"The last game me and my dad played together...sniff..."

This was, I believe, the first Nintendo game I ever bought! For about $40(curse you, Kmart, with your overpriced titles!) I got one of the most enjoyable little racers/shooters around. Oh, by the way...Rare had a hand in this one too! (Once again, I repeat the mantra: Rare never made a bad game...) The game's basically about this boat, whose

GRAPHICS were definitely pre-1990 era, but still pretty sharp. Your boat sprite and the enemy boat sprites animated as smoothly as could be expected. The water and land...looked like the worst excuse for water and land I've ever seen, but this was 8-bit, so...I ignored it in favor of staring at THE BOSSES! COOL! Although they didn't really ''animate'' so much as they moved around, the sprite was so large that I was still impressed. Then again, it didn't take much to impress me back in those days...

so if the music ddn't impress me back then, it's hardly likely to bring back good vibes now. The best thing I can say is that it's neither annoying nor repetitive. But it's not absorbing or inspiring either. Strictly background filler. The sounds serve roughly the same purpose: filler only.

The GAMEPLAY, however, is anything but! No level was the same as the one before(although some levels would repeat later.) You could race to the finish line, destroy some mines, navigate an obstacle course, save hapless swimmers from terrorists and aliens, jump waterfalls, and even(this is my all time favorite level title) ''Fry the Monster.'' Your weapons were upgraded a la Gradius, with pods on certain levels serving as the power-ups. You could do speed ups, gun upgrades, missile upgrades(how I do love missiles) or even add a force field. This game is much less racing than adventure, as I really can't see too many racing games where you blow your opponents apart with missiles(well, maybe a few...)And the difficulty is MAJOR, although for me it wasn't the waterfalls that killed me (Yeah, Emptyeye, s'up with that?) so much as the really hard ''Reach the Finish'' on the final fourth of the game. Stupid icebergs...anyway, this game may not be a must buy, but you should definitely consider emulating it, if for no other reason than to use save state technology to FINALLY see the ending. I haven't cracked yet, but soon...

Nintendo Logic: I'm sure everyone who's played this game agrees with me here. YOUR BOAT HAS A HELICOPTER ROTOR! Why the HECK isn't he using it to fly OVER all those obstacles? I'm all for a little fun, but if you have a rotor on your boat, why are you bothering to jump those waterfalls? Is the poor sailor living out his Evil Kneavil fantasies? Is he a glutton for punishment? A masochist? WHY?!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/27/00, Updated 03/27/00