All N64 Games #33: MRC: Multi-Racing Championship

If you need to explain your acronym in the title of the game, don’t use an acronym. “Multi-Racing Championship” is fine on its own. This game has an interesting review history in N64 Magazine as they gave it an impressive 81% in their import review but then dropped to 71% for the UK review, stating that it scored high simply for being first (that wasn’t Crusi’n USA). In their directory towards the end of the magazine, it dropped even more to a 1/5.

I can see why. The core racing mechanics of Multi-Racing Championship are decent, with a focus on tracks with different routes, one off-road and one for sports cars, and decent handling. The tracks themselves have a lot of variation within themselves, too. It still very much an arcade racer as it has the really annoying timer and checkpoint system and you start in last place with other racers far ahead of you.

The major issue with the game is the amount of tracks. I’ve shown three screenshots so far, which encapsulate all the tracks in the game. Yup, there are only three tracks in the game. You can unlock backwards versions of the tracks, but that’s it. Winning is also down more to car choice. Pick the Kingroader (which actually has “This car is the best car” written on the side, which probably wasn’t readable on the N64) and you’ll breeze the medium and hard tracks – indecently, the first track (labelled “easy”) is actually the most difficult.

There are a couple of cars to unlock, but there’s not much reason for doing so when there are only three thacks. This definitely had the advantage of being the first on the system and for taking advantage of the analogue stick, but throughout the N64’s life, racing games evolved a lot.

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Fun

But the crux of it is that we finished Multi Racing Championship on the first day we got it – it really is far too short and easy – and haven’t really returned to it since.

Jonathan Davies, N64 Magazine #8. Review Score: 71%

Remake or Remaster?

The concept of the game is worth revisiting. A rating game with different routes for different vehicles. They could even add additional options, perhaps a more dangerous route for motorbikes.

Official ways to get the game.

There is no official way to get MRC: Multi-Racing Championship


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