Very odd entry in a series with an unusual dedication to maintaining and only ever tweaking the core gameplay. Developed as Western Nintendo dev team NST's first game, it is the only console RR game developed outside of Namco's internal teams (I believe), and it's this change in dev that, despite nailing the look and getting most of the feel right, makes it feel a bit awkward in a way that picking up the others don't as an experienced fan of the series. This can be alleviated in a hard to see settings option to change the drifting and/or collisions setting to be more like ps1 entries. I didn't hate the default drifting in RR 64, but I found the last few harder levels to be much more enjoyable in the ps1 drift setting. Drifting isn't quite as good in 64 as in type 4, but, on the ps1 setting, it's not far off. 64 also runs at 60fps while having 4 more cars per race than Type 4's 8 cars at 30 fps on ps1. The tracks in 64 are more plentiful than Type 4 but with way way less variety with you constantly repeating the same 3 track themes with increasing difficulty in AI and track design. I found winning each race to be mostly trivial until near the end where it got a bit tricky, but I never ran into any major difficulties until the final set of 3 levels which are BRUTAL. I never came anywhere near handling my car well enough with the high speed and tough courses of the last levels, but the AI's leniency for mistakes seemed to also sharply fall off in the final levels. I never beat them, and, while I don't consider the final challenge being brutal in difficulty wrong inherently, it doesn't work with RR 64's biggest flaw: its hopelessly botched collision handing. I mentioned earlier the collision settings can be flipped like the drift settings between ps1 and n64 style, and, unlike the drift setting, I noticed no change when flipping it. RR games discourage collisions without having a car damage mechanic by making side by side collisions achieve little but negatives for everyone involved and rear ending kills your speed while giving your opponent a small boost forward. RR 64 differs from this otherwise universal design aspect of the RR titles by adding random variance where a rear end will every 3rd or 4th time behave abnormally and basically teleports you in front of them while also reducing their speed. This sounds like a pleasant glitch to experience until you realize the AI can pull the same thing back on you. The difficulty of the final levels loses any fun factor when the extremely challenging opponents you'll have to spend the whole race slowly and precisely passing can very reasonably end an attempt in one or two collisions (even if the collision was an opponent lightly brushing the back of your car as you pass them). Up until the last set of 3 stages I did not find the collisions to be a hindrance and moreso a funny quirk when compared to the others in the RR series. Playing through most of RR 64 was a very enjoyable romp through an odd entry in the series. In addition to a slightly off game from normal, the track design has some oddities as well including the occasional super narrow sections. Idk if any of the changes were for the better, but it's not bad and it keeps unlocking new cars, tracks, and speeds at a breakneck pace until it's over while also running at 60 fps with 12 racers instead of 8 racers at 30 fps on ps1. I'd never recommend it over type 4 or especially 5, but I'd put it as the 3rd best option for anyone trying to play the pre drift to charge boost RRs. I'd probably give it a 5 nowadays, but I think I'd have been more forgiving at release with some of its issues and would've gone 7 or so. Regardless, it's classic ridge racer in a very pick up and play release with the best performance and most cars pre RR5 on ps2 outside of arcades. Worth checking as a fan of RR or if you're interested in the series and only have this one (through switch online n64 expansion pass maybe). (forgive any typos, I am not proof reading this)

I don't know if any other other reviewers here have played the other Ridge Racer titles out there, namely the ones that Namco made, instead of Nintendo, but this game doesn't hold up. If you want to play a faithful Ridge Racer game, then this just isn't it. I'd argue that this feels like some slapped together racing game Nintendo licensed and put out there, just to say that the N64 has Ridge Racer on it.

Best Ridge Racer game ever! Super fast and great controls! Didn't stop playing until I had 100%