Another gem for the N64! (Mario Kart 64 (N64))

Name: Lauren06

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Product:	Mario Kart 64 (N64)
Date:	18.03.06 (98 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great tracks, different characters to choose from, multiplayer option

Disadvantages: None

I borrowed this game from a friend a while ago, and had it for quite a while. I found it really enjoyable when playing alone, and even more fun when playing with friends.

The characters you can choose from include Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Peach, Donkey-Kong, Bowser, Wario and Toad. With 8 characters this is a good choice, and you can try out each one and see which one suits you best as there are different weights of carts.
This ranges from the heaviest: Boswer, Donkey-Kong and Wario, to the middle weights Luigi and Mario and the lightest Toad Yoshi and Peach.

Lighter characters move faster and have better acceleration, but they can easily spin out of control when hit by heavier characters. Heavier characters do move slower but they are easier to handle, and you can still win races with them despite their speed. Also, it's fun to crash into the smaller characters and send them spinning out of control! There is a wide range of tracks, with four different cups called Mushroom Cup, Flower Cup, Star Cup and special cup. They aren't all available to play when you first begin the game, you must complete them to acess other ones.
Each cup has four race tracks. The tracks range from Luigi Raceway, an easy track on a simple road to Rainbow Road, the longest track with more bends and very high slopes. Some tracks have little shortcuts and others have monsters that try to slow you down eg. on Rainbow Road a chain chomp circles the track and can take you by surprise sometimes. There's also a couple of icy tracks which make it harder to control the kart because you slip around so much, and in some tracks you can fall off high edges into lava pits. Falling off edges doesn't take you out of the race though, you get lifted out and back onto the track but this does slow you down. At first it does seem difficult but as you progress and play more you get better and better at controlling the kart.

Characters use items to slow down their opponents. You can shoot different shells, each do something different eg. red shells seek out the nearest characters but are easily destoryed if they hit a wall, and green shells don't seek but can bounce off walls. More effective items are the lightening bolt, which strikes all other characters and shrinks them, slowing them down for a limited time, and also the star which makes you faster and also invincible to all attacks for a limited time.
However, you're more likely to get these items if you are somewhere near last place. Items are found in item boxes and you get them just by driving through these boxes but watch out for the fake boxes- these will stop your kart! They're also useful to leave among other boxes to slow down other unsuspecting players.

The cups are played in Grand Prix mode, where you see an award ceremony at the end. If you gain 1st, 2nd or 3rd place you will receive a bronze, silver or gold trophy. You need gold on all cups, at the final level, Mirror, to complete the game. When you win a trophy you get to see the award ceremony where you line up with the other runners up and receive a trophy from a giant floating cheep-cheep (a type of fish in the Mushroom Kingdom!) Come in 4th and you get chased by a bomb, any lower and you get nothing.
The levels are 50cc, 100cc, 150cc and Mirror, which is 100cc but with all the courses reversed to make it confusing after getting used to the courses. You can also do time trials, where you can record a ghost of your trial to beat. You need a controller pak to save ghosts. The kart runs at 100cc speed for time trials.
As well as all this, there is also versus mode, which can be played with two, three or four players. On this mode you can select the desired difficulty level, character and track. The control system is easy to handle, you simply hold the A button to go forwards and move the kart with the control stick. B is the break button and Z is used to release items while one of the yellow C buttons can be used to change the screen view eg. you can have your kart speed displayed or have a little map showing you where everyone is on the track.

Finally, there is the Battle Mode. This is also played with two, three or four players. You each have three balloons and the object of the game is to keep as many of them as possible and try to burst your opponents ones. There are four different battle arenas in this mode, and for some reason when you play with more than two people there is no background music.

The game is great fun to play alone, whether you're trying to beat your own or somebody elses record on a time trial or you're trying to get win gold in the Grand Prix. But the game is even more fun to play with friends. You can have hours of fun trying to beat each other in races and knock each other out of battle games. I managed to finally get my own copy recently at a bargain price and I'd really forgotten just how good it is.

I highly recommend this game to anyone who likes racing games, and also for children. It's a good game to start with if you've just bought a N64 console.

Sadly, the game is quite hard to find now and expensive to buy, even for a used copy. A new copy is almost impossible to come by. New copies can cost more than £60, and after searching I was unable to find any. I would recommend searching ebay (make sure the seller can be trusted, and also that the game is compatible with your system. NTSC versions - for use on American consoles - are usually cheaper) But ebay does have a better selection than any other uk site I have found.
The cheapest used copy I found is on amazon marketplace, in very good condition - cart only. It costs £15.89, with about £2 more for postage. So amazon and ebay are really the best places to look for this game.
You can also try the shop Gamestation, which has shops and also a website : www.gamestation.co.uk. They sell used retro games, with games for Nintendo's first console the NES. I have seen a few copies of this game in Gamestation recently, some in packs with an N64 and other games so if you want the console and are thinking of getting this game too them go for one of these packs if you see one - they usually cost around £29 or £39, which is a great price especially if the games are boxed as this puts the value up.

Summary: Great fun, good to play alone and even better with friends