Mario Kart 64 Walkthrough for Nintendo 64 Game Name: Mario Kart 64 Format: Nintendo 64 Submitted By: Crumble MARIO KART 64 Been playing this game a lot recently, so thought I’d throw together a guide on some hints and tips I picked up whilst playing the game. CHARACTERS MARIO Mario is your all-rounder. Some average acceleration and top speed, together with good cornering create a good choice character for complete beginners. LUIGI Similar to Mario, but maybe doesn’t corner quite as effectively. Not a character I’d recommend, as Luigi doesn’t really stand out in any of the characteristics of the drivers. PEACH A nice character to control. Despite branding a modest top speed, Peach does accelerate and corner very well. A good character to go if you’re playing a track with plenty of corners. TOAD Toad is a character which stretches from one extreme to the other. Despite having the lowest top speed and being the weakest character, Toad accelerates and corners the best of the 8. Excellent for tracks such as Banshee Boardwalk, but very vulnerable to attacks and over-taking on straights. YOSHI Yoshi is another solid character to choose from. Many people brand Yoshi as the best choice in the game, due to his excellent acceleration and cornering, whilst being stronger than the likes of Peach and Toad. A wise choice for any course. DK Now we are entering heavyweight territory. DK is much stronger than the average and light characters, and can reach a good top speed. However, his acceleration isn’t the best, and his cornering won’t help either. Avoid on tracks like Banshee Boardwalk and Bowser Castle. WARIO Similar to DK in many ways, with slightly better top speed and lesser cornering and acceleration. Again, avoid on the windy courses, but a good choice for Battles or tracks like Luigi Raceway. BOWSER Like Toad, the second extreme character. Bowser is the strongest character in the game, and has the best top speed. However, his cornering is very sluggish and his acceleration is painfully slow. If you’re an experienced player, Bowser can be an excellent choice, but beginners should avoid full stop. ITEMS MUSHROOM Using a mushroom will basically give you a short speed boost. Perfect for shooting past near-by opponents. 3X MUSHROOM Gives you 3 boosts instead of one. Again good for overtaking, or if you’ve just been hit by an item, excellent for getting your kart going again. SUPER MUSHROOM A super mushroom gives you ultimited boosts for about 10-15 seconds once employed. Ideal for pushing your way through the pack by boosting constantly, but beware that continuous boosting makes it easier for you to lose control of the kart. GREEN SHELL Your more common form of forward-firing ammunition. Green shells, once fired, fire in a straight line, and bounce of the sides of the course in a zig-zag motion. Whilst directly hitting people can prove tough, bouncing them off walls into an opponent is a much more common way of stopping an opponent. Can be held behind you to stop oncoming shells. RED SHELL The second type of shell consists of a homing weapon that, when fire, homes in on the person in front and flips their kart. Whilst the opponent does have to be within a certain distance for the shell to home, the red shell can prove a vital route to success. Beware though of windy tracks, where the shells hit the course sides and break, and sometimes if you fire a shell and take over someone before it hits, it may come back and hit you. Can be held behind you to stop oncoming shells. 3X GREEN SHELL 3 green shells, that once employed, circle around your kart. Whilst proving a solid barrier against bananas, boxes and other shells, 3 of the shells can be used to trap an opponent within a frenzy of bouncing shells. 3X RED SHELL Again, like 3 green shells, 3 red shells forms a solid barrier, and can be used to catch opponents further away, by using 2 shells one after the other, instead of just one. BANANA Can be held behind you to stop oncoming shells, and dropped on the track. If a kart hits a banana, it will spin out for a few seconds. An effective weapon to put on corners and jumps, to send foes into walls or off the terrain. BANANA BUNCH A line of 5 bananas, that not only prove a solid barrier against oncoming shells, but can prove a difficult obstacle to avoid if the bananas are laid in a diagonal motion across the track. FAKE ITEM BOX A very sneaky weapon, that is most effective when dropped within a line of real items boxes, especially if the line is scattered. Hitting an item box will cause your kart to flip in the air and land back down. Can also be held behind the kart to stop oncoming shell attacks. BLUE SHELL Blue shells, once fired, follow the course and aim for the person in first place. On the way, they may also hit people in front of you. A very powerful weapon, but not very effective if at the back of the field, as hitting first doesn’t really give you an advantage. STAR Launching a star makes your kart immune to any attacks, speeds up your kart, and allows you to travel across off-road terrain at the same high speed for around 10-15 seconds or so. A very powerful weapon that can launch you up the field of racers with ease. BOO Launching Boo will make your kart invisible, also immune to attacks, for a few seconds, and also steals an item from a random victim. Perfect to use if someone has a star or lightning. LIGHTNING BOLT Lightening bolts, once launched, makes all other racers on the track very small, and therefore a lot slower, for 10-15 seconds or so. If 2 small karts hit each other, or are run over by the person who used the bolt, the kart will be flattened. Lightning bolts are very powerful weapons and can propel you up the field within seconds. COURSE HINTS/TIPS MUSHROOM CUP LUIGI RACEWAY Not a lot of sly-man racing on this track, just simply simple, consistent racing. However, the