A Mario Kart 64 HD Texture Pack Has Launched For PC

thegamer.com:

Nintendo might not like it, but we’re in an age where fans have figured out how to take their favorite Nintendo 64 games and make them better. It started with Mario 64’s PC port, and then continued with The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’s port that added HD graphics and widescreen support. And now it’s continuing with an HD texture pack for Mario Kart 64.

Developed by the Mario Kart 64 HD mod team, the new texture pack can be downloaded directly from the group’s community Discord (with thanks to VGC). It includes new hi-res models for each playable racer, improved resolution for the 3D racetracks, and better graphics for power-ups and items.

Related: How Mario Is Misrepresenting Italians

Seeing these high-res racing models makes the external camera racing view seem a little weird. Mario Kart 64 never actually displayed a full 3D model of each racer, and instead just displayed a 2D sprite whenever another racer was being shown on screen. It looks like the mod team first created full 3D models of each character in Blender and then snipped 2D images to use in place of those original sprites. This makes the instant replay look somewhat jagged when those beautiful models make incremental turns on a D-pad axis.

Still, it’s undoubtedly an upgrade. And who knows? Maybe the next step in the port’s development will be to make each 3D model fully animated.

You can head on over the Mario 64 HD Discord to download the port. Keep in mind that this isn’t actually a full download of the game, so you’ll still need your own legally acquired ROM to play this port.

Despite being over a quarter-century old, speedrunners are still setting records in Mario Kart 64. Just last month, the world record holder for beating all of Mario Kart