- JP release: 18th July 1997
- NA release: 4th September 1997
- PAL release: October 1997
- Developer: Genki
- Publisher: Imagineer (JP) / Ocean (NA/PAL)
- N64 Magazine Score: 71%
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.
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
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
Europe
Japan
North America
N64 Games by Date
1997: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
1998: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
1999: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
2000: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
Haven’t played this one myself, but I don’t think that arcade style rally games were all that common on the N64… (certainly there were plenty of Simulation style rally games… probably too many), so this would still be fairly novel within the N64 library; especially at the time of its release in 1997.
The problem is that SEGA Rally already existed, and had already been available on the Saturn for well over a year by this point. Meanwhile, the later Top Gear Rally games would end up blowing this game out of the water.
They were just making sure there was no pre-emptive confusion with Mr C.
Fairly certain MRC doesn’t fall anywhere on my bought, borrowed, rented scale. Looking forward to what you/ N64 mag says about the likes of GT 64, the F1s (let’s see that again!), the Top Gears. Who knows, they might not be so hot nowadays but I definitely had varying degrees of enjoyment from them. The risk/reward of boosting in Top Gear Overdrive was a refreshing twist.