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[IbizaPocholo]

Mario Kart 64 Fan Project Lets Gamers Play Racing Game With HD Graphics

A new fan project reproduces Mario Kart 64, but now with sharply defined racers and environments that look much better on modern screens.

gamerant.com

Developer Andrat has now produced a mod for Mario Kart 64, available now on GitHub, which runs alongside the standard version of the ROM through a standard emulator, or through the popular Dolphin emulator (note that while Dolphin now runs all original GameCube games, it does not run N64 games natively). Compared to some fan projects, the new Mario Kart 64 HD mod has a low chance of being removed from the internet over copyright infringement concerns because it does not offer free duplicates of the game, but instead works with copies players may already possess legally.

 

[ManaByte]

Nintendo ninjas in 3...2...

 

[Killer8]

Nintendo ninjas in 3...2...

It's just a texture pack for emulators, Nintendo can't do shit about it.

 

[12Goblins]

This is double dash are immensely underated in terms of gameplay. After that it all goes downhill just like smash brothers it breaks my heart

 

[K' Dash]

Why would you do this for MK64 and not for DKR?

I swear, MK64 is one of the most basic and boring racing games I have ever played, the only fun I had with it was going into battle mode and playing in block fort.

What a waste of time that could have been invested in the infinitely superior Diddy Kong Racing

 

[John Bilbo]

Lookin' good

 

[Digity]

Why would you do this for MK64 and not for DKR?

I swear, MK64 is one of the most basic and boring racing games I have ever played, the only fun I had with it was going into battle mode and playing in block fort.

What a waste of time that could have been invested in the infinitely superior Diddy Kong Racing

Always preferred Diddy Kong Racing over Mario Kart 64.

 

[Crayon]

Great work!

Anyhow, super mario kart was the start of a beautiful thing and mk64 was the end of it.

Edit: oh wait, SMK would be the beginning and end of it.

 

[Bakkus]

Great work!

Anyhow, super mario kart was the start of a beautiful thing and mk64 was the end of it.

Weird way of describing the two worst (alongside Super Circuit) games in the series, but ok.

 

[Raven77]

As someone who thinks the N64 is one of the best consoles ever made I will never understand these HD projects.

The games are not designed visually to be played in HD and in my opinion look absolutely awful.

 

[jigglet]

This is identical* to the original game.


*in my head.

 

[nkarafo]

I tried it a while ago.

The big difference between this and most other HD packs is they they also remade the actual 2D sprites and all their animations. Which is amazing. I don't think i ever saw this happen in any other HD texture pack for a game with sprites.

 

[Crayon]

Weird way of describing the two worst (alongside Super Circuit) games in the series, but ok.

Oh I meant 64 killed it, not continued it. So I guess that would mean it began and ended with super Mario kart.

I missed seven and double dash, but I haven't been a fan of any other after super Mario kart. They had a real racing game going there before turning it into Mario party on wheels.

 

[consoul]

It's a bit more than a texture pack by the look of it. Really nice work.

 

[Bakkus]

Oh I meant 64 killed it, not continued it. So I guess that would mean it began and ended with super Mario kart.

I missed seven and double dash, but I haven't been a fan of any other after super Mario kart. They had a real racing game going there before turning it into Mario party on wheels.

Nice to see that you agree with the overratedness of 64 at least! Super is just way too primitive for me, but I can understand liking it and disliking the franchise since.

 

[Crayon]

Nice to see that you agree with the overratedness of 64 at least! Super is just way too primitive for me, but I can understand liking it and disliking the franchise since.

Oh God I hate 64. I like SMK because the weapons are not as overpowered and there's a nuance to the handling that was thrown right out the window for every game since. 64 introduced 'hold r and bang the stick back and forth every turn'.

 

[Big Baller]

Amazing. Best MK.

 

[Codes 208]

mario kart ds needs love too

 

[cinnamonandgravy]

I swear, MK64 is one of the most basic and boring racing games I have ever played

games looks great. add more geometry to the tracks without disturbing the original design language and we're juicin.

 

[VN1X]

The soundtrack from that trailer:

 

[stranno]

I tried it on Steam Deck and it is very very polished. One of the best texture packs I have ever seen. With 2D sprites completely re-rendered, not a crappy neural network upscaling filter like 90% of N64 texture packs.

I have never seen a copyright situation with texture packs. How many years the uber-popular DJipi's Ocarina of Time cel-shaded texture pack has been around, 15, 20?

 

[nkarafo]

Oh God I hate 64. I like SMK because the weapons are not as overpowered and there's a nuance to the handling that was thrown right out the window for every game since. 64 introduced 'hold r and bang the stick back and forth every turn'.

I have a lot of nostalgia for MK64 but even i can't deny, it's not a good MK game. The controls are pretty bad and the rubber banding is the worst i have seen in any game, in general.

It also has he most boring Rainbow Road track in the series. Takes forever, never changes visually through the whole length and has road barriers? Why?

The sprites were also weird. Pre-rendered sprites over clean 3D environments never mixed well for me. They also do this weird thing where they always lean left and right unnaturally, as they rotate. That's because they reused all the sprites where the characters do a left/right turn in the regular rotation loop. It always looked off to me whenever a character spins after getting hit. Guess that's a reasonable shortcut to make and i seen it in a bunch of other similar games on GBA.

The soundtrack is amazing though. Classic stuff here. The credits theme might as well be the best ending theme ever made, it's that good.

 

[Crayon]

I have a lot of nostalgia for MK64 but even i can't deny, it's not a good MK game. The controls are pretty bad and the rubber banding is the worst i have seen in any game, in general.

It also has he most boring Rainbow Road track in the series. Takes forever, never changes visually through the whole length and has road barriers? Why?

The sprites were also weird. Pre-rendered sprites over clean 3D environments never mixed well for me. They also do this weird thing where they always lean left and right unnaturally, as they rotate. That's because they reused all the sprites where the characters do a left/right turn in the regular rotation loop. It always looked off to me whenever a character spins after getting hit. Guess that's a reasonable shortcut to make and i seen it in a bunch of other similar games on GBA.

The soundtrack is amazing though. Classic stuff here. The credits theme might as well be the best ending theme ever made, it's that good.

Agreed on all points except I think the sprites for the cars was not terrible. EXCEPT... The collision with them was so unnatural. The hitboxes were okay for driving but they should have had bigger ones for kart to kart. In SMK you could actually line up drifting lateral ram and fuck someone up with Bowser and dk. In 64, it was very hard to do that. Well hard is not the word because it was hard in SMK. Ill say inconsistent thus unsatisfying.

Actual gas, brake, turn driving in SMK was better than outrun (which was older and obviously built upon by SMK so no dis to outrun). The best thing going on at the time in that category was probably Daytona USA and SMK was right up there. Other close ones would probably be super Monaco GP 2 on Genesis, Outrunners, and that's all I can think of atm.

 

[64bitmodels]

The controls are pretty bad and the rubber banding is the worst i have seen in any game, in general.

i will not stand for rubber banding slander.

while making great challenging AI is also another option, Rubber Banding is still better than nothing like in the case of every other MK game where once you get first place you just keep it and the rest of the race becomes a time trial with the risk of blue shells dropping on your head. It exists for a good reason. you can't keep 1st place all the time.
this idea that the controls are bad is weird to me too, the game always played fine. it looks a bit jank sure but what early 3d game didn't?