User:L ke/sandbox

Development
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2022/07/random-mario-kart-64-nearly-had-a-no-item-mode-to-appeal-to-f-zero-fans

Reception
Mario Kart 64 received "generally favorable reviews" according to the review aggregator Metacritic. It was also commercially successful, selling 9.87 million copies worldwide—the second bestselling N64 game.

Critics debated the game's presentation and visuals. Supporters felt the game adequately used the power of the N64 (critics from GamePro and Electronic Gaming Monthly), made the game stand out from others in the racing genre and in the Mario series (GameSpot's Trent Ward), and was an improvement over its 16-bit predecessor (NintendoLife's Corbie Dillard and a reviewer from GameRevolution). Carine Barrel from the French Officiel Nintendo Magazine enjoyed the game's colourful and fluid visuals, adding that its overall presentation likened a "magical" experience. Detractors of the graphics felt they lacked detail (Tom Gulse from Computer and Video Games and Peer Schneider from IGN), weren't a big enough improvement over Super Mario Kart (AllGame's Scott McCall and Neil West from Next Generation), and failed to fully benefit from the N64's power (Francois Caron of Jeuxvideo.com). The use of 2D sprites was a common critique, West arguing that it made the game look 16-bit.

Mario Kart 64's track design and gameplay polarised critics. The game was panned for being un-innovative (Schneider), too easy (Caron), and simple and monotonous (Ward and Nick Ferguson from Edge). Computer and Video Gamess Ed Lomas and N64 Magazines Jonathan Nash felt that success was too dependent on getting the right power-ups. Morley disliked Mario Kart 64's wide, motorway-like track design, saying that it did not provide an "adrenaline filled" experience which players might have hoped for. Critics also found fault in the game's use of rubberband difficulty balancing, recognising that it gave the enemy AI an unfair advantage. Technical issues such as poor collision detection and lag in the four-player "Battle Mode" were also noted.

The gameplay did have supporters, who noted its large amount of courses (West, GamePro, and Electric Playground), found its track designs more detailed and impressive than Super Mario Kart (Schneider and Dillard),  and thought it had a lot of replay value (Caron and GamePro). Hyper's David Wildgoose and Jonathan highlighted the flexible turning control with the multiple-angled joystick, calling it "perfect" and true to real-life karts. Jonathan enjoyed the amount of focus and fast reflexes required for the player. Wildgoose reported having many unexpected moments while playing the game due to its "ingeniously fiendish AI" and the boxes containing different power-ups each time they're collected. Reviewers, even those lukewarm towards the graphics, positively noted touches such as the 180-degree turns in Bowser's Castle, the cows in Moo Moo Farm, and the sliding penguins in Sherbet Land as highlights, as well as smoke puffs coming out of karts. Critics found the multiplayer mode to be better than the single player, with Schneider calling it "multi-player mayhem at its best". Electronic Gaming Monthly named it a runner-up for "Multiplayer Game of the Year" (behind Saturn Bomberman) at their 1997 Editors' Choice Awards.

Legacy
helped spawn several sequels which have been brought out across generations of Nintendo consoles. Mario Kart 64 placed 17th in Official Nintendo Magazines 100 greatest Nintendo games of all time and 49th in Electronic Gaming Monthlys 1997 list of the 100 best console games of all time.