Game Debate #117: Mario Kart 64

[Reed Rothchild | 9,521]

[CodysGameRoom | 2,008]

Gave it 9/10. Hours and hours of replayability and endless entertainment. One of the best in the series in my opinion. I would hav went 10/10, but 10/10 says "one of your favorite games of all time" and I guess I wouldn't go quite that far so 9/10 it is.

[DefaultGen | 5,401]

I thought it was overrated as a kid, and it still probably is, just maybe less so 8/10

DKR is definitely the best kart racer on the system 

[PII | 1,885]

Power-Sliding, Skips, Laughs, Endless Two-Player Fun, Time Trial Ghost, Battle Mode and a Timer for Endless 1-Player Challenge.

[RH | 4,903]

41 minutes ago, CodysGameRoom said:

Gave it 9/10. Hours and hours of replayability and endless entertainment. One of the best in the series in my opinion. I would hav went 10/10, but 10/10 says "one of your favorite games of all time" and I guess I wouldn't go quite that far so 9/10 it is.

I 100% agree and feel that way.  They can't always be 10s.  This might be in my top 20, but not top 10. I might could make this a 10 if it had four more stages and rubberbanding wasn't a thing.

[RH | 4,903]

Oh, I'm also not a speedrunner but MK64 speedruns are some of the most amazing ones to learn about and watch.

[The Count | 527]

10/10, I only wish there were more tracks because I love it so much.

[Sumez | 2,949]

I don't like that many racing games, but I do love Mario Kart.

Mario Kart 64 however is easily the worst one. The course designs are already annoying IMO, but the terrible visibility is what really kills it.

[TDIRunner | 2,734]

I would be willing to bet I have more hours in this multiplayer part of this game than any other game I've ever played.  Even though DoubleDash!! was already out while I was in college, we still played MK64 as a group more than anything.  We would play this for hours at a time sometimes until 2 or 3 in the morning.  I'll never forget those times.  The best part about it was that we were all very evenly matched.  I'm not saying we were necessarily good or bad at the game, but all of us had a very similar skill level and our races were always close which made it that much more fun.  Overall, this game hasn't aged that well compared to the more modern Mario Karts, but it's still an amazing game.  The biggest weakness on MK64 is the battle mode.  I've always enjoyed battle mode on most MK games, but for some reason, I could never get into it on MK64.  We just stuck to the racing.  

[Brickman | 3,983]

I went with 7/10. I used to rank this near the top but after replaying it last year I realised half was to do with blocking out all the bad bits. This Mario Kart definitely wouldn’t crack top 3 for me.

- The game moves so slow even on 150cc

- the N64 fog of doom

- the rubber banding is ridiculous

- removing the coins giving you more speed.

- introduction of the blue turtle shell

However, the game can still be fun with friends and the battle mode is where it really shines.

Diddy Kong Racer was and still is the superior kart racer on the 64.

 

 

 

[docile tapeworm | 4,198]

Game suuuuuucks

[PII | 1,885]

1 hour ago, docile tapeworm said:

Game suuuuuucks

 

 

[Makar | 1,946]

Had to give it a 4 since every Mario kart that came after it is better in every way. Saying Mario kart 64 is a good game is like having played call of duty but still saying 007 on n64 is a good game. At the time of release we all thought these n64 games were good because we didnt have much to compare them too but they’re super outdated and have not aged well at all. 

[elprincipe | 142]

10. I'm sure I've played it hundreds of hours and it's just amazingly fun as a multiplayer game anytime. Plus Koopa Troopa Beach is possibly my favorite Mario Kart track ever. That said, Mario Kart 8 is definitely the best Mario Kart game.

[Dr. Morbis | 2,088]

4 hours ago, Makar said:

Had to give it a 4 since every Mario kart that came after it is better in every way. Saying Mario kart 64 is a good game is like having played call of duty but still saying 007 on n64 is a good game. At the time of release we all thought these n64 games were good because we didnt have much to compare them too but they’re super outdated and have not aged well at all. 

It says at the top to rate the games based on personal preferences.  By your logic, there's no point doing polls on any games back past maybe PS3 since, you know, all those old video games have been superceded by the PS4 and PS5 games, right?  Should a poll on Goldeneye be getting all 3's and 4's since Call of Duty is "so much better" ?!? wtf!

~

Anyway, as for Mario Kart 64, I gave it a 9/10 for personal preferences - it's a fun racing game and I still play it to this day; the only thing really keeping me from giving it a 10 is that they went way too far with the ridiculous rubberbanding.  Other than that, yeah, it has all the usual pratfalls of being an N64 game, but I don't hold them against each individual game.  Either you still enjoy playing the N64 or you don't... 

Edited September 2, 2022 by Dr. Morbis

[Reed Rothchild | 9,521]

I actually don't know what to give it, or if I can even score it.  I played it for a million hours once upon a time, but haven't revisited it much in the last 20+ years.  It was definitely a 9 or 10 for me in the 90s, but I kinda burned out on the franchise afterwards and consider MK8D to be merely a 7 or 8/10 kinda deal.

