Played this game for the first time recently and got 100% including beating all developer times. It's very impressive how well this game holds up. Rare's familiarity with making racing games definitely outshines Nintendo just barely getting used to the genre at the time.
There's some small quirks that once you understand, make the game very satisfying, and also not nearly as difficult as its reputation would have you believe. Specifically, holding B while drifting gives you a really sharp turn. Otherwise the drifting kind of has a bit of "Turn right to go left" energy. But the sharp turn button in addition to this lets you lean left or right just enough to reposition yourself to grab collectibles/hit speed boosts, while giving you the level of control needed to handle anything the tracks throw at you. You have such fine control here that going to more modern games like Mario Kart 8 feels stiff to me now despite getting into that game first. And even more importantly, if you let go of the gas while boosting, you keep the speed MUCH longer than you would if you just held onto it the whole time. The boosts feel so weak if you don't do this, and I imagine this mechanic being somewhat obscure is why the game is so infamous for being insanely challenging. Not to say mastering the game is a cakewalk but if you don't know this one weird trick Rareware doesn't want you to know, the final boss is near unbeatable.
But yeah very enjoyable game, the minor collectathon elements are very cool and appreciated. I kind of wish there was more to find in the hub world, but it just being there at all is very novel to this day. The boss races are a lot of fun. Just so much stuff that hasn't really been replicated in the genre very often, if at all. Makes this game a must play for all time. Great to hear more David Wyse music too. It being a racing game it allowed him to branch out a bit in style from what he normally does, and there's a lot of good stuff in the ost here. And it's really impressive that they made cars, boats, and planes all work so well so long ago. Wouldn't be until Sonic all stars transformed where we see something like it.
Only major complaint I could really have is that level theming leaves a bit to be desired. There's the generic grassy fields, desert levels, and ice caves. A vaguely horror themed one. And the space tracks are super cool. But generally speaking not a whole lot stands out as far as theming goes. Making a lot of the game not quite as memorable as it feels like it should be. But this was likely more of a technical limitation given how ambitious the rest of the game was for an n64 racer. The track designs themselves are all varied and loads of fun anyway.
There's some small quirks that once you understand, make the game very satisfying, and also not nearly as difficult as its reputation would have you believe. Specifically, holding B while drifting gives you a really sharp turn. Otherwise the drifting kind of has a bit of "Turn right to go left" energy. But the sharp turn button in addition to this lets you lean left or right just enough to reposition yourself to grab collectibles/hit speed boosts, while giving you the level of control needed to handle anything the tracks throw at you. You have such fine control here that going to more modern games like Mario Kart 8 feels stiff to me now despite getting into that game first. And even more importantly, if you let go of the gas while boosting, you keep the speed MUCH longer than you would if you just held onto it the whole time. The boosts feel so weak if you don't do this, and I imagine this mechanic being somewhat obscure is why the game is so infamous for being insanely challenging. Not to say mastering the game is a cakewalk but if you don't know this one weird trick Rareware doesn't want you to know, the final boss is near unbeatable.
But yeah very enjoyable game, the minor collectathon elements are very cool and appreciated. I kind of wish there was more to find in the hub world, but it just being there at all is very novel to this day. The boss races are a lot of fun. Just so much stuff that hasn't really been replicated in the genre very often, if at all. Makes this game a must play for all time. Great to hear more David Wyse music too. It being a racing game it allowed him to branch out a bit in style from what he normally does, and there's a lot of good stuff in the ost here. And it's really impressive that they made cars, boats, and planes all work so well so long ago. Wouldn't be until Sonic all stars transformed where we see something like it.
Only major complaint I could really have is that level theming leaves a bit to be desired. There's the generic grassy fields, desert levels, and ice caves. A vaguely horror themed one. And the space tracks are super cool. But generally speaking not a whole lot stands out as far as theming goes. Making a lot of the game not quite as memorable as it feels like it should be. But this was likely more of a technical limitation given how ambitious the rest of the game was for an n64 racer. The track designs themselves are all varied and loads of fun anyway.