PAL Wii Virtual Console- 26th Jan- Mario Kart 64 + News Channel Live!

[SuperCoolAl]

Yep you read that right we get 'em before everyone else!!!

Mario Kart 64 and Soldier Blade for Turbografx are the new releases this week.

MK64 *appears* to be running faster than the original (may be optimised?) but is definitely still running in 50Hz. But don't trust me on the speed because I only did one quick race, I'm going to do a better comparison with my original tonight. It is definitely unbordered though, as well as running in higher resolution to the original (just like Super Mario 64)!

However the 'More details...' page says you cannot save ghost data in this version, which leads me to believe they haven't yet implemented Controller Paks in the emulator.

[WazMeister]

shame we need a cube or a classic pad to paly this, darn it!

[C']

I’ve seen a few people say certain games are ‘fully optimised’ and ‘run without borders’ despite being 50hz. I don’t want to get into another 60hz debate but I’m just wondering what type of screens people are running these ‘unbordered’ games on?

I only ask because a number of these supposedly full screen games run bordered on my Hitachi plasma. I guess it’s because the panel doesn’t seem to overscan very much at all whereas I guess other TVs could be overscanning to a greater extent removing the borders. Mario Kart 64 is one such game where you say it is “definitely unbordered” but when I downloaded it this morning I can with all honesty that it is definitely bordered.

However, other titles (specifically the TG-16 stuff that runs in 60hz) do all run truly unbordered on the screen.

Still, have to say I've never played MK64 before this morning (and heard mostly negative things about previous to this). However I quite enjoyed what I played this morning. Will spend more time on it this evening.

[dataDave]

MK64 is ace in 4-player. We used to play it during English lessons at school along with our teacher!!

[dno]

It looks loads better to me, much sharper image, less blurry than I remember. It seems to be running a bit faster too.

[SuperCoolAl]

Well this could simply be because the Wii is a more powerful system- it is sustaining the framerate better so the gameplay does seem slicker (like I said I'll do some time trials later and test it out if they have actually sped up gameplay, because the N64 version's timer does go in proper real time even though the action's slower than NTSC).

I'm running it on a bog-standard-as-you-can-get Phillips 4:3 CRT TV/VCR combi, and I see no borders on this game. Other games e.g. Sonic and Golden Axe, I can see the borders. But not on this or Super Mario 64. So I think it's your TV.

[Binary Defence Crimson]

No borders, plays (and looks) good on my Wii, Component-ed up.

[Miguel007]

Mario Kart is great and looks vastly improved to me, I'm going to check the original tonight out of interest.

But I'm having real difficulty getting to grips with slide boosting using the Classic Controller, that is going to take some getting used to for me.

[SuperCoolAl]

I'm using a Cube controller and it feels perfect to me, maybe more precise than my '64 controller (which has developed a rather large deadzone).

[SuperCoolAl]

Right I've done some testing:

1. There is NO speed alteration, it's as slow as before.

2. The original version of this game had noticeable borders at the top/bottom of the screen, the Virtual Console version does not.

3. I couldn't believe how muddy the original looked when playing it again after the VC version! The VC version runs at a much clearer resolution.

So in summary this game has been 'half-optimised,' i.e. borders are removed but gameplay is at the same PAL speed as before (just like Super Mario 64). We'll be getting a higher res than NTSC regions due to our 576 lines, but we'll still be slower than them.

[MattyD]

Was the original PAL version speed corrected then? Like Mario Bros and Super Mario Kart it may have been speeded up to run at a comparable speed to the NTSC version but in 50hz.

[Brad]

I had a US N64 and my mate had a Pal one and at the tiem I don't remember there being any difference in actual gameplay speed. Was a long while ago though so I mya be wrong.

[Kit]

They should have given Mario Kart a bit of a facelift before releasing it, the 2D sprites look horrendous against the now clean 3D backdrops.

[Yoshimax]

Nobody puts MK64 in the corner !!!

One of my all-time favourites - I laid out £120 for this game (Jap import) bundled with controller !

This should be in headlines !

[NecronomiconUK]

They should have given Mario Kart a bit of a facelift before releasing it, the 2D sprites look horrendous against the now clean 3D backdrops.

Sorry dude but are NOT going to go back to code and assests that are getting on to a decade old just to tart it up a bit. Anyone expecting the content of VC games to be enhanced is living in a dream world, it won't happen.

I had a PAL N64 back in the day and adored MK64 then, regardless of any bordering or speed issues I loved it. I've never played a jap/us version so the speed it (or any other PAL N64 game) runs in on the VC is perfectly fine for me.