Board 8 > RATE THE GAME - #226 - Mario Kart 64

(+) Yeah! (+)

The Diddy Kong Racing comments made me want to get to this one right away

• Rate on a 0-to-10 scale, with up to one decimal place (like 8.8)
• If you change your rating, delete your previous post
• No alt-account shenanigans
• Please suggest future games to rate
• If you want to rate a game you missed, make it clear in your post
• If there are multiple versions of the same game, rate your favorite
• Dont be a dick

Tracking Google Sheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/18aVHprZfGYJAAgREmqqOwku3lIiNGkHTzuzevYiKhQk

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186: Diddy Kong Racing - 7.24 (24)
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188: Octopath Traveler - 7.22 (23)
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212: Final Fantasy XIII - 6.05 (41)
213: Hearthstone - 5.99 (15)
214: League of Legends - 5.90 (21)
215: Wave Race 64 - 5.88 (24)
216: Mega Man 7 - 5.88 (25)
217: Donkey Kong 64 - 5.73 (35)
218: Dragon Warrior - 5.61 (21)
219: Final Fantasy Tactics Advance - 5.49 (28)
220: Destiny - 5.48 (10)
221: Pokemon Go - 5.45 (32)
222: Fortnite - 5.28 (15)
223: Fallout 76 - 3.00 (5)
224: Devil May Cry 2 - 2.51 (21)
225: Sonic the Hedgehog (2006) - 2.27 (20)

Game 226 - Mario Kart 64
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/5032b0f6.jpg

9.5/10

Probably in my top ten all-time for most total hours played, still my favorite Mario Kart

8

Despite having aged horribly technology-wise (no music in multiplayer due to lag lol), it just has a sort of undying charm to it, Mario Kart will just never feel like this again to me

7.8/10

8

This has always been one of my favorite Mario Kart games.

9/10

I can think of some reasons why the game isn't perfect, but that didn't stop me from putting thousands of hours into time trialing and versus mode. (No battle mode; battle mode can suck a random object.)

8

8/10

Very hard to rate, because man it's ROUGH to play nowadays, but is still a ton of fun. And, uh, I had to rate it higher than Diddy Kong Racing...

6

7

7.7

I'm not the biggest Kart racer fan but it actually plays well unlike DKR even if it has less gimmicks to play around with. Only Mario Kart game I got reasonably into. I entered a Nintendo Power contest for Mario Raceway and got close to the winning time by being able to reliably execute a skip. There is a charm in the battle mode on this one too that I don't feel the later games really have.

9.2

9

8.5

Was a great time back in the day. Single player didn't hook me though, and 8 is quite a bit better nowadays.

4/10

Don't like

8.5

kinda flawed computer AI but I had a lot of fun and was the first N64 game I got

Impromptu course ranking

Wario Stadium
Banshee Boardwalk
Toads Turnpike
Kalimari Desert
Bowser Castle
DK Parkway
Royal Raceway
Koopa Troopa Beach
Choco Mountain
Yoshi Valley
Moo Moo Land
Frappe Snowland
Luigi Raceway
Mario Raceway
Rainbow Road
Sherbet Land

9

My favorite couch multiplayer game from Day One to Day Now! But loses a point for being a 4 player game with only 3 top speed characters to pick, which forced us to create a custom ROM patch to use at the World Championships.

8

Hard to rate. The game has really aged horribly imo, but it feels wrong to rate it solely how I feel about playing it today.

I guess 6/10 feels like a good enough middle ground.

6.5

8/10

7/10 for Diddy Kong Racing

8

later games do feel better than this (and so does CTR from the same console generation for that matter), but I feel it still plays well enough and it just has so much damn charm to it, maybe a series peak in that regard in my opinion. also lots of good times with the multiplayer.

after Wii and DS (both of which in my opinion play much better), probably my third favorite Mario Kart.

7.5

5.5

6.5

I have played the game in the past year and I honestly don't understand all the age comments. *shrug

7

good, but no double dash, the true peak of the series

9.

Forget what I ranked DKR, but honestly even though it just doesn't wow me.as much today I had probably more of a blast with this one simply from multiplayer with kids my age. Sucks getting old man..

Lopen posted...

I have played the game in the past year and I honestly don't understand all the age comments. *shrug

Yeah, I don't really get it either, but I generally feel this way about most "it hasn't aged well" critiques

7

Fun enough, but far from the best kart racer of its era. Speaking of...

Nominate Crash Team Racing

2

7.7

8

Same score as DKR. Both have their ups and downs.

8.6

8

I wish you could play GP with more than two players, and some of the tracks are boring no matter what you do (Rainbow Road). But back in the day I also played battle mode a lot which I would never do anymore.

like everything else, mk64 didn't "age well" because it doesn't play like modern Mario Karts. that's it

Leonhart4 posted...

Yeah, I don't really get it either, but I generally feel this way about most "it hasn't aged well" critiques

See and the funny thing is I actually tend to understand a lot of them but I just don't really see it with this one. It felt fine.

To me it's usually the genre or series introduced features that feel kinda must have now or the tech limitations are more glaring when you played more recent games from the series or genre that didn't have them. N64 peer Goldeneye is my favorite example of this even.

I feel like neither of those apply to MK64 though.

7.5

bring back MK64 toad voice

In 2025 I expect games to control well and this game does not.

I don't see a functional difference in the controls between it and later Mario Karts what are you trying to do that is giving you a hard time

I've never had a problem with MK64's controls

I mean I don't play at an expert level so maybe it's that, who knows

mk64 obviously plays different than later games.

That'd be like saying Melee doesn't play differently than Brawl.

Maybe its sliding? I remember it being relatively difficult in 64 but not that more difficult

F-Zero was always harder for me

Like trying to turbo drift? I dunno, maybe I've spent too much time playing it, but it's second nature to me at this point.

8.5

Nominate Golden Sun: The Lost Age

Yeah but thats the only real notable difference other than maybe steering being slightly less responsive

its not like Super which is very different (but still fun imo)

7.4

i had the most fun with Double Dash