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This article is by Ultramariologan (tbc). Only edit if you are in my company.

'Baby Kart 64 is the second installment of the Baby Kart series, as well as the first in the series to use three-dimensional graphics. It was released for the Nintendo 64, and later became available for the Wii's Virtual Console. It featured changes in playable characters, new courses, and was placed 4th in the 100th issue of Nintendo Powers "100 best Nintendo games of all time" in 1997. Baby Kart 64 has set many trends which have continued on in the Baby Kart series, and introduced courses such as Sherbet Land and Baby Wario Stadium that were used again in future Baby Kart installments.

Gameplay[]

Players must steer with the Nintendo 64's controller's control stick, holding the A-button down to accelerate. The B button is used for braking, and also allows the player to reverse by pointing the control stick downward. Items can be used by simply pressing the Z trigger. When the player presses the R trigger, they will jump, allowing the kart to turn around tight corners. Turning too much or quickly, or turning side to side, will result in the player sliding and spinning around, making their kart stop for several seconds. If a Banana is hit while the player is driving straight, the character will skid for a while before spinning out. If the player presses the B button, a music note will appear over the character's head and they will not spin out but continue going straight, nullifying the effect of the item (this effect is also included in the Baby Kart: Super Circuit).

As opposed to the previous game in the series, Baby Mario Kart, a standard race now has three laps rather than five due to the much-longer raceways compared to those found in Baby Mario Kart. Additionally, the race tracks are not flat in this game and feature different forms of terrain. To get items, the character must get an Item Box. Once the character gets an Item Box, an item-roulette will appear with medium sound, and, when stopping, will sound four "dings".

There are four cups, designated as Mushroom Cup, Flower Cup, Star Cup, and Special Cup. These cups are further divided into three different difficulty settings of 50cc, 100cc, or 150cc. An unlockable Extra, known as Mirror Mode, allows the player to race courses in the opposite direction usually raced, which sometimes increases difficulty. In order to unlock this feature, you must complete all cups on 150cc. When or if the title screen changes, shows that you now have extra. A Time Trial mode and a Battle Mode are also available, which pit the player in different kart scenarios that don't necessarily require racing.

In the Time Trial mode, the player must race against their own previous times, represented by a ghostly form of their player-of-choice.

In Battle Mode, each player starts with three balloons, and loses a balloon when hit by any item. It is also possible to lose a balloon if a heavier player such as Baby Bowser hits a lighter player like Baby Toad or Baby Yoshi with great enough speed (more details here). When a player has lost all of their balloons, they will lose, while the other player simply "wins" that round.

The rival system in this game is the more common 2 Rival system seen in most similar games, whereupon two randomly selected rivals will fight with the player, and will use the "Handicap" feature to situate themselves on level with the player. They will always stay on the same no matter what the championship standings are.

On a side note, when the player plays the 150cc and Extra mode, a random CPU racer may receive a huge handicap, giving them a huge lead that the player can't stop at all without cheating.

Technical[]

The original release of this game on the Nintendo 64 used 123 pages of the Controller Pak to record Ghost Data, which would occupy all the space in the Controller Pak. However, later versions of the game used 121 pages on the Controller Pak, leaving only 2 pages free.

Because of the available controllers without a Controller Pak Slot, it is impossible to record Ghost Data on the Virtual Console version of the game.

Drivers[]

Lightweights[]

The Lightweight drivers have the highest Top Speed and the best acceleration, but tend to slide out the most of the drivers. If a Heavyweight Player rams into a Lightweight Player, the Lightweight player will slip out, giving Heavyweights a large advantage over them in Battle Mode. Lightweights, with their faster speed and acceleration, have the advantage in Grand Prix mode, however.

Name Description
Baby Peach Baby Peach first appeared in Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time as that game's damsel in distress, and as the damsel in distress in every game since. She appeared in the first Baby Kart game Baby Mario Kart.
Baby Toad Baby Toad is the helper of Baby Peach. Baby Toad also appeared in the first Baby Kart game Baby Mario Kart.
Baby Yoshi Baby Yoshi made his first appearance in Baby Mario World as Baby Mario's friend, and just like Baby Peach and Baby Toad, made his racing premier in Baby Mario Kart.
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