My first N64 game, and a great multiplayer game as well.
Story: Well you race, thats it.
Gameplay: The game works quite fluid but the AI must fart to proplell them at speeds not possible in those Go Karts to catch up when I am a lap ahead. The weakest point in the entire game is how much the game cheats. The game is quite agravating if you get pissed easily. You can knock Bowser off the cliff on Yoshis Valley and he gets up after 1 second, tekes me 10 seconds. The game cheats.
Controls: They are good, but you can break off a stick pretty quick trying to power slide. My controlers have taken a lot of abuse during this game and lickily even though mine has lost a lot of plastic it hasnt broke
Graphics: Great, they mixed Pixels [worked better than Polygons for the Karts] and 3D polygons. The Tracks look nice but they are kinda bland. But the characters look better than Polygons would of in the game, pixels were used a lot to keep the poly cont down and it shows. But they did a great job on em, the N64 would of been great for 2D games, Metroid would of been great on there like that.
Sound:
The sound is okay the music is annoying after a while and you can't tell what some characters are saying at times [did Toad say "Oh #### when he pased that guy!]. But the Karts all sound great to me.
Multiplayer: This is where the game shines, you have battle mode which lets you fight using the items or you can do a 4 player race with your friends. This is why you buy the game, but get a big TV. You really dont want to play 4 Player games on a 14 ince black and white TV.
Replay Value: The multiplayer kept me coming back for 10 years!
Overall: Fun if you dont get mad easily, otherwise get the swear jar.
Rent or Buy: Buy!