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Mario Kart 64 (N64)

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Mario Kart 64 (N64)

Quote-start

Fun but not as good as the original

Quote-end

5 Sep 18th, 2001 

23 Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful

Advantages:
Fun, easy to play, great multiplayer

Disadvantages:
Not as good as Super Mario Kart, Kooper Trooper has been removed  : (

Recommendable Yes:

Detailed rating:

Gameplay/Playability

Value for Money

Longevity

Defiler

Defiler

About me:

I'm a big Discworld fan and also read a lot of other fantasy books. I tend to like similar films/TV ...

Member since:18.07.2000

Reviews:54

Members who trust:25

When I first saw this game advertised on the TV I was tempted to buy an N64 just for it, the original Super Mario Kart on the SNES had been an extremely addictive game and one of the best games I had ever played. I didn't buy an N64 though and instead waited a while and played the game on someone elses console.

--What is it?--
Mario Kart 64 is a remake of Super Mario Kart for the SNES, it tries to improve just about everything about the game from the graphics to the weapons to the playability but ends up making a number of things worse instead.

The idea of the game is that you select a Mario character who is then put into a racing kart, you have to race these around tracks using a variety of weapons and powerups to try and prevent your opponents from winning rather than having to rely on racing skill alone. The game goes a lot more for fun than for realism and the game really is a lot of fun.

--Single Player Play--
There are 2 real ways of playing the game in single player, you can either take part in a GP which is a series of 4 races against 7 other computer opponents in which you try to get as high a position as possible in each race or you can take place in a Time Trial which has you alone on a track in which you need to complete 3 laps as quickly as possible.

The GP's are probably the most played game mode and easily the most fun one, in them you need to qualify within the first 4 places to progress onto the next track, you are awarded points based on what position you finish and must try to get more points than all your opponents.

--Multiplayer Play--
Probably one of the most fun ways of playing, there are multiplayer modes for 2-4 players.

If there are only 2 players you can race a GP which is identical to the single-player one except that you have 2 humans and 6 computer opponents, only one person needs to qualify within the top 4 places in order to proceed to the next race too.

If you have 4 players however the GP cannot be played, instead you have the choice of a single race on a track of your choice with no computer players or you can play a battle mode. The battle mode puts you on a special track where the only objective is to hit the other players with weapons (or have them hit themself), unfortunatly the battle maps are bigger than is really best which means at times you can go a long time without even seeing your opponent making the game slower than it could be.

--Graphics--
Graphically the game is much improved on the SNES version, from the characters to the view of the tracks to the types of tracks you get (for example racing along a road with real traffic that can be bumped into). The graphics are colourful and cartoony, they fit the style of game well even if they would look stupid for a realistic racing game.

--Life--
The game should be able to be played a long time into the future, although after a while the single player modes will become less fun. Multiplayer tends to stay fun even if you have played the game hundreds of times before, the game is just perfect to play against other opponents. In singeplayer however the game will eventually get a bit boring, the game just doesn't play as well as Super Mario Kart in many ways and once you have got a gold cup in ever GP in every difficulty there is little left to achieve.

--Conclusion--
This is a great game that really has made many improvements over the original, some interesting weapons have been added and tracks look better than they used to. What it takes away from the game is some of the playability, the control of your character is a lot worse than in the previous version for example, as well as reducing the total number of tracks to race on, making the game rely as much on luck as skill and removing one of the best characters in the game. 

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Comments about this review »

the_great_saiyaman 21.01.2005 16:13

YEAH KOOPA TROOPA GOT REMOVED!!!! IT SUCKS!!!! AAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!! DAMN IT!, but its still a good game, and also this is a good review! Keep up the good work

pablodiabloescobar 22.05.2002 03:05

agree with you there

S_Osborne 19.09.2001 00:21

i couldn;t agree more i have both (the original and the 64 version) and play the original more than the new one.

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