"Mario Kart 64 (マリオカート64, Mario Kāto Rokujūyon) is a racing game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 64. It was released in 1996 in Japan and in 1997 in North America and Europe. On January 25, 2007, Mario Kart 64 was released on Nintendo's European Virtual Console service for the Wii. It was released on the American service on January 29, 2007, and in Japan on January 30, 2007.
Mario Kart 64 is the sequel to Super Mario Kart for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Changes from the original include the move to 3D computer graphics and the inclusion of four-player support. Players take control of characters from the Mario universe, who race around a variety of tracks with items that can either harm opponents or aid the user. The move to three-dimensional graphics allowed for track features not possible with the original game's Mode 7 graphics, such as changes in elevation, bridges, walls, and pits. However, the characters and items remained 2D pre-rendered sprites.
Music for the game was composed by Kenta Nagata. The introduction music for Mario Kart 64, which is loosely based on the original Super Mario Kart theme tune, was remixed and used in the music video game Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix for the Nintendo GameCube. The game was critically well received by critics and was a best seller. Mario Kart 64 was one of the first games in the series to feature Charles Martinet as the voice of both Luigi and Wario. It also features the voices of Isaac Marshall as Toad."
Source: Wikipedia, "Mario_Kart_64," available under the CC-BY-SA License.