I Put More Hours into TM2 than I Can Count
The five stars that I rated the game do not mean that the game was perfect but rather that I can't imagine myself having more fun with the title than I actually did.
Most of the levels were clever and interactive in a way that, at the time, I remember being new and unique. There were a couple of fairly blah arenas but there were also dynamic levels like Paris and Antarctica. Each level prompted a different strategy depending on your vehicle. One level that might be easy in one vehicle could be a tough task in another.
The vehicles had character, from the weapons to the sounds they made as they careened across the maps (this might have been the first surround-sound game I ever played-- I'll never forget hearing Sweet Tooth cackling as he drove up behind me), and there was a good variety of them in the game to fool with. While some were clearly more powerful than others, it made for fun make-your-own challenges (I'll never forget beating my cousin in a versus match on the New York map, me as Mr. Grimm and he as Spectre). The universal special moves helped even things out some and supplied strategies for every vehicle and occasion (freeze-grab-freeze-grab instakill for Mr. Slam).
While the story was bare bones, it was fun and not yet the unrelentingly bleak darkness of Black and beyond.
For me, TM2 was the height of the series. The mechanics worked perfectly and rewarded replay. Though the game itself wasn't terribly long, I kept coming back to it, either alone or with friends, well after I had beaten every stage, just to try something new, or accept a challenge, or just play it again. Like I said, it's not perfect. I just can't imagine enjoying it more than I did.