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Review:

13th May 2002:
Wave Race: Blue Storm
Wave Race on the N64 kicked off the jet-ski games market, but can Blue Storm defend its title from the new-found competition?
Posted by Marc Hull - GameCube - UK and Europe

The ability to create realistic water effects seems to have been a test of almost every new console since Wave Race appeared on the N64 in 1996. Back then, the smooth, undulating waves that rippled realistically as each jet-ski passed through them was enough to prove the platform's graphical prowess, but since then a fair amount of competition has emerged in the form of Wave Rally and Jet Ski Riders on the PlayStation 2 which have upped the visual bar considerably. So, now we get to see if Nintendo do one better with the series that started it all off four years ago, but this time on the GameCube.

Probably the first thing you'll notice when you start the game is that the presentation has been improved a lot since the N64 game. Pretty much every menu screen has a rippling background which looks great, and all the foreground graphics are crisp and clear. There are also loads of modes to choose from and settings to customise, making each screen seem filled of information and looking very impressive. Those who played the prequel will be familiar with Blue Storm's Championship mode, where you race through each course accumulating points depending on your finishing position in each, and trying to beat the stage target or else it's Game Over. However, there have been a few changes, such as the ability to select to play the initial courses in any order, and the number of competing racers has been raised to seven. There are also new weather effects that are chosen at random by the game and are shown in advance of each race, so you get to select which tracks you want to race in the various conditions on offer, which can make a big difference on the way it plays. The old difficulty modes still remain though, from Normal which contains five circuits to Expert which has seven, and completing each one opens up a new track in the various other game modes.

The team behind Wave Race are also in charge of the 1080° Snowboarding franchise, and they seem keen to link the two. The selection of characters to play as include familiar faces such as Rob Haywood and Ricky Winterborn alongside some all-new ones, and each have their own abilities in terms of acceleration, top speed, manoeuvring, stunt skill and strength. However, the game does allow you to tweak each player by balancing out acceleration and top speed, customising how tight the control is and changing the colour of their 'ski and clothing.

As for the tracks, most are simply breathtaking. There are eight in total, each looks quite vastly different from the last, so one minute you could be racing around the calm, mountainside waters of Aspen Lake, and then be thrust into the dark, murky setting of Ocean City Harbor. However, like the first game, all are brightly textured, giving the game a really nice, rich visual feel. While initially it may seem annoying that the early tracks are re-used in each championship, so to complete the Hard difficulty level you first have to race through all the courses of the Normal mode, you'll soon notice that they play quite differently each time, whether it's the route you take through the track or the positioning of objects such as boats or rocks in your way, so it almost feels as if they're whole new ones. Unfortunately, while most are original and fun to play, others seem slightly uninspiring, such as the bleak landscape of Arctic Bay, or Southern Island which is almost identical to its N64 cousin.

However, Blue Storm certaintly can't be criticised for its length. Aside from the Championship mode, there's also a neat Stunt Mode, a Time Attack and a Free Roam mode that allows you to seek out hidden shortcuts and secret areas in each of the tracks. Add to this an in-depth tutorial mode, with a demonstration of each of the moves and stunts available, and a multiplayer mode that handles up to four players and you've got plenty of gameplay hours ahead of you.

Graphically, the game is pretty strong throughout. Not only do the waves ripple realistically as your jet ski slices through them like in the N64 version, but now they've got realistic, realtime reflections which make them look superb; every little detail on the surface is accurately mapped onto the waves, and it undulates exactly as you'd expect it to. The levels also feature a fair amount of detail below the waterline, which equally distorts as light refracts through the waves, producing an effect that's the closest I've seen yet to real-life. The game even takes it a step higher by creating splashes in the water when it's raining, as well as drops which hit the camera and distort the picture! However, the title doesn't entirely escape criticism, since it seems that so much attention has been spent on the waves that maybe not enough has been allocated for the surface-side objects. While in general the tracks do look fabulous, natural objects such as rocks and islands seem pretty angular, although this is mostly made up for by good texture work. In terms of frame rate, the game stays consistently smooth pretty much all the time, although some of the videos in the menu screens do jitter as they're loaded, but this is understandable and doesn't affect the game at all. The conversion is also good, with a full-screen picture dispite no 60-hz-specific mode, so everyone will see the game as it was intended to be.

Sound is another area at which Blue Storm excels. First of all, the water makes a fair amount of noise as you race through it in different ways, and the tracks themselves have atmospheric sound bites in certain places, such as mallards quacking when you drive near them. During a race, each character has his or her own personal 'chief' who gives you hints and words of encouragement as you play, and they don't often repeat annoying phrases! Finally, there's the background music which has lost the cheesiness of the N64 game in favour of a variety of different styles for the various tracks, each of which sound great.

In fact, my only real problem with the game was with the control set-up, since unless you remember how you played the previous games you're probably going to have a fair few hours of frustration overturning and underturning around bends until you get used to it. The problem seems to stem from adjusting to the waves; while your jet-ski is safely on the water's surface it will corner pretty well, but whenever you go over an undulation and it lifts into the air a lot of control seems to be lost, leaving you wondering why it's not turning at all. Also, the game seems to promote use of the B-button for slicing through waves and performing tricks, but I found this much to difficult to press while holding the A-button to accelerate. Fortunately, you can also use the Y-button which seems slightly easier to reach, but only the 'B' button is stated in trick expanations.

However, overall there's no denying that it's a great game. After the initial frustrations die, you'll have a great time clawing your way through the three different difficulty modes, and trying to get on the Stunt and Time Attack record boards. It's also full of great little Nintendo touches, such as the short loading times, which add to the experience, putting it a notch above the competition. Quite simply, Wave Race pioneered the surge in the jet-ski games market, and now it's back to reclaim its throne as the best of the genre.

Marc Hull

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Review Summary:

While initially you'll be cursing your conrtol pad as you get used to how the game plays, after a while you'll find that Wave Race: Blue Storm is one of the most engrossing jet-ski games yet. It also looks the best, with some fantastic water effects including distortion of objects below the waterline and accurate reflections on the surface. If you've got a GameCube, you should definitely check this out.

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Wave Race: Blue Storm
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