Speed Freaks felt more like Sony's answer to Mario Kart when comparing this to Mario Kart 64 looking back in the 90's, however, Crash Team Racing was released around the same time as Speed Freaks was worldwide which would explain why not many people have heard of this forgotten kart racing game. What you may notice straight away is the gameplay as you race around each track you'll notice pick-ups and power-ups around the track; you'll have stuff like bombs, missiles, slime and machine guns which you can against other racers. There are a few other powers-ups, including tyre pop which can pop racers tyres up giving you chance to catch up and shockwave which fires an arc of electricity, which will travel along the track path they will lose their speed boost and their weapons which can be handy if you are in last place.
Gameplay controls feel simple and straightforward using the X button to accelerate, square for brakes, L1 / R1 for powerskid and the L2 button to fire your weapon. I found the game more enjoyable playing the game with an analog controller mainly because the left analog stick feels more like you are gripped with the controls more than using the directional pad for steering. There are speed boosts if you pick any up around the track you can fill the gauge up for it giving you more speed. You can play either six of the main characters which are available immediately at the start of the game and three further characters can be unlocked by beating them in a challenge. Each character's kart has different capabilities with differing levels of top speed, acceleration and handling you might want to keep that in mind.
Tournament Mode is more of the main campaign you'll have four tracks to race through and if you manage to win the tournament you'll become the champion. There's only 12 tracks in total with 5 laps in each race may feel short you are getting a good challenge, especially when trying to remain on the top of the tournament for both medium and hard mode. Single Race and Time Trail are in the game as well, Multiplayer mode makes a great experience from 2 - 4 players, especially if you have a Multi Tap for the PlayStation unless you own a PlayStation 3 it is backward compatible you can easily play 4 player races easily.
The graphics and visuals look impressive for a game that was released back in 1999 very cartoony from the character designs for the racers looking like something from the Rayman franchise with no arms or legs including karts just an invisible kart with only wheels. When comparing both Speed Freaks and Crash Team Racing both games are impressive and highly well detailed. The level designs for each of the tracks are well spaced out with a good layout design with colourful textures and details for the tracks, same goes with the soundtrack what you may find annoying is the cheesy voicing for some of the racers not that annoying they can easily be ignored.
Feels like Speed Freaks is easily forgotten as of now since it was released you would be very surprised how enjoyable the game for both single-player and for multiplayer. It can be cheap finding a copy of the game at certain retro stores or markets just hopefully that it could make a return either as a remastered title or gets added to the PlayStation Classic.