Wave Race

"A solid game, but nothing special"

The gameboy can handle some things better than others. Platformers and blasters? Yes. 3 dimentions and colour? No. Racing games? Kind of. We all know the GBA has some pretty hot racers, but the original Gameboy couldn't really handle anything better than Wave Race. Some liked it better than others, but for every person who calls this a classic, you get people who call it a paperweight. For a gameboy racer it's good, but if I'm perfectly honest, that's yet more proof that the gameboy can't handle racers.

Graphics- 5

It was never the intention of the developers to wow us with state of the art vertex pixel-shaded polygon rastering. The graphics serve no purpose but to let you know what you're doing. Given that it's an overhead view of the sea, there wasn't much potential to begin with, but surely you could have looked different from all of your oponents. There's little else there at all and Wave Race is only saved from a below average score, by the cheesy, but decent looking cut scenes

Sound- 3

Annoying choonz may be common on the Gameboy, but Wave Race excels in this department. If there's one race it does win, it's the one to make you turn the volume down. Okay so they're not that bad, but the cheese factor is through the roof. Just as with the graphics, the game pays more attention to the bits when you're not playing than the bits when you are. In game sounds feature groaning engines for the most part and yet more cheesy choonz when you get a power up. There has been some attention payed to the music, but why did the developer have to make it sound so lame?

Gameplay- 7

In this otherwise bad bordering on **** game, there is one thing that's decent. Thankfully, this part happens to be the gameplay, which any gamer will tell you is the most important part by far. The handling is excellent and there's a decent touch in the boost metre. Hit the B button to race normally and your metre will build up. Press A to boost, and your metre goes down forcing you to use B again. It work extremely well, letting you feel really in control. There are two modes of play to choose from - circuit and slalom. Circuit is your classic affair involving you, three opponents and a finish line. Thankfully the courses are well designed and great fun, helping to draw attention away from the overall dullness of the races and the slightly dodgy AI. Slalom is a completely different idea. You have to make your way to specific points of a course collecting flags. Having to plan your own route and get there first instead of just following the same path as the rest makes slalom the best part of the game. Unfortunately though, like circuit, it's also let down by poor AI. The opponents will often all go the same way. This can work in your favour, giving you the chance to clean up on parts of the course that you can reach much quicker, but at the same time it can work against you. If two people choose the same route as you, there's always one guy left who gets all the glory on the other route. This takes away from the balance of an otherwise decent piece of racing. Both modes are solidly built and offer some good fun, but unfortunately it's never more. The racing is hardly fast and it all gets boring a bit too quickly. Good, but not great.

Lifespan- 6

There's enough of a challenge for any gamer, but racing on the same courses over and over gets too dull too quick. Having two modes definately helps boost the playing time, but having only one vehicle in the entire game doesn't. If you really love racing games or water sports then you'll probably keep playing for a while, but if you like variety you won't.

Overall- 6/10

It's a fun racer for a while, but there's never enough attention to detail or any reason to keep on playing. If you must insist on playing racers on the gameboy, you could do worse, but don't say I didn't warn you.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 09/05/04, Updated 09/20/04