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The blind nostalgia of Mario Kart 64.

Mario Kart 64 didn't have ski lifts you fought over.

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spanks

Member
I play Mario Kart for the battle mode. MK64 has the best battle mode, with the best battle stages, and no dumb gimmicks.

Also, nostalgia.
 

Griss

Member
Yeah, all my old college friends still think it's the best. Loved playing it with them at the time, but it's the weakest Mario Kart by some distance. Sprites on a 3D background was never going to age well, and the floaty physics aren't great either.

By the standards of the era it was in, though, it really was amazing for its time.
 
Lol, I remember having an arguement with someone on GAF about which was better, Snowboard Kids or Coolboarders 2.

Ha I couldn't say because I never played a Coolboarders game. Looking at it though I would say that at least aesthetically Snowboard Kids holds up better and I think both SBK games have killer soundtracks. Like I said no idea about which plays better though.
 

Exodust

Banned
MK64 is my favorite one followed by the SNES game. To be fair, MK has always basically been the same game, so those two are only my favorites because I played them first.

Double Dash is a bit underrated but not all that great either, the Wii version I've found myself despising, and MK8 is a bit "eh" to me.

I always likes CTR and Sonic Transformed more, but not by much either. As far as Nintendo racing games go I'm more of an F-Zero guy.
 

score01

Member
After the awesome SNES MK I found the N64 version lacking. Graphics were great but the gameplay was just wrong. Maybe the rubber banding AI. There was just something about the game play that felt off in comparison to the SNES version and I never got over this.

I never understood the love for the N64 version. Maybe for people who missed out on the SNES?
 

jwhit28

Member
Can't stand MK64 or MKWii. Diddy Kong Racing was so much better and MK didn't seem as special on a system where many titles were built around 4 player multiplayer. MK8 is perfect, just add adventure mode and some missions and that is peak Mariokart.
 
N64 was actually quite popular in NA. Nostalgic gaming memes for that era are popular. Therefore, Mario Kart 64 is one of the games that gets mentioned the most in those memes about "having a good gaming night just like old times except you drink when you lose".


I never played DKR so I dunno how much better it is but I guess it must be a GoldenEye situation. Perfect Dark was the better game but more people remember GE due to James Bond/it came out first while the console was more lively. That being said MK64 was definitely an impressive game at the time that basically made the series staple structure(distinct tracks, battle mode)


What I don't understand is how people are so adamant about the game not being that fun today that they say it was "never good". The SNES Mario Kart is just no good at all. I mean that game has ridiculous looking characters and tracks that are basically the SMW areas with a number next to them. That game is pretty obsolete as its tracks are all unlockable in the GBA one. Speaking of which, it was a solid game. You had 5 cups instead of 4, it had a lot of nice tracks and unlocking the SNES game was very surprising and rewarding.


While we're at it, Double Dash is a unexplicably overhyped game with 2 player controls that are more unintuitive than Star Fox Zero. I know it has some passionate fans but that game simply didn't offer enough for the series, while MK64 was actually impressive at the time. That's why 64 was the overall better rated game. I have not played a lot of DS but I remember people broke their systems to "get good". I think it had bad character balance as well. Anyway never played single player for that one as I never owned it but a mission mode is definitely worthy and breaks the monotony of doing cups over and over. I cannot understand the Wii hate unless you played competitively, which is a nightmare in pretty much any Mario Kart game. It's easily the best of the series imo. Not only it is still perfectly playable today, but it also had a huge variety of content that made for an engaging gameplay experience with or without friends. The staff ghosts and online "tournaments"(basically missions) offered great variety. It was one of Nintendo's first successful online games. While Double Dash was lacking in comparison to other big multiplayer games of that console in terms of content. Wii doesn't. Probably the biggest step forward that series took since 64(I guess DS did some things first but home console matters most for Mario Kart). 7 had the best gameplay balance tbh, probably the only game where you're not automatically much worse for not using a character with high top speed. Sadly it had meh tracks and not a lot of modes. 8 is the prettiest Mario Kart but the tracks aren't as novel as some of the past ones. Took three years and a new system to have a battle mode. The bikes aren't OP anymore and you can prevent blue shells from hitting you yet I feel like results are way too chaotic in that game unless you play as a cruiserweight, so it pretty much has the Wii problem of "if you don't play funky or daisy you're worse". No matter how pretty and polished the game is, lack of new/different modes makes it for a pretty monotonous unlocking sequence of doing all cups in all ccs
 

Lynd7

Member
Super Circuit is awesome, maybe one of the best single player MK games. Red shells as homing mines and being able to outpace the blue shell felt awesome.
 

jeremy1456

Junior Member
Diddy Kong Racing was vastly superior to MK64.

