California Speed is for the most part a crappy racing game, but the creative and large levels almost make it worthwhile. Almost. I am fairly certain this was an arcade port, which explains why the game's not particularly big on content, but the stages are certainly large. The graphics are pretty crappy but maybe that is because the stages are so big and the N64 can only handle so much. Instead of laps, you race on a constant series of checkpoints through, well, California. There's beaches, forests, churches, hell at one point you drive right through an aquarium. I actually appreciate the creative level designs, but the game is at fault in multiple departments that are pretty much unforgiveable, even for old games.

There are plenty of cars and stages to select from. Well, not a ton of cars, but you can customize the colors. You are racing alongside everything from sportscars to Golf Karts. Yeah try racing a golf cart against a sportscar and see how either fares, or who ends up dead. I don't know what psychopath designed these races. You're often racing into oncoming traffic, ignoring stoplights, etc. I frequently smash into oncoming traffic in a head on collision and come to a dead stop. Hell, even a sideswipe will render your vehicle motionless. They also control like garbage, I mean they feel like fast moving blocks that don't turn but tilt. They don't feel like cars, it's a problem I have with many of the crappier racing titles. The audio is irrelevant, but as I said, the game looks like garbage. The controls aren't terrible, but controlling the car at high speeds is almost impossible. There are at least several stages, though not a ton. You race a single track or in a championship, and that's it. There's not much more than an hour of entertainment from the single player, and it's not good entertainment.

Graphics: The graphics look pretty bad, I mean from a design standpoint. They are pretty muddy, bland and ugly, though the cars don't look bad. They really could've done some better work with the skid marks, they're destractingly dark.

Gameplay: Bad. Well there's not much to it outside of the races, which there aren't a ton of, and most likely there is nothing to unlock. It doesn't play particularly well or contain enough content to make it worthwhile.

Sound: It doesn't sound particularly bad, but not great either. It seems like facile music lacking in nuance, which is what it is is. Eh.

Control: The game controlls terribly. When cars accellerate to 90 MPH, you expect them to, but this game seems to think that you can't control the car at all at the highest speeds, which is fine since 90% of the time you'er driving in a straight line anyway, but throw one curve in there and you will fly off into the Pacific Ocean against your will.

Overall: You can have more fun with countless other racing games, this is a pointless entry in the N64 library.

Recommended: No