Finally! A racing game for the N64 that's about REAL racing and not an arcade like experience. It's refreshing to play a non-F1 game that isn't about taking 100 foot drops and bouncing off walls like a pinball. This game raises the bar for N64 like Gran Turismo did for Playstation. I'm going to make several references using Gran Turismo simply because I think it's THE racing game to beat. WDC is not about switching 50 different parts and tweaking your engine. It's more a straight driving sim that let's you concentrate on driving. I know that some of us are used to the interchangeable parts and full customization to your car. However I think that WDC is an N64 drivers dream. It's the first step towards the perfect racing sim. Let's begin.

The first thing you'll notice about this game is the graphics. They are the best graphics on a console racing game period. And yes they are even sharper and cleaner than the legendary Gran Turismo. You have the option of a Medium Res Full Screen Mode or a High Res Letterboxed Mode. Both options look absolutely beautiful. The Medium Res is your standard view of the track while the High Res Mode is a letterboxed wider view of the track. The cars look amazing. They're the best I've ever seen on a console, the attention to detail shows how much time the designers put into this. You'll see reflection mapping. light sourcing and lens flare that will blow you away. The backdrops for your road trip are lush and vibrant. The Hawaii course is a perfect example. It has rolling green hills and hang gliders that fly overhead in random patterns. It's great! It's so great in fact on many courses that they distract you from the actual race but with time you can ignore the sweeping, magnificent, gorgeous, lushness of it all : ). Boos studios has done such a good job with the graphics engine that there can be 8 cars on screen at once with no slow down or any other graphical type glitches. Another excellent feature that's been missing in current racing titles is that the skid marks you leave stay on the track. Not only is it good for visuals, it helps you gauge your mistakes. The game doesn't use the 4MB expansion pak but it's not like it needs it. I thought it may use it for replays but somehow Boss Studios found a way around it. My goodness do the replays look good, they are on par with if not better than Gran Turismo's. You'll get the now customary beauty shots and over the hill coming at you replay views. As with other areas of the game, there's no slow down. You can also replay and save an entire 15 lap race! As far as negatives with the graphics, the only negative that I can think of is that as I said the graphics distract you at first. There's no pop-up, no clipping, no warping, no nothing. They have done an above the cut job on the graphics engine.

Amazingly where the game stands out the most is the gameplay. As nice as the graphics are, the gameplay is where it's at. In a cool feature there are, I believe 15 racing teams that you are trying to impress with your racing abilities. You start off with offers from two decent teams. You can listen to what the owner of the team says, read up on team info, car specs, and even take the car for a test drive before you accept. Careful though because whoever you pick, you'll probably want to stick with for a while, cause if you jump around from team to team some of them will become upset and not take you back. It looks like loyalty found it's way into video games! No matter which team you choose you start off rank 30. You must work your way up the ranks by earning points in each race. As you move further along you'll open up new cups and challenges. In addition to that, the better you do, the more teams you impress and thus the more offers you get. It's all great and I'll get more in depth with the number of cars and tracks later. Now, the actual driving part of the game may be what some of you came here for. I'll be honest with you on this, it will take time to get used to the way the game handles. When you first start out you have what I call the jabroni cars. These cars are the bottom of the barrel, scum of the earth, lowest of the low and slowest of the slow. They also don't handle well but that's too be expected. Therefore your first driving experience may be a little tough on you, especially if you're used to game like Gran Turismo or F-1. Some other reviews have said that the game feels slippery or like your driving on ice. This is simply not the case. The cars you first begin with don't have good handling or speed and naturally it takes a while to get into. In addition if you're like me and have played the dickens out of other racing titles it'll be tough on you trying to adjust to the feel of the game at first. Although once you get into it you'll be a superstar. I wish I could describe to you the feeling I get when I'm racing in this game. The actual AI involved in the game is so good that you can really see how you're losing miserably or lighting everyone up. There's no cheesiness to the computer drivers at all, it's very well balanced. In the 2 player mode there's you have the option to race 1 on 1 with a friend or to race against 2 other computer controlled opponents. There's also an option to turn on or off the famous "Catch Up Logic" that's present in other Boss Studios games and most assuredly present in other racing games. The collisions are an interesting point. On the norm they are great, allowing you to ram the computer off the road or send them flying in to the dirt. At times though they can be quite baffling. If you hit the side of a wall the wrong way I'd expect to spin out of control....but at 30 miles an hour!? As I said this only happens once in a very long while but still it can happen and lose you a race, making it a very frustrating thing. That's the only problem I have with an otherwise excellent racing engine (pun might be intended but I'm not sure). I should also mention that the game doesn't have licensed cars, meaning that you won't see the name Porsche or Ford anywhere. However the cars are modeled after those brand names so they'll be easily recognizable to a car buff.

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