Crash Team Racing was... well it was better than Mickey's Speedway and Chocobo Racing.

If you didn't have access to MK64 and DKR then I'm sure you could make do with it, but a proper substitute I never found CTR to be.
 

Lynd7

Member
Diddy Kong Racing was vastly superior to MK64.

Crash Team Racing was... well it was better than Mickey's Speedway and Chocobo Racing.

If you didn't have access to MK64 and DKR then I'm sure you could make do with it, but a proper substitute I never found CTR to be.

I think Diddy Kong's single player is better than MK64, but I think the multiplayer was definitely less fun.
 

Man God

Non-Canon Member
It's the worst Mario Kart game made by Nintendo. Still way better than CTR or both Sonic Kart games or any of the other Kart racers, including the two Namco arcade Mario Kart games.

Battle mode is a total downgrade from SMK. Half the tracks are lame. The controls are too loose.
 

Forkball

Member
There are better Mario Kart games than MK64 now, but the game still has many amazing tracks, including the best Rainbow Road that was so manly they nerfed it in MK8 because gamers are too soft these days.

Diddy King Racing is better though, I admit.
 

Man God

Non-Canon Member
There are better Mario Kart games than MK64 now, but the game still has many amazing tracks, including the best Rainbow Road that was so manly they nerfed it in MK8 because gamers are too soft these days.

Diddy King Racing is better though, I admit.

As a single player game, maybe. The tracks aren't as good on average as MK 64 but having, you know, stuff to do makes up for it.

Multiplayer in Diddy Kong is though is just not fun.
 
I don't favour it to the Mario Karts that came after it, but I certainly like it more than Super Mario Kart. I feel like that's the game that has the blind nostalgia, but I didn't even like it that much at the time. Flat maps, bad music, ugly aesthetics, cheating-ass AI with abilities they can pull off whenever they want.
 

Man God

Non-Canon Member
Yeah, SMK definitely has more of that you had to be there effect. I like the jumping and the tiny maps, more laps thing it has going on, and the battle mode is sublime.
 

espher

Member
MK64 felt great at the time but it was outclassed by DKR, CTR, Snowboard Kids, and BAR. It has not aged well at all.
 

RetroMG

Member
Mario Kart 64 was one of the only N64 games my best friend owned for a loooong time. It was the game we played when there was nothing else to do, and we got really, really sick of it before too long.
 

MattKeil

BIGTIME TV MOGUL #2
I think Diddy Kong's single player is better than MK64

If by "better" you mean an infuriatingly cheap hunk of bullshit, sure.

I mean, not that MK64 isn't. If you're not playing multi on the Mario Kart games you're doing it wrong, because they're all pretty terrible single player games.
 

GunBR

Member
I think it was better than Super Mario Kart. But it's the second worst of the franchise for me, even the GBA one (really underrated game by the way) was better

Crash Team Racing is another game from that era that people still insist is the best kart racer ever... It's just not.

CTR isn't the best "kart racer" game ever
It's the best racing game ever
 

Lynd7

Member
If by "better" you mean an infuriatingly cheap hunk of bullshit, sure.

I mean, not that MK64 isn't. If you're not playing multi on the Mario Kart games you're doing it wrong, because they're all pretty terrible single player games.

I guess it can be annoying sometimes, but yeah, so can MK64. The mechanics are a bit deeper and the item stacking etc is cool. Plus Adventure Mode has more to it than just racing.

I played DKR for the first time properly a couple of years ago and loved it, 100%'d it.
 

exfatal

Member
edit: wrong thread lol

OT: Mario Kart 64 was the first racing game i played and got into. absolutely love it, but might be one of my least favorites
 

Stop It

Perfectly able to grasp the inherent value of the fishing game.
There are better Mario Kart games than MK64 now, but the game still has many amazing tracks, including the best Rainbow Road that was so manly they nerfed it in MK8 because gamers are too soft these days.

Diddy King Racing is better though, I admit.

What? Are we talking about the same, walled off, overly long piece of boring arse here? Because no, fuck off with any thought that it was the best Rainbow Road, my god.

The only saving grace of that track was the ability to cheat and save a load of time literally waiting to finish the races on this insipid track.
 

