Mario Kart 64

About This Game

Gameplay

See also: Gameplay of the Mario Kart series Mario Kart 64 is a kart racing video game featuring characters and elements from the Mario franchise largely similar in gameplay to its predecessor Super Mario Kart (1992). The player controls one of eight Mario franchise characters and races opponents in karts around tracks based on locales from the Super Mario platform games. The game's 16 courses are populated with obstacles to slow the player down, shortcuts letting the player skip sections, and boxes labeled with question marks which give the player a random item based on elements from the Super Mario series. Items can be either power-ups, such as giving the player a speed boost, or offensive, such as causing an opponent to spin out#Spin_out "Skid (automobile)"). The player can also drift "Drifting (motorsport)") around corners or enter an opponent's slipstream "Drafting (aerodynamics)") to receive a speed boost. Playable characters are divided into three weight classes which determine characteristics such as speed, acceleration, and handling.

History

The game was provisionally titled Super Mario Kart R during development—the "R" being short for "rendered "Rendering (computer graphics)")".Mario Kart 64 was developed concurrently with Super Mario 64 (1996) and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1998) by Nintendo's Entertainment Analysis & Development division. The game was revealed alongside the N64 console itself in November 1995 at the Shoshinkai trade show via a videotape given out to journalists. The game was reportedly considered "95% complete" at the time of the show.Mario Kart 64 was intended to be released alongside the N64 itself in mid-1996 but was delayed after development resources were directed towards Super Mario 64, itself a launch title for the system.