[James]

My cousins got a Gamecube and this game for Christmas, and I played it today.

It's an OK game, but really nothing great, in my opinion. The levels seem incredibly short, not really giving you a lot of time to ever fully explore the newfound strategies included, such as the two racers per cart, dropped items, interactivity with the tracks, and special attacks. The levels in MK64 felt a lot bigger.

On top of that, none of the levels really stood out as being memorable. We played every one on the Mushroom, Flower, and Star cups, and I ended up not having any favorites. They just seemed rather dull, to be honest. It felt more like, they designed the track layout, then just threw on the Mario themes. And most of the tracks feel a lot alike.

And on a lesser note, handling takes some getting used to, especially with the GC controller. It feels looser compared to the N64 game.

It's a good game and all, and fun to play with others. But it just didn't feel nearly as gripping or as innovative/original as the past two games did. I was expecting more.