Over the last ten years, I haven’t had many opportunities to enjoy multiplayer gaming outside of the occasional online match or a rare family get together. But growing up, I actively played with others. From the day I got my Nintendo 64 until Mario Kart: Double Dash came out in 2003, Mario Kart 64 remained a frequent party game.
While each entry has their fans, nostalgia is at a current high for this iteration. It’s hard to find any Mario Kart 64 player who doesn’t reminisce about their time spent battling friends in Block Fort, abusing the game’s massive jump on Rainbow Road or getting lost in the narrow winding tracks of Yoshi’s Valley. Despite being launched early in the Nintendo 64’s life, it continued to deliver fun nights throughout the system’s lifespan even when games like Mario Party, GoldenEye and Super Smash Bros. battled for the multiplayer spotlight.
Memories aside, what makes Mario Kart 64 special to me is that the tracks are more open than the later entries. Each area feels like an actual place with a course running through it, rather than carefully padded and decorated racetrack. Royal Raceway is my favorite example, where you can explore the outside of Peach’s castle just like you could in Super Mario 64. It’s not a part of the track or a shortcut. It’s just there.
Touches like these are unnecessary to the gameplay. In some cases, it’s possibly detrimental. It left a lot of opportunities for players to get stuck or lost. The first time I ended up at the castle, I was completely confused. Nintendo likely recognized this and, when it came time for the track to be remade in Mario Kart 8, the area was closed off. The castle is just another prop in the distance.
These days, I’d drive right by it without a care. But as a kid with way too much free time, it created a world for me to explore.
(Image Source: TMK)
