Back ماريو كارت 64 Arabic ماريو كارت 64 ARZ Mario Kart 64 AST Mario Kart 64 Byelorussian Mario Kart 64 Catalan Mario Kart 64 German Mario Kart 64 Greek Mario Kart 64 Spanish Mario Kart 64 Finnish Mario Kart 64 French
| Mario Kart 64 | |
|---|---|
 North American box art | |
| Developer(s) | Nintendo EAD |
| Publisher(s) | Nintendo |
| Director(s) | Hideki Konno |
| Producer(s) | Shigeru Miyamoto |
| Programmer(s) | Masato Kimura |
| Artist(s) | Tadashi Sugiyama |
| Composer(s) | Kenta Nagata |
| Series | Mario Kart |
| Platform(s) | Nintendo 64 |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | Kart racing |
| Mode(s) | Single-player, multiplayer |
Mario Kart 64[a] is a 1996 kart racing game for the Nintendo 64 (N64). It is the second installment in the Mario Kart series after 1992's Super Mario Kart. The game retains the gameplay of its predecessor: the player, controlling a Mario franchise character, races opponents around tracks based on locales from the Super Mario platform games. Tracks contain obstacles to slow the player down and item boxes which give the player power-ups to aid in their progress. Mario Kart 64 contains different single-player and local multiplayer game modes, including a Grand Prix racing mode and a last man standing battle mode.
Developed and published by Nintendo, Mario Kart 64 was first revealed in 1995 alongside the N64. The development team focused on best utilising the console's technology for smooth gameplay, rather than innovating significantly on its predecessor, in order to appeal to a wide audience. Developers were bounded by the N64's processing power and made use of rendering techniques to save on memory, and used car physics simulations to aid the game's kart design. Nintendo released Mario Kart 64 in late 1996 in Japan and in 1997 worldwide, months after the launch of the N64.
Mario Kart 64 was received positively by critics. The track designs, multiplayer, and presentation were lauded, while criticism was directed towards its technical issues and difficulty. The game has sold 9.87 million copies worldwide since its release, making it the second-bestselling N64 game. Mario Kart 64 was nominated for awards following its release, and retrospectively has been considered one of the greatest video games of all time. The game has a notable speedrunning presence online. Mario Kart 64 was rereleased digitally on the Wii in 2007, the Wii U in 2016, and the Nintendo Switch in 2021.
Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).