Sim racing got a big boost in 2020 as many forms of motorsport faced delayed or canceled events, and racers turned to the world of video games for events like 24 Hours Of Le Mans Virtual. This documentary focuses on a different form of virtual racing by telling the fascinating story of one person's effort to become the greatest Mario Kart 64 player in the world.
As one of the biggest video game franchises in the world, you're probably familiar with Mario Kart. Arriving in late 1996 in Japan and early 1997 in the United States, Mario Kart 64 was the second entry in the series. With impressive 3d graphics for the time and four-player support, it became a hit in living rooms and dorm rooms everywhere.
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Players have created a competitive Mario Kart 64 scene over the years. With 16 courses, there are separate categories for the quickest single lap and best three laps for a total of 32 available world records. This video recounts the effort of German player Matthias Rustemeyer to be the first person to hold all of these records at once.
After Rustemeyer gains 26 of the 32 records, some of the other players in the Mario Kart 64 scene form an alliance to prevent this German phenom from being the undisputed master of all of the game's tracks. What's fascinating is that there never seems to be any animosity between Rustemeyer and his opponents. It's friendly, yet very serious competition.
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Despite being about a video game, this video stands among the best motorsport documentaries of the year. The host meticulously crafts the tale of Rustemeyer's hunt to be the best at Mario Kart 64. He gets just a record or two away from taking them all several times, but then someone manages to shave a fraction of a second off one of his laps to push Rustemeyer farther away from his goal. Watch the whole clip to see if he ever becomes Mario Kart's greatest player.
Source: Summoning Salt via YouTube