Video games - Mario Kart 64

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	Video games - Mario Kart 64

Mario Kart 64 (Japanese: マリオカート64, Mario Kāto 64) is a racing video game for the Nintendo 64 game system for up to four players. It is the sequel to Super Mario Kart
for the SNES. Players take control of characters from the Super Mario Bros.
video game series and race around a variety of tracks while using several weapons including items that make the racers speed increase, turtle-shell projectiles and slippery banana peels. The game was developed and published by Nintendo and released on December 14, 1996. Music for the game was composed by Koji Kondo, who has also composed scores for many Nintendo games, and Kenta Nagata.

Notable changes

Mario Kart 64 features a number of changes from Super Mario Kart

Each track now requires three laps instead of five (but the tracks are much longer).
Tracks now have hills, slopes, bumps and jumps.
Tracks are no longer reincarnations of each other, like Mario Circuit 1, Mario Circuit 2, Mario Circuit 3, Mario Circuit 4 etc. Each track has its own unique location.
Koopa Troopa and Donkey Kong Junior have been replaced by Wario and Donkey Kong.
Coins have been removed, so the player does not spin out unless he/she crashes into a heavier opponent.
* Feathers have also been removed to prevent cheating from the computer-controlled players. The CPU players from Super Mario Kart would sometimes "cheat" by jumping over weapons released by the human players.
Several items were added, such as Golden Mushrooms, Fake Item Boxes, and Spiny (Blue) Shells. Items could also be bunched into groups to heighten a player's advantage, including the Green and Red Shells (three), Mushrooms (three), and Banana Peels (five).
CPU racers are no longer exclusive to their own infinite disposal of an item. However, they are still limited to using only certain items. In short, they can use any item except for any kind of shell. Also, Thunderbolts will only be seen when a leader somehow falls to the back of the pack.
In the opinion of some players, the difficulty is somewhat lower, perhaps responding to the different demographic of players most directly related to the N64 console.
Better Graphics
Better Sound
It is now possible to drift by hopping and tilting the control stick. If the control stick is moved left and right while the kart is drifting, it is possible to gain a small boost in speed, called a Mini-Turbo. This feature was subsequently included in every Mario Kart game.

Modes of gameplay

Mario Grand Prix (GP)

One to two human players compete with computer players in a group of eight around a series of four courses per cup. A player selects one of the four cups at the beginning of the game as well as a difficulty level, measured by engine size (50, 100 or 150 cc). The higher the engine size, the faster the karts go and the more difficult the cup is. Mirror Mode (where the courses are mirror images of normal) can also be unlocked by winning of all four cups on 150cc difficulty. A player needs to place in fourth place or better in order to move on to the next track.

Time Trials

A single-player mode. A player may play any course in any cup. In time trial, the player is given a triple mushroom item, and the kart has a 100cc engine. The top five best course times and the best lap time are recorded on the cartridge, and the aim is for the player to beat his or her own records. Completing a race may result in a ghost appearing on the player's next attempt—the ghost is the route taken for the best time that the player has completed in his or her current session, and can be saved on a controller pak for later use. The ghost cannot appear on the next attempt if a message is displayed near the upper right hand corner saying that ghost data cannot be saved. This message will display in the event that the player pauses the game during the run, falls off the course, or gets hit by something (e.g. the Chain Chomps in Rainbow Road). The message occasionally appears by random or by too much time being taken.

There are several online communities dedicated to keeping track of time trial records, and some are still as active as ever, many years after the game's release.

Versus Mode

In this game for two, three or four players, players can race head-to-head against their friends without computer players. Players need not play an entire cup, but select individual courses to play. Players also select the engine size/difficulty level.

Battle Mode

In this game for two, three or four players, players compete in one of four arenas filled with items. Players have three balloons attached to their go-karts and lose them when they are spun-out by either being hit by a player in a higher weight class or spun out with an item. In three and four player modes, players that have lost all of their balloons come back once as a bomb that can move around to crash with another player and thus remove one balloon. The winner is the last one with balloons left.

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