Wave Race

"Never has playing watersports been so much fun!"

Nintendo have always been renowned for their originality and innovation when it comes to gaming ideas. Luigi's Mansion, Pokemon Stadium, Super Mario Kart, they all have very original elements to them.

Wave Race, as an idea, is no exception. The basic idea of the game is that you race jet skis against other competitors in different locations on different circuits, just like in the Nintendo 64 and GameCube incarnations of the game.

As a game though, originality is soon thrown out of the window. There are 16 circuits in all, eight normal racing circuits and eight slalom circuits. The normal racing circuits are exactly what you would expect from any generic racing title, first person to complete the set amount of laps wins the race. Slalom requires you to reach as many gates as you can before the other players, with the person getting the most gates being the winner. Yes, it may sound original, but if I remember rightly, Toobin' (the Atari classic) has a very similar aim.

There are three classes of each of these types of race; 550cc, 650cc and 800cc (straight out of Super Mario Kart). Only the slowest class is available at first in the National series, but soon enough through good driving the 800cc class in the World Series will be yours. There is also the time trial mode, which also has the same class system, and a records option to check up on how great (or not so great) you are at the game.

This isn't to say though that these are bad. In fact, the game is extremely pleasurable to play as a whole. The controls do take a little time to get used to, but it accurately reflects the steering style that a jet ski has (well, for a GameBoy game it is accurate!) The controls are a challenge in themselves without being annoyingly bad, and the A.I. is very hard in some places, but not impossible. These are all key ingredients for a magnificent game.

The gameplay is also complimented by some good graphics. The game takes a top down view as opposed to the vector graphics that a lot of racing games on the GB opt for. This works in favour of Wave Race because it allows for a lot of detail to be put into the graphics rather than sparse landscapes. It also means that the jet skis can move in all directions, which is imperative in a slalom type of game. It would also have been difficult to portray the jet ski handling on a vector graphic base, and trying to put make the sea look like the sea would have been a difficult task.

The sea does look pretty good, although you would be forgiven if you looked at it and mistake the shallow sea for sand, but this is a compromise that is due to the limited colour palette of the console rather than bad programming. The graphics are of very good detail, and run pretty fast, with no slowdown being evident. Soundwise this is nothing out of the ordinary, with the obligatory buzzing noise and corny music expected from GB racing titles.

The game really comes into its own in multi player racing though. With up to four players being supported, there is a tremendous sense of satisfaction in making a friend feel the spray of your jet ski as you take the lead from him/her. If you are fortunate enough to have enough friends with the game and a four player adaptor, then this game will last you for ages.

Overall I really enjoy playing this game. The handling is intuitive, the A.I. is challenging without being too frustrating, and the graphics are a treat to use in conjunction with the game. A good game, and now you could probably pick this up for a very cheap price. So I say, see it, buy it!

BOTTOM LINE - Challenging, fun and a blast on four player link up, Wave Race only needed more original ideas to grab the elusive 9 or 10 mark.

Other games like this:
Jet Rider (PSX)
Wave Race 64 (N64)
These are the only good jet ski games I can think of!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 04/04/02, Updated 04/04/02