After what had seemed like a long wait without many classic titles, Mario Kart 64 turned up out of the blue to the joy and sigh of players. Many still regard this as a multiplayer classic yet others see it as the weak link in the Mario Kart series. Personally I loved the game and spent hours on it at a time, but has it aged well enough to warrant another go?

Mario Kart was always about two things. Racing for pole position and annihilating your opposition with shells, stars and banana peels. This game doesn’t make many changes to that formula keeping everything pretty much the same with the odd upgrade here and there.

Select one of eight racers ranging from the man himself Mario to his brother Luigi and even little Toad. Then it’s a matter of beating the other drivers in a series of four tracks. But there’s more to this racer than relying on your driving ability, as item boxes will allow you to tackle opponents using red homing shells, stars that make you invincible, lightning bolts that shrink everyone and blue shells that home in on the person in pole position. Namely it’s the weapons that have always set aside Mario Kart from the pack and this isn’t any different. The game handles fairly well and has an effective drifting system that will give you a short burst of speed if you successfully flick the analogue back and forth whilst sliding around corners.

In single player you start off with three speed classes of 50cc, 100cc and 150cc with mirror mode unlocked later on in the game. There are four cups with four tracks on each so in total you will have sixteen tracks. As you play through each class on GP mode the racers become harder and the speed does indeed pick up but Mario Kart rarely poses much of a challenge as the roads are so wide and weapons are so plentiful that if you do find yourself falling behind you will no doubt catch up again. That isn’t to say the game isn’t fun though because as a racer it’s great fun. Also if you feel like it there’s also time trial mode where you can race for the best time, however you cannot save your ghosts due to originally needing a “memory pak” on the Nintendo 64 to save them. So that’s your lot when it comes to the lone experience.

The number of tracks available is a little slim but the design of them more than make up for that. Environments range from beaches and deserts to canyons and castles and each pose a number of hazards that keep you light on your toes…Or wheels rather. These little obstacles keep the game interesting rather than driving along a basic road. Unlike Super Mario Kart though, the tracks are a lot wider and with the exception of a few (namely Yoshi Valley and Banshee Boardwalk) you’ll hardly ever have a tough time keeping to the road. Also some races can feel a little on the long side with laps exceeding two minutes on some races. They aren’t huge problems; just for those looking for the tight tarmac roads of previous you won’t really find it here.

And now onto Mario Kart’s biggest selling point. The multiplayer. What set it apart from the Snes version was the inclusion of four player. At the time it was revolutionary and really put Mario Kart in a league of its own. And even though we’ve now had the release of Double Dash and Mario Kart DS oddly enough it doesn’t mean you’ll have less fun here. Agreed the DS game does have online play and Double Dash the updated graphics but given its age you will still find hours of fun hidden in the races and also the battle mode. Races are fast, frantic and exciting and that’s all you want from a multiplayer game. Battles are also great fun with four battle fields to try out with your friends. These involve you simply shooting, hitting or slipping your opponents until they lose all three of their lives. Battle games can get really competitive and the Nintendo 64 version features the best battle fields to date.

The games’ looks haven’t aged as well as its gameplay sadly since the 2D pre-rendered characters return and on a big TV look horrible. The tracks themselves look good though and are just below par with the DS version. As far as music goes, I feel this is probably the best music of all the Mario Karts. Rainbow Road and Bowser’s Castle in particular are great to listen to but sadly if you’re playing with three or four people the music remains absent which is a shame. The character’s voices are good too but tend to repeat with only around two catchphrases.

Having played Mario Kart DS recently naturally this does feel like a step backwards with the options available low, graphics not as impressive and less tracks and unlockables. The game won’t take long to conquer in single player, yet multiplayer still offers a great laugh. While it has begun to show its cracks after all this time, don’t completely dismiss it.

Looks – 3/5
Sounds – 4/5
Single – 3/5
Multi – 5/5
Overall – 79/100