Anyone who wasn't right next to you was invincible.
Really? That's to the far left of my Mario Kart 64 experience. Now I keep on hearing a lot about how MK64 isn't that great to which I really have to wonder. Looking at it now it had:
+ The best item efficiency in the series
+ Stellar item balancing. You could be first or second and get super items (Spiny Shells, Boos, Starmen) although the ratio for them was lower. Likewise you could get overconfident in your item draws in the lower places and be brought back to reality with a banana bunch instead of the Star you wanted.
+ Speaking of spiny shell, the "turf cruiser" involved a fair bit of skill to use and then there was the awesome fact that it could serve as a match equalizer since it hit anything in its way.
+ Multiplayer modes were godly.
+ Best racetrack designs. (I really hated how all the courses went and got smaller from MK64 to DD/DS/Wii)
+ Music. Hands down best music in the series came from this game.
+ Kart Physics. If you hit a wall, you still kept a fair bit of momentum, same with being flipped in the air and actually driving. Sometimes in the later games, I feel like the sense of speed is somewhat nerfed coming from MK64's 150cc & Mirror Modes.
+ Keeping stock items. This BS that Double Dash started really took a toll on things in the later entries. How come all of a sudden, if I get hit with lightning or a star, or anything that can flip a kart, I lose my stock item?
- Rubberbanding. This doesn't affect me as much since it was somewhat humorous to me to see how the AI would designate two specific characters to race against you in first place and honestly I really don't get the big deal either. Uber item spam like MKWii (o hai thar Cloud AIDS, Bullet Bill, "Tsar Bomba" Blue Shell and Lightning) is infinitely more enthusiasm killing that a few AI quips, especially since in that game you could you know, keep moving after taking a hit.
Honestly, in my opinion, the only things that the later Mks added to the series were awesome online modes, more characters, bikes, a simple trick boost mechanic, and doubles karts. Still I don't think that the series is turning bad at all. As long as I can have fun with it all, it's doing well.