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After 4 years, the N64’s Wave Race still holds the crown for water racers with only it’s sequel, Blue Storm on GameCube and Splashdown on the PS2 looking to have any chance of knocking it off the top spot.
The first thing you will notice when you slot the cart in are the amazing graphics and movement of the water (admittedly they are STARTING to get SLIGHTLY dated now). This just makes you all the more eager to play this truly wonderful game but its okay, because you are only seconds away from your first ever play on a good water based racing game.
From the main menu, there are 4 play modes to choose from. Championship, Time Trial, Stunt Mode and 2 Player.
Championship is your basic competition/season mode. Pick one of 4 characters, each with varying abilities and go head-to-head (to-head-to-head) with the 3 other racers in a bid to cross the finish line first in each of the increasingly difficult events. Get 1st place overall and you are granted the opportunity to try your luck at the next difficulty level. Come 1st place on this and a new track becomes available as well as another difficulty level. Come 1st place again and yet another track becomes available as well as the now standard in racing games, reverse mode. Don’t be fooled though by how easy it was to read that. The real game will cause you a lot more frustration as you whip round the last bend of the last race needing first place, only to have your rival take you on the inside. It’s happened to me….
Time Trial is pretty obvious. Pick a racer and shoot round any track in the fastest time possible. Then restart and try to beat it. This is the mode that will keep you coming back again and again, just for ‘one more try’.
In Stunt mode, a series of rings and ramps are placed round the tracks and it is your aim to go through the rings and pull tricks off the ramps. This is pretty poor as there are only a very few number of basic tricks to choose from (barrel roll, flip, handstand, ride backward, etc.)
Lastly comes the 2 player mode. Providing both of you are roughly equal in skill, this can prove to be enormous fun. Race around any track, cutting each other and attempting to knock each other off the jet skis. This can last for hours until one of you loses a few in succession, gets demoralised and throws down your pad in a rage of fury refusing to pick it back up. It’s at this point that the victor stands up, waves their hands in the air and shouts “I WON!!!”, providing the finishing blow. :-D
There are a total of 8 tracks to choose from, each of which can also be played in reverse. There are a range of short cuts on each track, some of which are obvious to see, some which need rather careful looking and others which are only available on a certain difficulty setting. There is also a bonus track that can only be played on Stunt Mode and Warm up with dolphins and killer whales swimming beneath the waves.
Overall, Wave Race is one of those titles that the more you play, the better it gets. The tracks are extremely well designed and the graphics are beautiful. The waves affect your jet ski in different ways and you are able to use them to help you clear certain obstacles. The sound is also very good, with extremely relaxing music and some nice crashing wave effects. The time trial mode ensures a very long life and when you eventually do stop playing, the next summer that arrives will give you an urgent need to race just one lap on Drake Lake. “Just one lap…..” That’s what they all say.
The first thing you will notice when you slot the cart in are the amazing graphics and movement of the water (admittedly they are STARTING to get SLIGHTLY dated now). This just makes you all the more eager to play this truly wonderful game but its okay, because you are only seconds away from your first ever play on a good water based racing game.
From the main menu, there are 4 play modes to choose from. Championship, Time Trial, Stunt Mode and 2 Player.
Championship is your basic competition/season mode. Pick one of 4 characters, each with varying abilities and go head-to-head (to-head-to-head) with the 3 other racers in a bid to cross the finish line first in each of the increasingly difficult events. Get 1st place overall and you are granted the opportunity to try your luck at the next difficulty level. Come 1st place on this and a new track becomes available as well as another difficulty level. Come 1st place again and yet another track becomes available as well as the now standard in racing games, reverse mode. Don’t be fooled though by how easy it was to read that. The real game will cause you a lot more frustration as you whip round the last bend of the last race needing first place, only to have your rival take you on the inside. It’s happened to me….
Time Trial is pretty obvious. Pick a racer and shoot round any track in the fastest time possible. Then restart and try to beat it. This is the mode that will keep you coming back again and again, just for ‘one more try’.
In Stunt mode, a series of rings and ramps are placed round the tracks and it is your aim to go through the rings and pull tricks off the ramps. This is pretty poor as there are only a very few number of basic tricks to choose from (barrel roll, flip, handstand, ride backward, etc.)
Lastly comes the 2 player mode. Providing both of you are roughly equal in skill, this can prove to be enormous fun. Race around any track, cutting each other and attempting to knock each other off the jet skis. This can last for hours until one of you loses a few in succession, gets demoralised and throws down your pad in a rage of fury refusing to pick it back up. It’s at this point that the victor stands up, waves their hands in the air and shouts “I WON!!!”, providing the finishing blow. :-D
There are a total of 8 tracks to choose from, each of which can also be played in reverse. There are a range of short cuts on each track, some of which are obvious to see, some which need rather careful looking and others which are only available on a certain difficulty setting. There is also a bonus track that can only be played on Stunt Mode and Warm up with dolphins and killer whales swimming beneath the waves.
Overall, Wave Race is one of those titles that the more you play, the better it gets. The tracks are extremely well designed and the graphics are beautiful. The waves affect your jet ski in different ways and you are able to use them to help you clear certain obstacles. The sound is also very good, with extremely relaxing music and some nice crashing wave effects. The time trial mode ensures a very long life and when you eventually do stop playing, the next summer that arrives will give you an urgent need to race just one lap on Drake Lake. “Just one lap…..” That’s what they all say.
