An addictive, original game which sins for lack of replay value.
The game has 8 stages, 3 of which you must unlock by playing on the various difficulties; all of them perfectly adequated to the racing theme. Wether you're on a city at the night or among the glaciers, you'll still enjoy a good environment.
About the gameplay, there's nothing really special to say. All the races are 3 lap based and the first one to cross the ending line wins. However, the sharp controls and possibility to do various tricks in your vehicle adds up to the fun; from the handstand to double flips, there's a moderate number of techniques you can explore and use them for bragging rights.
Besides the Championship mode, there's also other modes, such as Time Trial and Stunts. All of them with different challenges for the different courses. The variety is actually quite good, considering when this game was made, and how this kind of racing was still young.
The soundtrack, unsurprisingly (or not?) isn't rockish or something around that matter, instead, it's something a bit calmer, maybe relaxed and cheerful, which manages to fit the game surprisingly well.
In the end, Wave Race 64 is that game to play when taking a break from the big blockbusters. As an engaging, cheerful and fun game to play (worth noting, if you have this game for the N64, it really feels nostalgic too =)), the only big problem is its replayability. After you complete every course and challenge (which took me sensibly 2 hours), there's not much that can make you play again (yea, no hot girls x( ), except if you wanna keep experimenting tricks.