Mario Kart 64/Modes

These are the modes in Mario Kart 64.

Mario Grand Prix (GP)

One to two human players compete with computer players in a group of eight around a series of four courses per cup. A player selects one of the four cups at the beginning of the game as well as a difficulty level.

There are four difficulty levels:

50cc - Easy (fairly slow-paced)
100cc - Intermediate (medium speed)
150cc - Difficult (fast-paced, and occasionally the AI cheats by letting computer characters drive far faster than you can)
Extra - Same as 100cc, but all courses are mirror images of themselves. All left turns become right turns and vice versa. Additionally, in the Toad's Turnpike course, the traffic approaches the racers head-on. Players can unlock the Extra mode by winning 1st place (a gold cup) on all four cups in 150cc mode.

Endings

In Mario GP, the scene you appear in depends on your total placing.

Victory

In Mario GP, if you place 3rd or higher in total at the end, you will be in the happy scene where you're one of the winners. If you place 1st at the end, you will win a Gold Trophy, if you place 2nd at the end, you will win a Silver Trophy, or if you place 3rd at the end, you will win a Bronze Trophy. After the trophy is blown out of Cheep Cheep, the stars fall out, and the trophy is spinning, and then in text says "CONGRATULATIONS!!!" you are shown in the Portrait of WINNING!!!! Oh how GREAT!!! 1st Place can overwrite 2nd and 3rd Place, and 2nd Place can only overwrite 3rd Place.

Loss

In Mario GP, if you place 4th or lower in total at the end, you will be in the sad scene where you're a playable loser. It shows the three CPUs winning, then you who never totally won. The music starts out happy, and then as the three CPUs that are winning and are ready to get on the winner's stand, the music grows from happiness to sadness (OH NO!!!), then while on the way to escape, your player gets attacked by the bomb and in text "WHAT A PITY! MAYBE NEXT TIME...." you are shown in the Portrait of losing, oh how sad. This cannot be saved.

Time Trials

A single-player mode. A player may play any course in any cup. In time trial, the player is given a triple mushroom item, and the kart has a 100cc engine. The top five best course times and the best lap time are recorded on the cartridge, and the aim is for the player to beat their own records. Completing a race often results in a ghost appearing on the player's next attempt - the ghost is the route taken for the best time that the player has completed in their current session, and can be saved on a controller pak for later use.

There are several online communities dedicated to keeping track of time trial records, and some are still as active as ever, many years after the game's release.

Versus Mode

In this game for two, three or four players, players can race head-to-head against their friends without computer players. Players need not play an entire cup, but select individual courses to play. Players also select the difficulty level.

Battle Mode

In this game for two, three or four players, players compete in one of four arenas filled with items. Players have three balloons attached to their go-carts and lose them when they are spun-out by either being hit by a player in a higher weight class or spun out with an item. In three and four player modes, players that have lost all of their balloons come back once as a bomb that can move around to crash with another player and thus remove one balloon. The winner is the last one with balloons left.