It is truly too bad that this game falls far short of greatness.
For starters, this game is thoroughly an arcade racer, complete with perfidious powerups, loopy levels, a cadre of crazy characters, and an annoying announcer that just won't shut up. As stated above, if you have played Mario Kart or any similar child-friendly arcade racer, you have basically played this game before. Using one of 20-22 characters (depending on your platform of choice), you will drive across 24 courses full of turbo boosts, switchback loops, insane jumps, and lots of powerups. Speaking of powerups, this game has all manner of ways to screw over your opponents, such as homing rockets, bouncing gloves, rolling bombs, turbo shoes, exploding mines, and the all-powerful All-Star item, which is unique for each character and generally involves totally obliterating all the other cars on the track and zooming into first place!
There are several different modes of play available in this game, including six Grand Prix cups, each of which features four tracks played in succession with points awarded for your finishing position, Single Race mode, which allows you to race on one track of your choice, Time Trial, which is similar to Single Race, except you are the only car on the track racing against the clock for the best time possible, and Mission Mode, which lets you attempt 64 levels, each featuring different objectives and requirements and you are scored according to your prowess. You can also play in split-screen or online multiplayer against three or seven other players respectively. Unfortunately, the only mode playable online is Single Race, although you can continue to stay in the same lobby indefinitely against the same opponents if you so desire. No matter what mode you play, after every race is complete, you will earn Sega Miles, which can be traded in at the store in the main menu in order to buy more characters, tracks, and even music! It is a great incentive to keep playing, especially to unlock the more expensive characters for play!
But all that glitters is not gold, and so it is that this game posseses a number of notable flaws. Firstly, although the simplicity of the controls makes the game easier to get into and start playing, it is unfortunate that this game has no brake button! As amazing as it is to consider, your controls consist soley of accelerate, drift, use item, and look back. Once you know the tracks, this isn't a problem, but not being able to quickly slow down if you miss a turn is very frustrating when you first start playing. Another irritating flaw in this game is the horrible lack of balance between the characters. Motorcycles totally obliterate the opposition because they can indefinitely boost during straight sections of track by performing simple wheelie tricks, while the larger and slower characters can be totally taken out of the race after being hit by a single rocket because they are so slow to accelerate. This, combined with the fact that the cars with poor handling have an incredibly tough time getting around some of the sharpest corners in the game, makes it no wonder that everybody fights over playing as Shadow online, due to his amazing handling and very fast boost (which he can use over and over again with a quick wheelie trick). Another potential drawback comes from the huge emphasis this game places on drifting around corners so you can get a free boost at the end. Although this works fine in theory, this makes the characters with the fastest boost far better than the rest because players that get skilled at drifting can maintain an indefinite boost around the entire track! Compounding this problem is an unforgivable exploit that has yet to be fixed by Sega which is very easy to do with a little practice and can be used to drift in a straight line, allowing a moderately skilled player to easily boost even on the straight sections of track without even using the motorcycle characters! This sort of exploit makes it obvious how some people record unbelievably fast track times online and almost always win races unless they are racing against a more skilled cheater!
It is truly too bad that this game falls far short of greatness. With a little more polish and playtesting, this game could have even taken on the reigning champion of arcade racers, Mario Kart! But serious flaws and overly simplistic controls and game design leave this game in the dust.