IrishNinja

Member
i played the shit out of versus mode on the SNES version, and the one here felt like a step back, personally...larger/layered tracks that just weren't as fun. the circuits were solid though.
 

I Wanna Be The Guy

U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
It's the worst Mario Kart game made by Nintendo. Still way better than CTR or both Sonic Kart games or any of the other Kart racers, including the two Namco arcade Mario Kart games.

Battle mode is a total downgrade from SMK. Half the tracks are lame. The controls are too loose.
BAHAHAHAHAHAH

Not even close dude. On what planet is MK64 anywhere close to the same level as CTR or Sonic All Stars, let alone better?
 

Man God

Non-Canon Member
BAHAHAHAHAHAH

Not even close dude. On what planet is MK64 anywhere close to the same level as CTR or Sonic All Stars, let alone better?

This one. Planet earth. It comes down to track design, especially for CTR. The Sonic games mainly bug me on how items work (or don't in the case of transformed)
 

orborborb

Member
Mario Kart 64 has so much more depth and variety than not just other Kart games but most other racing games of any kind. Other Kart games are fun, but they are far too streamlined and polished, 64 requires different play-styles for different tracks, and always keeps you on your toes preventing you from settling into comfortable habits. That's often the reason why people think the original games of most popular series haven't "aged well" is that they are usually quite a bit more complex than their more focused "appealing" sequels. It worries me that the standards people have for games seem to revolve more and more around how well the game addicts you instead of what it has to discover.
 

-Eddman-

Member
Not a bad game at all, but my least favorite Mario Kart. Tracks were too long and felt lifeless, handling was weird and graphics were not that good. Music and audio effects are awesome though.

DKR obliterated it easily.
 

Hardvlade

Member
That was mainly because Microsoft doesn't compete in the handheld space.

Regardless, the DS version is widely considered to be inferior to the N64 version, so re-releasing that just wouldn't be a good substitute. And Nintendo won't re-release the N64 version because it has Banjo and Conker in it. They most likely don't want a competitor's IPs to be mixing in with their own, hence why they were removed from the DS version.

Oh damn, didn't know Banjo/Conker were gone from the DS version of the game. I played DKR back in the days, but never bothered with the DS version =P
 
I was a little kid and the after school day care would always do pizza and video game Fridays where we would take turns playing MK64 and it was a blast. Later when I got the N64 it was one of the games friends and siblings played non-stop. The battle mode in particular was great. I didn't have a problem with DD and had a lot of fun with it. It wasn't until I explored the Internet that I saw people hated it.

Out of all Mario Karts, I'd say MK7 was the most disappointing for me. It felt like it was a churned out, just going through the motions kind of sequel. However, yes when lined up and compared to all other predecessors MK64 has aged the worst. Everything from the graphics, frame rate and track design are at the bottom of the series.

I'd say people's adoration and love with MK64 stems from the battle mode. MK8D is the first time since MK64 that the battle mode felt modern, fun and fully featured.
 
I really don't find any of the Mario Karts prior Mario Kart Wii games I can go back to. I still preferred 64 to Double Dash and I couldn't tell you why (no, nostalgia is not the answer since I was playing both of these games, not just remembering one fondly). But the last time I tried to play 64, probably around 3 years ago, I knew I was done with it.
 

I Wanna Be The Guy

U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!
This one. Planet earth. It comes down to track design, especially for CTR. The Sonic games mainly bug me on how items work (or don't in the case of transformed)
Track design in CTR is on another level. It's still in the top tier of kart racers today in terms of track design. MK64 isn't in the same league. It's mechanically weak in comparison to CTR too, plus it looks waaaay worse, has far less engaging content and the AI is awful.
 

ramparter

Banned
Its bad and its also very tough to control, played special cup 150cc recently, banshee boardwalk was impossible.

But it was my second N64 game and it gave us tons of fun back then and the challenging controls extended its life. Now I understand why it took us weeks to unlock mirror cup.
 

Hasney

Member
What baffles me is how some people think it's better than Crash Team Racing.

Well that's not hard. Even this worst MK in as 4 is much better, along with Sonic Transformed and Diddy Kong racing.

CTR is better than South Park Rally. I'll give it that much.
 
I recently rebought an n64 and was about to pick up this game again but then I realized how badly it aged... I couldn't justify paying the high price for it as I could pick up the superior MK8DX which I currently have waiting for me for the weekend
 

Kurt

Member
This

Mario kart 8 > Mario kart 7 > Mario kart ds > Mario kart 64 ... other mario karts... > Mario kart double dash
 
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