The result is an item system that ensures a certain level of chaos, frustration and ultimately, fun. While the game's graphical representation of the slot-machine-as-item-granter would lead you to believe that what you get is just a dice roll, the reality is that it's carefully designed system that rewards players in lower places with items to help them catch up while players at the pointy end of the race get items that are more defensive or inconsequential.
If it feels like the Mario Kart Item Gods are always conspiring against you, well, they are. Just as one manages to escape the mayhem of the pack, someone immediately fires a Blue Shell at you, hits you with a Lightning Bolt or comes screaming past you with a Super Mushroom.
Also when drifting in vertical splitscreen, there is no smoke shaped like V and Es. If the users play in battle mode, on the vertical splitscreen the lap counter can be seen. On its content there is a bizarre vertical splitscreen that appears to be unfinished.
It can be enabled with the Gameshark code 8818EDEF 0002 and accessed by pressing the GS button at the title screen. It has a few more options than the regular gameplay, and some are unused. There is a debug menu that remains in the game's coding.CPU racers would not be able to drift until Mario Kart: Double Dash!!. Code exists that allows CPU racers to drift, but it's never used.Lightning would not legitimately be obtainable in Battle Mode until Mario Kart DS. However, using it would have caused all the other racers to lose one balloon, making it a very broken, overpowered item, so it was taken out. At one point, it appears that it was possible to obtain Lightning in Battle Mode.The Cape Feather would not legitimately be seen again until Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and then only in Battle Mode.
Two different jumping animations for it still linger in the ROM. It presumably would have worked the same way it did in Super Mario Kart. Early promotional screenshots show the Cape Feather being a possible item.Coincidentally, Mario Kart DS's remake of Moo Moo Farm would replace Chubby with jumping Monty Moles. In normal gameplay, though, only the top half is seen. The 1st through 4th icons face the opposite direction in the final. The track order of Mario Kart 64 was also arranged differently, with noticeable differences being Banshee Boardwalk being the first race in the Flower Cup, Bowser's Castle being the first race of the Star Cup, and Toad's Turnpike being the final race of the Special Cup. Additionally, Royal Raceway was originally named "Toadstool Turnpike". This particular screenshot can been seen on the back of the packaging of the Nintendo 64 system. The Cape Feather, which was in Super Mario Kart, was also intended to be included, as seen in a certain screenshot of Super Mario Kart R. Boos from Banshee Boardwalk had also a different look, the HUD was different from the final version, and item boxes were also completely black with colored question marks on them. The Character Select screen was also different, the characters faced the player, and Kamek can be seen in Donkey Kong's space. Kamek was originally intended to be one of the playable characters, but ended up being replaced by Donkey Kong. The working title of this game was Super Mario Kart R (the "R" stands for "Rendered"), also reported as Mario Kart 64 R.