The Nintendo 64 is well known for many great 3D platformers like Super Mario 64, Banjo Kazooie, Conker’s Bad Fur Day, and Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon. However, the console is also known for having a plethora of many very competent racing games that still hold up to this day.
Many of the racing games that appeared on the N64 were exclusive to the console, so you won’t be able to play them anywhere else, making the system still worth owning today - unless they finally decide to release the N64 Mini. Without further ado, here are 10 of the very best racing games available for the Nintendo 64.
10 Road Rash 64
Road Rash is a series of games in which you ride motorcycles and attempt to take out other racers with bats, chains, or your bare fists. The series got its start on the Sega Genesis but was later given sequels on the Sega Saturn, PlayStation, and Nintendo 64.
Road Rash 64 is the only entry to be published by THQ, while previous entries were published and developed by Electronic Arts. The game features a licensed soundtrack which includes bands like Sugar Ray, CIV, The Mermen, and Full on the Mouth.
9 Wipeout 64
Wipeout 64 includes fast, intense, futuristic racing in anti-gravity hovercars with item pickups for either helping you or slowing down other racers, similar to the Mario Kart series. While seen as an F-Zero rip off, the Wipeout series feels quite different in the way your vehicle controls and, as previously mentioned, has item pickups, which the F-Zero series does not. The Nintendo 64 version of Wipeout brought some new things to the series including analog control which benefited from the Nintendo 64's controller, as well as new tracks and new weapons.
8 Mickey's Speedway USA
A take on the Mario Kart series, Mickey's Speedway USA was developed by Rareware, who at the time were second party developers for Nintendo. This fun game includes everyone’s favorite anthropomorphic Disney characters. As the name implies, you race through different parts of the USA like New York, Florida, the Grand Canyon, and more.
The game starts off with six characters: Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisy, Goofy, and Pete. You could also unlock Dewey, Louie, Ludwig Von Drake, and if you connect the Gameboy Color version of Mickey's Speedway USA to your Nintendo 64 with the Transfer Pak, you can unlock Huey.
7 Star Wars Episode I: Racer
Many would consider Star Wars Episode I: Racer to be the best thing to come out of the Star Wars prequels, though Jar Jar Binks is also a diamond in the rough. In Star Wars Episode I: Racer, you relive the scene from the titular movie when Anakin raced other aliens from the Star Wars universe.
What makes Star Wars Episode I: Racer stand out is the odd physics and the controls around them. Rather than controlling your vehicles as a whole, you control the two engines which sit in front of the vehicle, tethered by wiring, creating a very unique feeling racing game.
6 Beetle Adventure Racing
A racing game where the cars included comprise entirely of Volkswagon Beetles may sound like an odd marketing ploy but Beetle Adventure Racing is anything but a cash grab. While the game does only include Beetles, the tracks themselves are the start of the show. There are multiple shortcuts in each level, requiring track mastery to get the best time and getting to the finish line as quickly as possible. There are also strategically placed nitro crates which, if hit, the racer is given a short boost of speed to help shave off even more time.
5 Hydro Thunder
Starting off as an arcade game, Hydro Thunder is a racing game where you race as high-tech speedboats through a variety of treacherous environments including the Arctic Circle, a post-apocalyptic New York City, the Nile, Catacombs, and more. The game was also released on Sega’s Dreamcast, Sony’s PlayStation, and more.
Hydro Thunder provides boost icons that bring you to insane speeds with the Nintendo 64’s frame rate holding up surprisingly well to all of the action. The game also saw a sequel on the Xbox 360’s Xbox Live Arcade called Hydro Thunder Hurricane.
4 Wave Race 64
Produced by Mario and Zelda creator Shigeru Miyamoto, Wave Race 64 is a jet ski racing game. The game was originally meant to include high-tech boats with the ability to transform with almost F-Zero like gameplay but they instead decided to go with jet skis to help set the game apart from other water-based racing games on the system.
Wave Race 64’s water physics are what really make it stand out. The water naturally makes waves that your jet ski hops along as you race, something that was never quite replicated, even in the sequel for the GameCube, Wave Race: Blue Storm.
3 Diddy Kong Racing
Back in the golden age of kart racers, everyone and the grandma had a kart racer based on their franchise. You had Crash Team Racing, Sonic Drift, Looney Tunes: Space Race, and much, much more. Rareware decided the market wasn’t saturated enough by the kart racing genre so they decided to make a kart racer featuring Diddy Kong and friends that allowed you to race in karts, planes, or boats. The game oddly didn’t include Donkey Kong but did however feature Conker before his bad fur day and Banjo before he met Kazooie.
2 F-Zero X
If you are not up to dedicate yourself to mastering the controls and memorizing all of the tracks, F-Zero X may not be for you. Unlike most racing game which has low learning curbs to ensure everyone can play, F-Zero X requires absolute dedication and will take some time to get down before you can confidently win races.
There are many that don’t know that the falcon punching Captain Falcon from the Super Smash Bros. series actually originates from F-Zero - and if you were unaware of this fact, you’re welcome.
1 Mario Kart 64
It's fairly obvious that Mario Kart is many gamers all-time favorite racing game on the Nintendo 64. The series moved gracefully from the Super Nintendo into the 3rd dimension on N64. Thanks to the sprites used for the characters and items, the game still doesn’t look half bad. The controls are also a testament to the game holding up so well to this day.
The blueprint set by Mario Kart 64 is still being used in the series to this day and will do so until Nintendo fizzles into obscurity.