[Sumez | 2,949]

1 hour ago, Dr. Morbis said:

It says at the top to rate the games based on personal preferences.  By your logic, there's no point doing polls on any games back past maybe PS3 since, you know, all those old video games have been superceded by the PS4 and PS5 games, right?  Should a poll on Goldeneye be getting all 3's and 4's since Call of Duty is "so much better" ?!? wtf!

He didn't say anything about the other games being better because they are newer (which would be ridiculous), he just stated they are better. Not sure I'd agree on Call of Duty since that's a really boring game overall, but it should be obvious to anyone that nearly every Mario Kart game since 64 has improved massively on that game.  

And that's my personal preference.

[Webhead123 | 675]

So, this is a tough one for me to give a rating to because...I haven't played very much of it. I started with the series back when the original game came out on SNES and that game is one of my favorite and most-played games of all time, even to this day. With my younger brother or at friends' houses during sleepovers, we used to play Super Mario Kart for hours upon hours. Loved it.

Because I didn't get an N64 until '99 and Mario Kart 64 wasn't one of the small handful of games I ever bought for it, I only ever played about 30 minutes of it back in the '90s and didn't revisit it again until just a couple years ago. Because I don't have much direct nostalgia for this entry (and because by the time I really put any effort into play it, it was fairly dated), I can't say that it left much of an impression on me. I mean, yes, it was a perfectly serviceable game. No real complaints other than the fact that it's a game on the N64 and all the baggage that comes with that (kinda muddy graphics, rough controls by modern standards, etc.).

I guess what I'm trying to say is, I can see why it was such a big deal back when it was new but I didn't really get to experience it that way, so the whole thing was just "pretty good" for me. It's a game I'm certainly happy to play from time to time, no hesitation. It's still a Mario Kart game and it's still lots of fun. But honestly, if I want to play one of the early entries, I'm still going with the original Super Mario Kart. And if I want to play a more modern entry, I'll take Double Dash or Mario Kart 8 every time.

Just a 7/10 for me...and that ain't bad.

Edited September 2, 2022 by Webhead123

[Estil | 1,264]

Oh yes!  The night before my graduation from UK (the university, not the country) some of my dormmates got together with me and we played Mario Kart 64 together and they also watched Jackass (didn't really care for it though).

Now when are we gonna get Mario Kart 9?

[Makar | 1,946]

6 hours ago, Dr. Morbis said:

It says at the top to rate the games based on personal preferences.  By your logic, there's no point doing polls on any games back past maybe PS3 since, you know, all those old video games have been superceded by the PS4 and PS5 games, right?  Should a poll on Goldeneye be getting all 3's and 4's since Call of Duty is "so much better" ?!? wtf!

~

Anyway, as for Mario Kart 64, I gave it a 9/10 for personal preferences - it's a fun racing game and I still play it to this day; the only thing really keeping me from giving it a 10 is that they went way too far with the ridiculous rubberbanding.  Other than that, yeah, it has all the usual pratfalls of being an N64 game, but I don't hold them against each individual game.  Either you still enjoy playing the N64 or you don't... 

Mario Kart 64 just really isn’t good. The controls are awful and you can barely see the course on many levels. The only Mario kart that is worse than N64 is super Mario kart. You want the successor games in a franchise to improve and that is the case with Mario kart. You don’t want games to be like Pokémon where they regress with later iterations. There are plentyyyyy of old games that are better than newer games or still just as good, or even different, but aged well. Super Mario bros 3 for example is better than new super Mario bros or really most current Mario games. Mario 64 just really didn’t age well. Star fox 64 did. I could go on and on. Smash bros is worse than later iterations, etc etc

[JamesRobot | 5,800]

5 by the book.  Played it a bunch back in tha day.  Probably could've gone as high as an 8 during the era but I'd rather play OG or 8 these days depending on the mood.

[mbd39 | 2,020]

I had an N64 back in the day but I never played this. Maybe at the time I would've been interested but not now.

 

[themisfit138 | 523]

It is a solid 8/10. I still enjoy going back to it every so often. Not near as good as Double Dash though. 

[docile tapeworm | 4,198]

Super Mario kart is the greatest Mario kart game. They all got worse after that. I do play 8 with the kids and dominate.

[twiztor | 850]

the highest i could go on this one is a 6. i played it a TON back when it was current. Hadn't played the SNES Mario Kart prior, so this was my introduction to the series. Had a blast with it, but it is REALLY difficult to go back to. The fact that no other MK game has replicated the fun of the battle mode in this one is kind of a travesty. 

IMO the series peaked with the Wii release, although 8 is pretty awesome too.

13 hours ago, Makar said:

is like having played call of duty but still saying 007 on n64 is a good game.

i've played a number of the Call of Duty games. for me, Goldeneye 007 is better in every way except graphically.