Mario Kart 64

Not many games will compel me to write a review, especially since I don't feel like I'm all that great at them, but Mario Kart 64 is definitely a special case. 1997 is when my older brother got the game for the N64 when I was roughly 4 years old, and it's what threw me into the world of video games. While my memory of games before this is pretty foggy, nothing else stands the test of time like this games does. Thinking back to when my older brother, mom, and once my younger brother was a little older, all sitting around the TV to play this, and to the times my grandmother would even play, there's no better memories for me. From always wanting be be Toad and never getting the chance to use him since my older brother always took him, to beating my mom for the first time on Kalimari Desert, no game offers the same experience as this did, and still does.

The game offers up to a 4 player experience, with a grand prix mode for 1 and 2 players, vs for 2, 3, and 4 players, and battle for 2-4 players. There's 4 cups in the game, starting from the easiest, the Mushroom Cup, and getting more challenging as you go to the Flower Cup, Star Cup, and then finally, the Special Cup. What I feel is by far the strongest out of all the Mario Kart's are the courses here. I won't name them all, but Toad's Turnpike, Royal Raceway, Bowser's Castle, Kalimari Desert, DK Jungle Parkway, and of course Rainbow Road stand above pretty much all the other courses in Mario Kart. Mario Kart 64 has 4 different modes, or speed's to choose from, which basically is the difficulty setting in the game. In 50cc the karts go slower, but the AI is more lenient, in 150cc though, the karts go much faster, with even the chance to spin out if you're turning too much, and an AI that will be next to impossible to beat if they get a little ahead of you. There is also a Mirror mode, which is 150cc, but you go the opposite way on each race track.

Battle mode, is what many will consider the best part of the game, and for good reason, it's a lot of fun. There's no better feeling than getting 3 other buddies in the room to go at it on one of the four great battle courses. The four courses, Big Donut, Block Fort, Double Deck, and Sky Scrapper, are all by far the best battle courses any Mario Kart game offers. The rules for battle mode are simple, each player start with 3 balloons, and when you get hit you lose a balloon. Last person who has any balloons left is the winner. Picking a heavier character in this mode like DK, Bowser, or Wario can be more beneficial because if you hit one of the lighter characters at a high enough speed, they can lose a balloon from it. If you do lose all your balloons, don't fret, while you may have lost the match, your character will turn into a bomb that can take a balloon off another player if you hit them, so there's a great opportunity to get revenge, that gives such a satisfying feeling especially if you take them out with you. Battle games can be very hectic and tense, especially when you have courses like Double Deck where there's 3 levels to it, and Block Fort where you can make the lowest level a minefield of green shells.

What some people will refer to as the original 8 in Mario games, all appear for this installment of Mario Kart. Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad, Yoshi, DK, Wario, and Bowser are the characters you can select from. While heavier characters do posses a high speed, and ramming power, the lightest characters (Toad, Peach, Yoshi) all have the highest top speed and acceleration, so if you want the best chance at victory in a race, it is wise to choose one of them.

As crazy as a statement as it is, I find Mario Kart 64 to be the greatest game ever. For me the combination of great courses, fantastic music, and an unbeatable multiplayer mode, puts it above and beyond any other game for me. While there are a few negative aspects like no music in 3 or 4 player vs and battle, it is nothing really compared to the positives of the game. Yeah, some people may say it's "dated", but I will always put my mindset in the same timeframe as when a game was made, like with movies and television. Of course the graphics are shit compared to modern Mario Kart games, the AI cheats, and some may say they perfected many of the Mario Kart aspects in later installments, but that doesn't matter to me. It was an amazing game for it's time, and to this day it still is for me. Some may say my love for this game might come from nostalgia, but I disagree with that because there are many games older than this that I had never played until recently that I loved and enjoyed immensely.

A professional critic by the name of Trent Ward back in 1997 said "Even with all its bells and whistles, Mario Kart 64 is very likely to disappoint you after about a week.", well it's been 20 years and I'm still here.

This game is a certified classic

Easily the best game for the N64, Mario Kart is just a damn fun party game that amazes me with how well it still holds up for being damn near 30 years old. Aside from the garish use of 2D sprites in place of actual polygonal graphics for the racers, I cant honestly think of anything negative to say (aside from some of the glaring hardware limitations of the system, like the inability to play the games soundtrack while playing in multiplayer and the weird issue of the frame rate linked to the speed of the karts). Its simply the best of the Mario Kart's. (still love you Double Dash and DS.)

Still the best and most difficult to master in the series, in my opinion. It's endlessly fun and always a good time when picked up and played, whether playing alone or with others. Whether fortuitously due to technological limitations at the time or not, I think the track and item design was at its peak here. Egregious rubber-banding dampens the experience at times: the AI will often warp, fading in on top of you; keep pace at normal speed whilst you boost with mushrooms or drift; or appear beside you seconds after being hit by an item.

Fair for its time. And hell, it's still a multiplayer staple today for good reason. Mario Kart 64 was arguably the zenith of the series for its intended purpose, the N64 hardware lending itself well to split-screen action and featuring some of the best and most iconic track design of the series, and a decent attempt at a battle mode, this is still a lacking game in single-player and the 2D character models can look jarring against the 3D tracks. No hate for this one, just fatigue, really.