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TWRoO on 13 December 2011
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RolStoppable said:
Michael-5 said:

It's not the same. You can't unlock track variants or characters while playing local multiplayer like you could in Mario Kart 64. That's the only way I play Mario Kart.

What an idiotic reasoning. It really is.

First off, there are two other Mario Kart games that allow you to play two player GPs to unlock all or most of the stuff (staff ghosts obviously belong into Time Trial mode): Super and Double Dash!!.

Secondly, I will now list all unlockables of Mario Kart 64's GP mode:

  • 1. Mirror mode

That is the complete and comprehensive list of Mario Kart 64 unlockables through GP mode. For comparison, here's what you can unlock in Super Mario Kart:

  • 1. Special Cup in 100cc
  • 2. 150cc
  • 3. Special Cup in 150cc
It's not a long list either, but it was the first game and it was a pleasant surprise to earn another five tracks and a faster racing class. Here's what Double Dash!! offers in terms of unlockables in GP mode:
  • 1. Four additional characters
  • 2. About a dozen additional karts
  • 3. Mirror mode
  • 4. Championship mode (all four cups as one)
Now while these are only four points, the list could easily be extended by listing all unlockable characters and karts individually, but I don't know them off the top of my head, so this will have to do. Anyway, the tallies for unlockables for each game are:
  • Double Dash!!: almost 20
  • Super: 3
  • 64: 1
This unjustified glorification of Mario Kart 64 is sick and wrong. You talk about unlocking tracks and characters when Mario Kart 64 doesn't even allow you to unlock a single one of these.
TWRoO said:

Actually I think local MP games may still count towards races for unlocking characters... but you would have to play a ridiculous amount of LMP to unlock them all. And yes tracks have to be unlocked in single player. I guess that is a nice feature of MK64, but for me it doesn't make up for almost all the rest of the game lacking... I mean it wasn't even in real 3D.
Characters and items were sprite-based, but the environments were in real 3D. Nintendo couldn't even handle their own hardware at the time and had to rush the game to launch. There were other compromises that had to be made as well, like completely scratching the music in three and four player modes, because the N64 GPU was responsible for graphics and sound. As such sacrificing one of them would lead to gains for the other.

That's what I meant by "not even real 3D", and it's so long since I played I forgot there was no music in 3/4 player.

Also because it's been so long, I forgot you get all the characters and tracks from the beginning.

Still, it would be a nice idea for the future to be able to unlock things in a proper 2 player GP. (ie not like in Double Dash)