Ever been swimming in a nice, calm, lake. The waves are small, the sun is shining, the temperature is just right for a relaxing swim. But then... THEY come. You know who I'm talking about. Those stupid sea-doo things go zooming by, splashing you, and generally just making a big rukus. Most people would just curse, and go back to doing whatever they doing. But if you were the more intelligent sort of person, like myself, you would be thinking something much different. More like "Heh, why can't I be the one pissing people off while racing friends?". This thought was enough to get me interested in one of Gamecube's launch titles, Wave Race: Blue Storm. That, and the fact that it was November, and where I live the lakes were all frozen over already. This game is the sequel to the highly successful Wave Race for the N64. The general idea of the game is you race these sea-doo type vehicles around a track, while staying inside of the arrowed buoys. Perhaps not the most exciting or original of concepts, but it was fun enough to generate rather impressive sales. To be honest, I had not played much of the original. I played for a few minutes on multiplayer, and maybe a round or two in single player, but there wasn't much that left an imprint on me. I didn't really get into racing games until Hydro Thunder came along around 1998. Now THAT was a racing game. But Hydro Thunder and Wave Race are completely different beasts. Hydro Thunder was all fun and flash, while Wave Race is... What is it? Read on...

I insert the game into the Gamecube. Even after playing it for 5 months, it still freaks me out every time I see how small the disc is. The game greets me with a nice little menu screen, one that looks like an ocean bed with sand, sea shells, and cool wave effects. And that's not the coolest part! Using the joystick, I could move the start button thing around the screen! Ok, so that last part was rather stupid, but it looked cool at least. So I enter the main menu system, which also looks cool. When you highlight an option, it creates ripples in the water. It just... Really whips the llama's ass. That's the only way to describe it. To start off the game, I enter into the championship mode, and enter an exhibition race. I am given a nicely varied roster of characters to choose from. I choose the best balanced one, Ryota. To my delight, I find that by pressing the 'Z' trigger, I can customize the character. I get a choice of color, speed vs. acceleration, and control (loose vs. tight). With the female characters, it's easy to joke about the loose vs. tight option, but that's another story entirely. I choose the character, and choose the only course available at the moment (the rest are unlockable). As the game loads, I am presented with another kick ass load screen. I can move this funky little ball around the screen which affects the waves. I nominate these menus and loading screens as the best ones ever developed for a game, period. Anyway, on to the game! The race started out pretty easy for me, I just passed the competition. Both the water effects, and the wave physics astounded me. Overall, the race was fairly easy. The only thing that gave the competition any advantage was my pathetic attempts at manuvering between the buoys, and I found myself consistantly ramming into objects. But with the help of several well time boosts, I found myself placing 3rd. Not too bad! So, after many hours of play, how does the game score out? Here goes.

As a launch game, I didn't expect the graphics to truely shock me out of my pants. For some people they do, but I find the truely amazing advances in this area are made later in a system's life, when developers have truely tapped the hardware's potential. So with that said, I was pleasantly surprised with Wave Race's graphics. They aren't super de duper sharp or flashy. They are simple, colorful, nicely detailed. What really catches one's eye, however, are the waves. While playing the game, I was constantly amazed by the realistic way my craft of choice responded to the water. Some nicely done set pieces like a falling chunk of ice (from an iceberg), create waves in what appears to be real time, as they too affect your craft. The designers also mapped out textures for the bottom of the ocean, so in some situations you can see plants and other forms of life beneath the water. An intersting graphical point, is the sheer number of advertisements in this game. Of course, there are Gameboy and Gamecube billboards littering the course. Then on the water crafts themselves, there are Dr. Pepper commercials, etc... My personal favorite point of the graphics are the weather effects. The courses themselves are quite simple, and it would be extremely tedious to play them if it weren't for the wide variety of weather adjustments. Each track can have weather ranging from sunny and calm, to stormy with waves 10 feet high. That might be exagerating a bit, but you get the idea. There are two extremes, and between them there are any number of combinations. It could be foggy and calm. It could be raining and rough waves. The graphical representations look really cool, and their gameplay counterparts are even better. What needs to be mentioned is the multi player graphics. In many games, the multiplayer aspects are afterthoughts, and the graphics tend to be much slower, or toned down, for these sections. To my delight, the graphics in Wave Race multiplayer are equally smooth and fast as the single player mode. This shows a great effort on the developer's part. While, overall, these graphics aren't super sharp and impressive, they are solid and make the game a visual treat.

