YMMV / Muppet Race Mania

• Awesome Music: Courtesy of English jazz musicians Andy Blythe and Marten Joustra, this game has quite a few swell soundtracks. And most of the instruments are real instead of MIDI format, which was rare for 2000.
  • The Swamp has a moody bluegrass piece on banjo, stand-up bass, fiddle and harmonica with sets an atmospheric tone before suddenly breaking into a harmonious melody.
  • The Canyon has an uptempo, brassy big-band track that sounds perfectly Muppety and may lead to you snapping your fingers.
  • The Happiness Hotel has a song that isn't a cover of the titular song from the movie, but has a similar arrangement and wonderful lighthearted mood.
  • The Mallory Gallery has a brash saxophone-driven piece reminiscent of Henry Mancini.
  • The Restaurant has some truly crazy scat-singing and a spoons solo to boot.
  • The Theater has an old-fashioned remix of the Muppet Show theme that segues into an original piece, before going back to the original theme on goofy muted trumpets and ukulele.
  • The Laboratory has a tense, James Bond-style orchestral piece heavy on strings.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome: Professional runners tend to use Floyd or Zoot (or at least a favorite Muppet driving their cars). Also, if you're grinding races to unlock different vehicles for your characters, Central Park is the track of choice, as there's so much food it's easy to fill your gauge two or even three times.
• Camera Screw: Unlike most racing games, where the camera is always behind you (except when holding the "back view" button), in this game, there is a slight delay, it doesn't turn when you turn without advancing (which you can do), but starts only after accelerating in a direction different from the camera's, which can give weird angles. This proves to be somewhat useful, given that some special powers of some Muppets turn your racer around.
• Game-Breaker:
  • While the floating vehicles tend to have only average stats (and Bunsen's hovercraft is probably the worst vehicle in the game), their ability to ford water utterly destroys the Dock level.
  • Pepe's Kart has maxed-out grip and engine power with the cost of very poor turning. Veterans of games like Twisted Metal will be right at home with the feel, and once you master drifting and turn-hopping to get around the poor turning, you'll be destroying the competition. And if Pepe's rather poor special power isn't to your liking, you can always switch him out for any other Muppet.
  • Another good car is Zoot's Supercharger, which is the fastest car in the game and has slightly better turning than Pepe and Floyd's cars. On top of that, Zoot has one of the better special powers, making the soft-spoken sax player an absolute demon on the track.
• Genius Bonus: The game's items (fish, bombs, chickens and penguins) seem to be a reference to Jim Henson's edict to the Muppet writers - when in doubt, eat something, blow something up, or toss penguins around.
• Good Bad Bugs: Traveler's Tales has always been known for their glitches, and this game is no exception.
  • In the Swamp, you can win instantly by turning around, passing the finish line while in the water, and then getting back on the track to cross the finish line, which counts as completing a lap. Do this three times and you win with a best lap time of less than 4 seconds.
  • In the Mallory Gallery, when you reach the area with the three paintings, drive between the glass case and the abstract painting, and then drive backwards with your rear wheel grinding against the wall. If you do it right, your car will drop through the floor - and land right in front of the finish line. This easily cuts lap times in half.
  • On a more comedic note, in Trafalgar Square, driving into the fountain with a floating vehicle (like Gonzo's flying saucer) will cause the vehicle to flip upside-down.
• Last Lousy Point: The Doozer Escort Missions. One particular challenge is the one in the Theater, where the Doozer's at the top part of the level, while the portal's on the stage, requiring you to use the opening in the middle (that you have to blast open first) to accomplish it within the two minutes you are allotted. Another is the Laboratory, where you literally have to push the Doozer upward.
• Most Wonderful Sound: The trombone glissando when you complete an objective or collect a new vehicle.
• No Problem with Licensed Games: While it's not one of the most iconic kart racers, it gets fairly decent reviews and has a decent status with Muppet fans, especially for its very unique twists and physics.
• Scrappy Mechanic: Completing any objective in a course's Adventure Mode ends the mode. Collecting tokens all over a Stunt course? Collected the Movie token along the way? Too bad! You have to start all over again! The worst by far is the Studio track, where to collect all of the trophies you have to drive and jump along the perimeter of the track on a board, and missing a jump will cause you to fall and have to drive all the way around to try again - all under a very strict time limit. And some sadist put the movie token blocking access to the final trophy, forcing you to successfully pull off the circuit twice.
• Special Effect Failure: Bill Barretta seemed to have a rushed recording schedule, as all of his characters (except Johnny Fiama, who was recorded separately as he has dialogue with Sal) have their voices muted by annoying microphone feedback. The Swedish Chef in particular is almost inaudible.
• Surprise Difficulty: In comparison to games like Mario Kart and Crash Team Racing, this can be mistaken for an "easy game", especially since the challenges aren't all from the races and the "challenge" seen there may be instead seen as just infuriating.
• That One Boss: The Boss Challenges when there's more than one character, especially Bill, Gill, and Jill at the Theater. Unlike other battles, they will gang up on you, they're particularly aggressive, and you only got five minutes to finish the challenge! Unless you know what you're going, you're going to have a bad time. The worst part? They don't seem to be Friendly Fireproof to each other.
  • The Marley brothers in the Chamber can actually be harder despite being only two, though the course layout of the Theater may make things somewhat easier against the three Frog siblings.
• That One Level: Restaurant in Adventure Mode, since unlike other courses, it's comprised of multiple floors, and the elevators you have to take can get in the way of speedruns or just accomplishing a collection objective (Stars, Food, Tokens).
• Unexpected Character: While Link Hogthrob (in his first speaking appearance since Jim Henson's death) as an unlockable racer is a surprise to be sure, it's still a given that he's a regular Muppet. However, who expected Flange Doozer to show up (especially in place of one of the Fraggles, particularly Travelling Matt, Gobo, or Red)?
  • Ditto boss characters Bill, Gil and Jill; Spa'am and Dr. Phil Van Neuter.

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