rubberband difficulty balancing, recognising that it gave the enemy AI an unfair advantage. Technical issues such as poor collision detection and lag in the four-player "Battle Mode" were also noted. The gameplay did have supporters, who noted its large amount of courses (West, GamePro, and Electric Playground), found its track designs more detailed and impressive than Super Mario Kart (Schneider and Diillard), and thought it had a lot of replay value (Caron and GamePro). Hypers David Wildgoose and Jonathan highlighted the flexible turning control with the multiple-angled joystick, calling it "perfect" and true to real-life karts. Jonathan enjoyed the amount of focus and fast reflexes required for the player. Wildgoose reported having many unexpected moments while playing the game due to its "ingeniously fiendish AI" and the boxes containing different power-ups each time they're collected. Reviewers, even those lukewarm towards the graphics, positively noted touches such as the 180-degree turns in Bowser's Castle, the train tracks on Kalimari Desert, the trucks in Toad's Turnpike, the cows in Moo Moo Farm, Peach's castle on Royal Raceway, and the sliding penguins in Sherbet Land as highlights, as well as smoke puffs coming out of the kart. Critics found the multiplayer mode to be better than the single player, with Schneider calling it "multi-player mayhem at its best". Electronic Gaming Monthly named it a runner-up for "Multiplayer Game of the Year" (behind Saturn Bomberman) at their 1997 Editors' Choice Awards. The game was commercially popular and helped spawn several sequels which have been brought out across generations of Nintendo consoles. Mario Kart 64 placed 17th in Official Nintendo Magazines 100 greatest Nintendo games of all time and 49th in Electronic Gaming Monthlys 1997 list of the 100 best console games of all time. References Citations Bibliography Notes External links Official Japanese website 1996 video games IQue games 64 Mario racing games Nintendo 64 games Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development games Video games developed in Japan Virtual Console games for Wii Video games with pre-rendered 3D graphics Virtual Console games for Wii U Nintendo Switch Online games Multiplayer and single-player video games