figure 8 track is inlayed with sand, and using a boost you can cut the course by racing across the sand terrain. MOO MOO FARM A good tip here is to not try to cut the corners, as the track is hollowed, so the further you race from the track, the higher the terrain and the slower you drive, and also on the slopes the moles jump out, and getting hit by one is very annoying, and seeing as the course is so short, could end your race. KOOPA TROOPA BEACH There are a number of shortcuts on this track. Firstly, after the triple ramps half-way through the course, there is a single ramp by the rock. If you hit this at the right angle with a boost, you can cut through the hole in the rock and come out by the palm trees, missing a nice chunk of the map. Also, before you enter the section with the triple ramps, if you drive far right, you can cut across this section through a narrow line of sand, and near the end you can cut across the track toward the finish if the tide goes out. KALAMARI DESERT Try your best to follow the track on this map, as the sand slows you down badly. However, after the second crossing, or just after the first, if you have boosts, you can cut across the sand and back onto the track, which is a very effective way to take over opponents. FLOWER CUP TOAD’S TURNPIKE A nice trick on this map is to line yourself up by the item boxes and hit through all of them, so any opponents close behind can’t get an item as you’ve hit them all. I’d also recommend, if 2 vehicles are in your way, over taking through the side by the barrier – never in between, as it usually ends up in getting hit. FRAPPE SNOWLAND The snowmen on this map are incredibly annoying. Try simply to stick to the course. Corner cutting just gets you into a big mess. Also, in the area with the mass of snowmen, you can avoid them by going to the right instead of straight into the field, which is a much safer route. CHOCO MOUNTAIN Choco mountain’s track is surrounded by steep slopes. Therefore, corner cutting can’t happen, and this very windy track is very tricky to navigate. I suggest using boosts by the area with the falling boulders, and watch out on the jumps, as your kart tends to lose control and hit the side wall. MARIO RACEWAY This map is perfect for corner cutting. Despite being a very windy map, the off-road terrain is very large. Therefore if you get a boost or star, try to cut across as much of the terrain as you can. STAR CUP WARIO STADIUM Wario Stadium is home to one of the most deadly moves in Mario Kart – lightning at the large jump near the end. A lot of players will hand back at the rear end of the pack, where getting a lightning is more common. Then, when the front end of the field are just about to jump the jump, the lightning is used, causing the racers to become small. Now small, they cannot complete the jump. The racer will either fail the jump, and skip back a section of the course, or will brake and have to reverse down and accelerate again once the lighting wears off. It’s a very sly and classic tactic than can make or break a race for you. Another nice shortcut is, at the big jump near the start, with a boost you can jump the wall nearest you an skip a section of the track. SHERBERT LAND Beware of the penguins on this track, as they get in the way a lot. Also, do not be tempted to jump the corners of the track, as most of the time you will hit the edge and land in the freezing water. ROYAL RACEWAY Like in Wario Stadium, although not so common on this track, lightening can be used before the big boost jump, as the culprit will either need to stop, or will boost and land in the water. You can also cut the corner at the end of the race by racing across the grass. Beware of the sloped nature of this track, as falling in the water is a very common sight, especially by the u-turn bend after the first corner. BOWSER CASTLE Such a difficult track to race, Bowser castle is full of so many obstacles to avoid. The thomps are very deceiving, in the first room, so stay off the red carpet until right at the end. Beware of the sliding thomps too, as they are so difficult to avoid if the come into your path. The bridge over the lava you’ll need to line up well too. Watch out for the outer area with the grass, as the hedgerows can be so difficult to get out of and back onto the track. SPECIAL CUP DK JUNGLE PATHWAY Take your time on this course, as most of it is sided with the lake. On the boost jump, the lightning trick can be used, and also if you hit the jump, turn very far to the left and you can avoid the large area where you have to turn your kart. Also, in the cave at the end, instead of following the track, you can cut the corner by driving up the rock face. However, do not drive at the steep bit, as you’ll just fall back down. YOSHI VALLEY Yoshi Valley is another difficult map, due to it’s narrow, windy roads with no barriers. The best route to take is left at the first junction, then right past the hedgehogs and left again past more hedgehogs, which will take you out by the area leading to the big egg. After the bridge, if you have a boost, you can cut across the grass toward the line very effectively. BANSHEE BOARDWALK Another very difficult map, Banshee Boardwalk is very narrow and some has no barriers. Take your time on this map, and if you have lightning, use it on the sections with no barriers, as they should spin into the water, or in the room with the bats, as hitting a bat will squash the racer if small. RAINBOW ROAD Probably the greatest, yet least known shortcut in Mario Kart 64. At the start, it is possible to jump over the barrier, and land on a section of the track further down. It is very difficult to pull off, but if you do, you’ll skip around 40% of the course, giving you the biggest advantage you could wish for. Hope my guide was helpful Thank you for reading Crumble