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After 4 years, the N64’s Wave Race still holds the crown for water racers with only it’s sequel, Blue Storm on GameCube and Splashdown on the PS2 looking to have any chance of knocking it off the top spot.
The first thing you will notice when you slot the cart in are the amazing graphics and movement of the water (admittedly they are STARTING to get SLIGHTLY dated now). This just makes you all the more eager to play this truly wonderful game but its okay, because you are only seconds away from your first ever play on a good water based racing game.
From the main menu, there are 4 play modes to choose from. Championship, Time Trial, Stunt Mode and 2 Player.
Championship is your basic competition/season mode. Pick one of 4 characters, each with varying abilities and go head-to-head (to-head-to-head) with the 3 other racers in a bid to cross the finish line first in each of the increasingly difficult events. Get 1st place overall and you are granted the opportunity to try your luck at the next difficulty level. Come 1st place on this and a new track becomes available as well as another difficulty level. Come 1st place again and yet another track becomes available as well as the now standard in racing games, reverse mode. Don’t be fooled though by how easy it was to read that. The real game will cause you a lot more frustration as you whip round the last bend of the last race needing first place, only to have your rival take you on the inside. It’s happened to me….
Time Trial is pretty obvious. Pick a racer and shoot round any track in the fastest time possible. Then restart and try to beat it. This is the mode that will keep you coming back again and again, just for ‘one more try’.
In Stunt mode, a series of rings and ramps are placed round the tracks and it is your aim to go through the rings and pull tricks off the ramps. This is pretty poor as there are only a very few number of basic tricks to choose from (barrel roll, flip, handstand, ride backward, etc.)
Lastly comes the 2 player mode. Providing both of you are roughly equal in skill, this can prove to be enormous fun. Race around any track, cutting each other and attempting to knock each other off the jet skis. This can last for hours until one of you loses a few in succession, gets demoralised and throws down your pad in a rage of fury refusing to pick it back up. It’s at this point that the victor stands up, waves their hands in the air and shouts “I WON!!!”, providing the finishing blow. :-D
There are a total of 8 tracks to choose from, each of which can also be played in reverse. There are a range of short cuts on each track, some of which are obvious to see, some which need rather careful looking and others which are only available on a certain difficulty setting. There is also a bonus track that can only be played on Stunt Mode and Warm up with dolphins and killer whales swimming beneath the waves.
Overall, Wave Race is one of those titles that the more you play, the better it gets. The tracks are extremely well designed and the graphics are beautiful. The waves affect your jet ski in different ways and you are able to use them to help you clear certain obstacles. The sound is also very good, with extremely relaxing music and some nice crashing wave effects. The time trial mode ensures a very long life and when you eventually do stop playing, the next summer that arrives will give you an urgent need to race just one lap on Drake Lake. “Just one lap…..” That’s what they all say.
The first thing you will notice when you slot the cart in are the amazing graphics and movement of the water (admittedly they are STARTING to get SLIGHTLY dated now). This just makes you all the more eager to play this truly wonderful game but its okay, because you are only seconds away from your first ever play on a good water based racing game.
From the main menu, there are 4 play modes to choose from. Championship, Time Trial, Stunt Mode and 2 Player.
Championship is your basic competition/season mode. Pick one of 4 characters, each with varying abilities and go head-to-head (to-head-to-head) with the 3 other racers in a bid to cross the finish line first in each of the increasingly difficult events. Get 1st place overall and you are granted the opportunity to try your luck at the next difficulty level. Come 1st place on this and a new track becomes available as well as another difficulty level. Come 1st place again and yet another track becomes available as well as the now standard in racing games, reverse mode. Don’t be fooled though by how easy it was to read that. The real game will cause you a lot more frustration as you whip round the last bend of the last race needing first place, only to have your rival take you on the inside. It’s happened to me….
Time Trial is pretty obvious. Pick a racer and shoot round any track in the fastest time possible. Then restart and try to beat it. This is the mode that will keep you coming back again and again, just for ‘one more try’.
In Stunt mode, a series of rings and ramps are placed round the tracks and it is your aim to go through the rings and pull tricks off the ramps. This is pretty poor as there are only a very few number of basic tricks to choose from (barrel roll, flip, handstand, ride backward, etc.)
Lastly comes the 2 player mode. Providing both of you are roughly equal in skill, this can prove to be enormous fun. Race around any track, cutting each other and attempting to knock each other off the jet skis. This can last for hours until one of you loses a few in succession, gets demoralised and throws down your pad in a rage of fury refusing to pick it back up. It’s at this point that the victor stands up, waves their hands in the air and shouts “I WON!!!”, providing the finishing blow. :-D
There are a total of 8 tracks to choose from, each of which can also be played in reverse. There are a range of short cuts on each track, some of which are obvious to see, some which need rather careful looking and others which are only available on a certain difficulty setting. There is also a bonus track that can only be played on Stunt Mode and Warm up with dolphins and killer whales swimming beneath the waves.
Overall, Wave Race is one of those titles that the more you play, the better it gets. The tracks are extremely well designed and the graphics are beautiful. The waves affect your jet ski in different ways and you are able to use them to help you clear certain obstacles. The sound is also very good, with extremely relaxing music and some nice crashing wave effects. The time trial mode ensures a very long life and when you eventually do stop playing, the next summer that arrives will give you an urgent need to race just one lap on Drake Lake. “Just one lap…..” That’s what they all say.