this game enticed me with its immaculate presentation. okay, it was mostly the ui design that i think is absolutely incredible, but the cars, the tracks, the music, the whole look and feel of this game is unmatched. it might be my favourite ui design in any game. and the game itself is pretty fun, too. the cars all feel very different to drive and all present their own challenges. its very rewarding to learn the layouts of the tracks, trying to perfectly nail each corner just right and slowly getting better and better at it as you play. i loved going through each of the campaigns and learning about the stories of each of the racing teams, watching each of the characters overcome their own personal struggles thanks to my sick driving skills. its all very cute.

unfortunately, i just kinda didn't enjoy the actual driving mechanics very much? the cars all felt very floaty and sometimes didn't behave exactly how i wanted them to. maybe that's mostly up to my own lack of skill, but the cars felt quite unforgiving when trying to take corners. it was especially frustrating in the expert grand prix, when making any kind of mistake kind of guarantees a loss.

but, i still had a lot of fun with this game. honestly, the presentation is so good that it might even make up for the somewhat annoying driving mechanics, so i reckon its still worth playing.

I used to think a few years ago that this game was pretty middle-of-the-road. But really, there's a lot about it that has aged like a vintage wine to me as time has passed. It's premise is super simple and a run can be finished in no time at all, its technology at the time is impressively good-looking even in today's landscape, and the original soundtrack has slowly become one of my favourites ever for a video game. Playing this game is pure vibes. I won't stretch and call it a perfect game but I've come to accept that it will be among my personal favourites.