The developers of Mario Kart 64 nearly included a “no-item” mode in an attempt to appeal to serious racers. According to a 1996 interview from the official Japanese guidebook, Hideki Konno (the game’s director) explains that he loves cars, as do most members of the development staff, and if they were “left up to their own devices,” the team would craft a racing game that would be “way too hardcore and niche for general audiences.”
“It was our attempt to appeal to F-Zero fans, who feel that items are a distraction to the racing,” said Konno. “It allowed for serious races, where you’re trying to edge someone out for fractions of a second, with all the racers clumped close together in the final lap. As it turned out, however, almost everyone who demoed Mario Kart 64 chose not to play that mode, and we ultimately dropped it. In a traditional racing game, you would of course include a mode like that, but Mario Kart without items somehow felt kind of cheap.”
The interview is a fascinating read for Nintendo fans, and it includes many other behind-the-scenes tidbits from the making of Mario Kart 64. For instance, Konno also shares that the team had ideas for dropping 100 bananas rather than the four bananas allowed in Super Mario Kart. Producer Shigeru Miyamoto praises the N64 CPU when discussing the game’s battle mode, stating, “I don’t think other consoles can imitate it right now. Even if they try to make a kart racing game like ours, there’s no way they’ll be able to, so please rest easy in your purchase.”
Mario Kart 64 released in Japan in 1996 and in North America the following year. With roughly 10 million units sold, the game is the second-best selling title on the Nintendo 64, following only Super Mario 64.
