Mario Kart 64 is a racing game developed by Nintendo EAD and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64, released in 1996. The first entry in the series to use fully 3D environments, it expanded on Super Mario Kart with four-player split-screen multiplayer — and became one of the defining social gaming experiences of its generation.
Mario Kart 64 was developed by Nintendo EAD and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64, releasing in Japan in December 1996 and internationally in 1997. It was the second entry in the Mario Kart series and the first to render its courses in full 3D, replacing the Mode 7 sprite scaling of its predecessor with polygonal tracks viewed from a true third-person perspective.
The game featured sixteen tracks across four cups, each populated with items drawn from the Mario universe — shells, banana peels, star power-ups, and the lightning bolt that shrinks every rival simultaneously. The balance of skill and chaos that items introduced became the series' defining tension: Mario Kart 64 could be won on driving ability but was rarely decided by it alone. The Blue Shell — introduced in this entry — became gaming's most notorious single item, capable of erasing a commanding lead in an instant.
Mario Kart 64's four-player split-screen made it the centrepiece of N64 living rooms worldwide. Battle Mode — a separate arena mode where players popped each other's balloons — was played so obsessively that it outlasted the race tracks in cultural memory. It was one of the first games to normalise four-player couch multiplayer as a standard feature rather than a novelty.
Mario Kart 64 is ranked #20 on Rolling Stone's 2025 list of the 50 Greatest Video Games of All Time. It sold over 9 million copies and established the template — weapon items, mixed skill tiers, chaotic multiplayer — that every Mario Kart game since has refined.