Has It Held Up?: Wave Race: Blue Storm
December 14th 2011 20:21
Category: No Category
Hey, the sequel to Wave Race 64 fits into the" Has It Held Up" criteria, so lets keep in this festive mood with Wave Race: Blue Storm. Because, when you think the holiday season your first though is of course water sports.
Review: This game got even further lost in the shuffle when it came to GameCube games, and that is somewhat of a shame, but unlike the N64 game this one was not ever seen at my friends house. To be honest, I didn't even hear about this game till a couple of years ago, despite the fact that it was a launch title and has been out for ten years now. Again, this is a racing game that exclusively takes place on jet skis in several exotic locals. Truly, it more seems that the choices from the last game were copied and put into this game. The game has doubled the character roster, and quadrupled the amount of playable females in this game too. The options are similar to the last game: Championship, Time Trials, Stunt mode, and a multi-player mode that includes both championship and stunt mode with up to four players. The biggest addition, that was actually what I missed most in the last game, has to be the Free Roam mode.
This being a launch title has a lot to prove when it comes to how it looks and plays. The waves and wave physics seem to be more scripted when it comes to the courses, but when other racers make wakes it actually makes a big difference and is noticeable. There is also now a change in weather; no longer are the courses always one condition, but change, and so the waves and how the course is played is changed also. The water looks better than the N64 water, and now there are more things going on beneath the surface than there was also. This shows off the power that the GameCube had graphically and it still holds water there fairly well because of the coloring and reflective effects that it has.
The tricks are much harder to pull of this time around and require a much deeper knowledge of the game to execute without falling off. In fact, the entire control scheme of this game is far more difficult to master than the last one and certainly requires a lot of patience. Much like the last game, each character handles differently, so the character compounded with the overall game handling means that it will take a lot of time to fully master this one. Call me racist, or Nintendo racist, but it seems like the young Japanese guy is the best racer, period. Maybe it is just sort of weird, but I think that the Japanese guy gets an unfair advantage over everyone else. Also adding to the difficulty is the eight player races, with twice the characters it is even more frustrating to fall off and see your placement go from third to seventh in half a second.
The audio this time around has much better music...sometimes. The music tracks range from early millennium rock to techno. However, the voice acting is annoying, chiming in every time you pass a buoy or get passed in a race, so it is best to just turn it off. The sounds are not nearly endearing as the N64 visit, simply for the fact that the music is more aggressive than it once was. However, it has made improvements in other parts that needed it, which were very much welcome.
In Conclusion: Has this game held up? Sorta. If you liked the last Wave Race then you are going to love this one, but if you didn't then same goes for this one. This is by far a much harder game than the last Wave Race, but the sheer amount of improved content makes up for it. Like I joked earlier, there really is only one well balanced character and everyone else seems to have a very specific play style to them, making them even harder to control. The controls for this game are tough to master, and there seems to be a heavy emphasis on boosts, which make the game even harder to control. The water effects are better this time around, making the game feel much deeper (pun!). I feel like I can recommend this to anyone who loved the last one, but to new-comers of the series I would say try the other one first. The inclusion of the Free Roam mode does not make me feel as bad about a recommendation for this one, but this does not get a strong recommendation to begin with, so take that for what it is worth. This game has held up better than the Wave Race 64, but that is not the best compliment in the world to begin with and even at that this game misses a few strokes.
Rockin' around the Christmas tree...
Vrrrrrrroooooommmmmmm!
The tricks are much harder to pull of this time around and require a much deeper knowledge of the game to execute without falling off. In fact, the entire control scheme of this game is far more difficult to master than the last one and certainly requires a lot of patience. Much like the last game, each character handles differently, so the character compounded with the overall game handling means that it will take a lot of time to fully master this one. Call me racist, or Nintendo racist, but it seems like the young Japanese guy is the best racer, period. Maybe it is just sort of weird, but I think that the Japanese guy gets an unfair advantage over everyone else. Also adding to the difficulty is the eight player races, with twice the characters it is even more frustrating to fall off and see your placement go from third to seventh in half a second.
Add a Santa hat, that makes it festive
In Conclusion: Has this game held up? Sorta. If you liked the last Wave Race then you are going to love this one, but if you didn't then same goes for this one. This is by far a much harder game than the last Wave Race, but the sheer amount of improved content makes up for it. Like I joked earlier, there really is only one well balanced character and everyone else seems to have a very specific play style to them, making them even harder to control. The controls for this game are tough to master, and there seems to be a heavy emphasis on boosts, which make the game even harder to control. The water effects are better this time around, making the game feel much deeper (pun!). I feel like I can recommend this to anyone who loved the last one, but to new-comers of the series I would say try the other one first. The inclusion of the Free Roam mode does not make me feel as bad about a recommendation for this one, but this does not get a strong recommendation to begin with, so take that for what it is worth. This game has held up better than the Wave Race 64, but that is not the best compliment in the world to begin with and even at that this game misses a few strokes.
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