Games like this give the Dreamcast a run for it's money!

Upon recent rental of RR64, I was pleased with the way this game was made, and then a bit dissapointed. I've never played any of the Ridge Racer games before, so all this is new to me. Make no mistake, this game is an arcade racer all the way. NST made an excellent version of Ridge Racer for the N64.

Graphics: Beautiful. That's all I can say. I haven't seen graphics on the N64 like this before. Lots of background. Nothing that I can tell is flat, even the trees. Excellent lighting effects. Nice textures. Very fast and steady framerate. The only problem I have is with is the night time race courses. It was so dark, I had to shut off all lights in the room to see the track.

Sound: Good techno music, good sound effects and great ambient sound effects. The announcer needs to go. I bet he's the same annoying announcer for Wave Race 64.

Play Control: This is the problem I had. I expected to have control like Gran Turismo or SF Rush, but it's more like a blend of F-Zero X and Crusin' World. Power slides can help, but sometimes don't execute properly.

Challenge: Only 3 enviornments, but tracks do change. It gets harder as you go along. Winning cars is pretty difficult as well. The quick race needs help. I don't know why it's there. There's plenty to do.

Overall: Excellent graphics, sound and challenge can make this game a worthy purchase, if not a must rent!