Pros: Good graphics, Great gameplay
Cons: Poor sound, Not quite "real" Ridge Racer

Do you love Gran Turismo? Were Daytona USA and Sega Rally some of your arcade favorites? Then RUN! Run far, far away! Odds are you'll hate this game. And I'm already way over-tired of hearing about how the physics are wrong and there's "only" 25 cars.

If you want the feeling of driving a real car...go drive a real car. I do it every day. If you want to play a FUN arcade racer, strap yourself in -- the N64 just got an actual good game!

Tracks:
The box says 9 tracks. And that's basically accurate. Some people may gripe that there's only 4 different locations -- one with two routes, two with three, and one with one -- and that should count as only 4 tracks. The different routes do go through different areas, though. They're not just re-hashed generic "curve sections" and "straight sections". So, even though a chunk is the same, enough is different to give you something new to look at as well as a whole new challenge.
(Just be glad they're not counting the tracks like Namco did on the original Ridge Racer, which claimed 8 track variations. Two lap, three lap, three lap extended, time attack, and those in reverse. RR64, counting like that, has 60 tracks!)
Graphically, everything looks very nice. The billboards and signs are bland compared to the PlayStation Ridge Racers, but the rest looks great, with additions like real-time lighting and light trails (light trails were seen previously in R4). The Ridge Racer location has quite a few texture and structural changes, but most for the better. The Ridge Racer Revolution location has *completely* different graphics, and the track has changed a bit also, but looks good. And the Renegade location is new for the N64. I haven't seen the Speed track yet, but from the pic on the back of the box, it also looks new.
The only downside to the tracks is that the jumps have been toned down quite a bit, and the Renegade tracks can get too curvy. The tracks also seem *slightly* narrower than the originals, which can make passing difficult at times.

Cars:
The 25 cars are a motley hodge-podge of cars from Ridge Racer, Ridge Racer Revolution, Rage Racer, and R4. Except that only the cars from R4 look like they used to. Gone are the coupes, stocks and Diablos from the originals, replaced with curvy, sporty looking models. This doesn't make a real difference, just cuts down on the nostalgia. Car 25 is an original...a fully enclosed golf cart, from the look of it.
I've seen complaints about the cars having a low poly-count in-game, but I've not noticed it, myself. If they do, it certainly doesn't detract from the look of the game in any way.
Some people fail to understand that cars you win later in the game are not necessarily better than cars you got earlier. Each car has its own stats, which, in a generic sense, improve as you get them. But your top speed is determined by the race you're racing. And a brand new car with excellent speed and acceleration but no handling isn't going to do you much good on the ultra-curvy Renegade Expert track.

Viewpoints:
A small mention, but there's the in-car view, the outside-car view, and a new slightly-farther-back-outside-car view. However, just like in previous RR games, playing from anything but the in-car view is a terrible experience. The outside-car views' cameras track in an odd way that I just can't deal with.

Drift Modes:
RR64 lets you choose from 3 drift modes for your drift turns:
Classic -- Supposed to be like the original RR. You slide quite a bit, but don't lose much speed coming out of the drift. However, you slide quite a bit more than the original.
Revolution -- Supposed to be like RRR. Your tires regain grip more quickly, but you lose speed the longer you drift.
RR64 -- "More control" is all they say about this in the manual. It seems exactly the same as Revolution Drift, except you can do something new. You can drift through a turn steering the wrong way! When you do a RR64 Drift turn, and spin out the wrong way through the turn, you don't lose any speed at all! Goofy, but nifty.

Collision Modes:
RR64 lets you choose from 2 collision modes:
Classic -- More like R4 than the original RR, but this is the setting I recommend. STRONGLY!
RR64 Progressive -- I dunno what progressive is supposed to mean, but in this mode cars seem to have an extended bounding box, making them harder to pass. Also, if you hit a track side, instead of just bouncing off you'll do a little dance caused by what I assume is your front end and back end alternately deflecting off the wall.

Race Modes:
Quick Race -- I simply fail to understand why this mode was included. When I saw "Quick Race" and "Grand Prix" in the menu, I assumed Quick was a one track race like the original RR and GP was a series like R4. Nope. Quick gives you a certain car on a certain track with a certain transmission at a certain difficulty and you race one race. Nothing is selectable. And it's not random or anything. It's just always the same race. Lame!
Grand Prix -- Contrary to the name, this is simply a classic RR type single race. Pick your track, car, and options and race! Win on all the available tracks to unlock more. You don't have a "rival" car in RR64 like you did in the classics, so there's nothing on the map to indicate how far ahead of the pack you are, unfortunately.
Car Attack -- This seems to be inspired by the classic Time Attack Extra races where you could win a "secret" car, but it plays more like the regular Time Attack races with you vs. your rival car. Beat your opponent and win his car. You can only win 1 car for each track in a level beaten in GP mode, so this mode doesn't open until you clear the first GP level.
Time Attack -- You don't win anything here but the right to enter your initials. And you don't get initials on any other mode. This mode also has a "Practice" selection...but you don't have infinite time to explore, so it's kinda pointless.
Multi-Player -- Single races and series for 2-4 players. I haven't played these. I hear you get some slowdown if you go above 2 players, but I can neither confirm nor deny.

Music:
The music is more of a rock-alternative/electric style than the typical Ridge Racer J-pop/techno. It's OK, not great, not annoying.

Sound:
This is the one real failing of the game. There's approximately 2 environmental sounds: helicopter goes by, aeroplane goes by. There's maybe three different engines between the 25 cars. When you go through a tunnel, your engine pitch changes, but it just sounds WRONG, and bad.
And then there's the one glaring sound problem that has a major negative impact on the game: you can't hear your tires squeal when you drift! You only get a little squeal at the "peak" of your drift, and many times none at all. The squealing tires tell you when you're starting to drift, and when you're done drifting. Without them, I don't know how you're supposed to learn how to drift properly. I've played Ridge Racer, Ridge Racer Revolution, Rage Racer, and R4, so I already know how to do a RR drift quite well. Even I have a bit of trouble now and again with RR64's drifts. This ONE, STUPID problem with the game may very well kill it utterly for newcomers to the series.


Overall, RR64 is a great game with a couple minor flaws...once you know how to play it!