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Sebastian Santabarbara profile image Sebastian Santabarbara

Modder Puts Sonic Into Mario Kart 64

Sonic in Mario Kart 64
Credit: Nintendo/Sega/jnmartin
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If you've been following the efforts of the Dreamcast community of late, then you'll know that a modder by the name of jnmartin has been working to bring Mario Kart 64 to Sega's swansong console. It's a port that we never thought we would see in a million years despite Sonic and Mario sorting out their differences in time for the Olympic Games every 4 years. He's even made improvements over the original game by getting it running at 30 fps!

Now, however, things are starting to get even more interesting. The fans asked for it, begged for it, even, and jnmartin has delivered. He's brought Sonic into the game as a playable character that you can race with on every level. He's had to get rid of Toad to do it, unfortunately, and the character portrait is still Toad for the time being, but it's feeling more and more like a game that could belong on the Dreamcast with every passing day!

Seeing Sonic in this game just feels like all of my childhood dreams coming true. I know that we get new characters dropping into games all the time these days, but back in the 90s, we had to make do with those same MK64 characters day in, day out. It would have been a dream come true if the 64DD tech of downloading extra content had come to fruition (or if we had even gotten the 64DD over here in the first place), but at least gamers like jnmartin are making those dreams come true.

If you haven't been keeping up with the Dreamcast modding community, then you might have also missed the fact that GTA III has come home to the Dreamcast, the console that it was originally developed on. Sonic Mania has also recently been ported to the console in a feat of incredible wizardry, proving that there's never been a better time to be a Dreamcast fan... which is mad considering the console has been out of production for years!

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Sebastian Santabarbara profile image Sebastian Santabarbara
Sebastian is fuelled by a lifelong passion for Zelda, Banjo Kazooie, Donkey Kong, and all things retro. He uses his misspent youth with retro consoles to create content for readers around the world.