just got this on my Wii U

I agree with you... the multiplayer is the best aspect. This is a solid game overall, but after having played Mario Kart 8, this game seems like a warm-up at best. Still, it paved the way for the future of the franchise. I still remember buying the players guide for this game, and it having "bumper stickers" in the back, one of which said "Mario Kart 64 - Kick Asphalt!". I remember my grandma saying "that doesn't sound right... please don't put that sticker anywhere I can see it" hahaha

Rainbow Road theme is legendary

As a kid, playing battle mode with 3 other people was some of the most fun I'd ever had playing video games at the time. I think only Mario Kart DS has a better battle mode.

The music on this game sure sticks with you.

Always happy when you upload 😀

never realised the racers were 2d

I have been binging your videos LMAO

Other than being a blurry mess when playing it on original hardware, its still a lot of fun. Countless hours playing it with my friends in the late 90s.

If you gold the 150cc cups on all courses, you get mirrored tracks as an option too.

You know a game is great when you look forward to the credits.

The game is nearly 30 years old but people are comparing it to games made on the Switch, if this was still the best Mario Kart then Nintendo has done something seriously wrong

I played this one back in the 2000s when my brother and I pitched in to buy a second hand N64 from a pawn shop in North Dakota where we were working. And now I got it in my laptop and play it via emulator. It's definitely a good game although what saves it is the multiplayer. Particularly when the N64 has space for 4 players. Because quite frankly, the single player mode gets repetitive and frustrating after a while, especially with the dreaded rubber band AI.

Like many franchises and series', the Mario Kart series peaked during the N64 era. Just like Zelda, Mario, Super Smash Bros etc...

Bowser, Wario and Donkey Kong all have a top speed of 70mph ....Toad tops out at 66mph. The heavies are the fastest but they have the slowest acceleration. ALSO The colour of the smoke behind your car indicates boost. I enjoy your video but do a little more fact checking next time!

One of my favorite game intros ever.

HOW DID YOU PREDICT KAMEK IN BOOSTER COURSE PASS??

im a 43 year old gamer myself, and always been a fan of the franchise since it initial release on SNES. I played trough them all while growing up but Mariokart64 just hit different and is the one i keep getting back to when the mates drop by. i must say the latest installment on switch with all its extras and dlc`s is also right up there

In college my roommates and I would literally play 100+ rounds of Battle in a row on MK64. This was a regular occurrence. One of the best in person multiplayer games of all time. It ran like a turd…probably 20fps when more than 2 people played but nobody cared.

Love this game. Couch coop back in the day was usually this game or goldeneye in my friend group.

Mario Kart 64 is still the best! Remember when characters only used 1 Kart? Me too...

Mario Kart 64 was really fun, back in the days. But now I played it decades later and still got it, but the worlds seem to be too small, not very challenging and overall it feels like a child's game. I imagine it will still sorta fun with other people, but it belongs in the past, where it made my youth. Some people can't let go of that time though, as it seems.

SMK had a mini turbo, it wasn't detailed in the manual but it functions exactly the same, press R to go into a drift and counter steer to charge power, there's no visual indicator like the smoke in MK64 but there is an audible rev of the engine; speedrunners for SMK will break their controllers open to remove the nub under the dpad so they can charge a mini turbo by holding all directions at once.

I will always have a special place in my memory of Super Mario Kart, had some great times with friends on that game. In our student house we had a SNES for our fun. This was in the 90's, we also played international superstar soccer a bit but mostly Super Mario Kart. Ghost Valley Feather shortcut and steal it just before the jump 😂 I also spent a *lot* of time with Super Circuit on the GBA. Playing it recently I wonder how I managed to actually win a 150cc race 😂

Mariomikester - This is a FANTASTIC video.

Good video, but you forgot to mention the "Extra" option to race all the courses in reverse.

My favourite in the series. A simple game. No gimmicky courses. The weapons system seemed fair. Good racers weren’t punished by constant blue shells like in the later entries. And every race felt like a nail biter with many races won by a nose. Shame it didn’t have more courses.

My favorite MK ever! Part of my childhood (90's kid lol) I still play with my friends the 4P Multiplayer on the Switch extension pack! It's a lot of fun!

Love the videos!

I remember having a lot of fun "exploring" Peach's castle with my brother when we decided to take a turn in that circuit. Pretty useless, but cool detail.

MK64 is the complete Mario kart package. Other entries do certain things better, but nothing nails everything like MK64

All the other Mario karts wish they were in the sopranos

"I'm doing a deep dive into Mario kart 64" "I can't talk about all the tracks for some reason"

I have the n64 driving wheel by Dale Ernhart jr and it’s pretty cool using the wheel on Mario 64. ❤

9:53 There IS a visual indicator for when you correctly perform a drift ( mini-Turbo) you can see the speedometer goes up. some extra 10-15 km/h or whatever for 1-2 seconds.. Snake Drifting on N64, DD and DS is bread and butter of the Game, you live and Die by it.. You need to master it.

It doesn’t take this long of a video guys. It’s a fun game especially with four people.

When I was a kid I was scared of playing Bowsers castle, because I felt bad the thwomp was in jail.

him: is mario 64 actually good? me: only if you play on 100cc and you know the courses other wise the CPU will have artificial speed and you will never catch up to them and you will have a bad time if you go 150cc.

For it's time, MK64 was awesome. I had so much fun playing this game, back in the good old days. Even to this day, I still like the track design and the overall music. However, except for maybe Double Dash and the ones on handheld, which I haven't played and thus can't judge, I think the later games are all superior. In retrospective, it's hard to believe how people could dump hours into a minimalistic game like this, but we did and we had a blast.

Back in 90s my college friends and I had a blast with this game. My favorite was Wario. We also had a great time with Mario Party (getting blisters was never so fun, LOL)

You planning to do a Super Circuit retrospective?

It received mixed reviews on release in the uk anyway, and i can see why. it was kinda slow compared to the snes version

0:27 it's the most casual one out there outside of the hardcore competitive scene 🤨

Gotta admit, people talking about all their memories with Mk, I never really loved it. Only one I played was DS… that one was a banger. But I have always loved literally every other spin-off, especially Wario and Paper Mario.

i love this game. still playing it and its always nice and kept me smiling 😊

It has always been subpar. It benefits from nostalgia turned weird speedrun devotion bc it was easily breakable. The battle mode was far better than the racing. The best racing was on Diddy Kong Racing.

Crash team racing better

I think I found it more fun to try and reach the lowest score in the Grand Prix and managed to still would come out on top is more entertaining! By that I mean reaching 4th Place I managed to do it as Wario once and it was absolutely hilarious!

Who else was the reigning champ of their friend group? I remember taking it out 20 years later and kicking all my same friends asses.

so mario kart 64 was released earlier but some games after have numbers between 1-10, this is why i find it funny they named it this way

This version is amazing

I had a Chinese next-door neighbor, who, for some reason used to get the Japanese versions of the games before I think I had this and turak both in Japanese, and he wrote down directions how to get down to the menus and how to scroll through the Japanese characters on the start menu😂

second favorite for me just behind double dash

cant wait until double dash and ds

I would say yes if you’re a pro but IDK for others. And we call the KD train the Jones Express in the Player’s Page community.

I've been playing Mario Kart 64 again recently

Please do Bowser Fury review!!!

Why would the Gran prix be limited to 1 and 2 players? The only difference between vs and grand prix is that gran prix has the tracks in a pre set order. Couldn't that be done with 3 or 4 players?

Double Dash is my favorite

is there like a cord where i can find ppl to play against in this game? none of my friends ever wanna play with me cuz i just body them.