Ah yes. The aural representation of the on screen appearence. The industry has come a long way since the days of Pong, which had only a sonar blip for sound effects. Many games now days have surround sound effects, orcastral music, live voice acting, and many other nifty things we wouldn't have dreamed of until less than a decade ago. Sound can be an important part of a game, it creates an immersive feeling, it can either help or hinder your mental involvement in the game. Wave Race has done a decent job in this area. Hearing the rumbling throttle of your water craft, and the splashes of water go a long way towards sucking you into the game. But they "can't go all the way". There just isn't anything outstanding or special about the sound effects to bring you in. The music doesn't help too much either. It too, does a nice job, but it could have done oh so much better. The music consists of some decidedly synthetic and electric sounding bgm(back ground music). They are simple, repetitive, and bring back memories of classic video game music. Not bad, but not too impressive. Then there is the voice acting. I'm a harsh critic when it comes to voice acting, even if it's something as simple as an announcer's voice in a game. There isn't much voice acting in this game, which leaves little for me to rate. But what there is, doesn't cound cheesy. At times, it sounds like some genuine enthusiasm, which is really all I look for. So for what voice acting there is, it's good. Overall, the music is solid. There are no damning faults, and I once found myself head bopping to one of the tunes. It's just that it's nothing special, or outstanding. Solid, but not at the level of excellence.

Obviously, Wave Race is a racing game. So the gameplay is all about competition. It's about speeding past the opponent, and feeling good about whupping their butts. Well, lets add a little bit of restriction here. "WHAT?!" You say. What makes Wave Race different, is that while racing past opponents on the course, you have to steer around arrowed buoys. Yes, at first, it's just as annoying as it sounds. Perhaps even more so. But after about an hour or so of practice, you begin to get the hang of it. This game isn't easy to get into at first. But the developers added a wonderful tutorial mode, which teaches you all the tricks, all the moves, everything you need to know. You will be rewarded greatly for polishing your skills in this mode, because after you do so, everything in the game makes sense. The game has a lot of depth, the more you play, the more you enjoy. The buoys and the weather patterns add some difficulty, so as to not make it impossibly easy. The tricks, which you can do in the middle of the race, not only give you points towards a speed boost, they allow you to whup the competition in style. All of the modes have a purpose, and are enjoyable. Most of these modes have options in them which are unlockable from the championship race mode. And these modes, in turn, allow you to polish skills that can be used in championship. Everything comes full circle. One particularly nifty gameplay gimick that deserves attention are the physics. This game uses a very nice physics engine to generate water waves in real time. These waves affect your boat and give off a nice graphical effect. But now we come to the dark side of the game. The AI is both smart and irritatingly stupid. They almost seem to group together, which makes it easy for you to be passed up when you crash or miss a buoy, which happens alot. That's another irritating piece. When you crash, your character takes too much time to recover. Sometimes, the collision detection goes all wierd on you, and will throw you off your craft for seemingly harmless collisions, especially on ramps. There is a definite frustration factor going on here which, thankfully, doesn't take much away from a well rounded gaming experience. To a degree, it almost adds to it. Oldskool gamers know that challenge is an important part of a game, especially if it's the type that requires some practice to master and get past. This game may turn off players who are accustomed to playing quick, flashy, easy games. Overall, this game provides with deep, rewarding gameplay that proves that not all games value flash over substance. This game has decent graphics, with solid gameplay to back it up. Bravo.

Many agree, although some X BOX fans may not, that the Gamecube controller is the closest thing this industry has approached in perfection. Its ergonomic design fits everybody's hand comfortably, and the button design is efficent, allowing gaming precision. So the design should translate over into the actual in-game control. Well, it does to a degree. Unlike most racing games now days, the game uses the rather large 'A' button to accelerate. This really caught me off gaurd the first time, but it works rather well. The L and R triggers cause the craft to lean from side to side. The Z trigger causes a nice speed boost. A very simple, intuitive system. The system for tricks is simple as well. The only problem arrives when you are trying to navigate around buoys. If you lean on the joystick and triggers to hard, you end up doing a 180 degree spin. Sometimes the waves just cause you to lose control. But in general, this isn't the control's fault, it's the conditions that it's used in the game. Bumps and rumbles add effect, and help to involve you a little more. But in general, there just isn't anything special about the controls. They do what they have to, but they aren't innovative or excitingly new.

Perhaps not the flashiest of games, but a good one. What it lacks in super sharp graphics, it makes up for with deep gameplay. But that's not to say that it doesn't have impressive graphics. The water effects are some of the best I've ever seen. And the water physics are the most realistic I have ever seen. Don't let the initial difficulty get too you. After putting in some time on this game, I consider this to be the unseen jewel of the Gamecube launch line up. Those looking for massive violence and obscene language should not apply. Those looking for a quick in and out game should not apply. But those who want to play an enjoyable game with some depth should give this one a look.

+ Wave physics rock

+ Weather patterns make for different experience each race

+ Learning curve creates challenging gameplay

- Dodging buoys becomes tedious at times

? Why does the guy take so long to get back on his water craft?!

Overall (not an average): 8/10
A deep, rewarding experience. Not the flashiest or most innovative, just fun.