Wave Race 64
Reviewed by Slimu
Combine Miyamoto's creativity, water, the ocean, jet-skis,
polygons, the N64, super graphics, and what have you got?
Wave Race 64! This superb game ranks up there with the ones
who got awards for the best first-generation Nintendo 64
games. One of the best soundtracks ever for the Nintendo
64, a wide-variety of stunts, and the most animals in a
Jet-ski game ever!
The graphics of the game is as good as any above average
game. Fully polygonal is what we slimes just love! Features
fully polygoned racers, as well as jet-skis, and animal
wild-life, and also landscapes, and water effects! Speaking
of water effects, this game's (water effects) is the
absolute best! Much better than any PSX and Arcades can
handle! You know, once I went to an Arcade place, and they
had this jet-ski game. The graphics were totally
unimpressive, and the water effects in this arcade game
looked like untransparent glitchy blue blankets.
Apparently, Miyamoto should have noticed this bad problem,
and when interviewed about Wave Race, he specified that he
is working on the water effects very hard, and hopes for it
to look as realistic as possible. Hooray to Mr. M! Now,
enough about the water, let's get to how the other graphics
look like. The racers are beautifully textured and
polygoned, and looks so realistic! They had the hair
bobbing up and down, has their feet kick water off them,
has their elbows twist a little, and everything else that
makes the game's racers realistic. Now the
landscape/courses are all beautifully polygoned and
textured too. Need I say more? The only problems really
with the graphics is that they had pixelized audiences.
Every racer game for N64 has pixelized audiences, so what
am I complaining for?!
Now let's take a look at the music. As said in the intro of
this review, it does feature one of the best soundtracks in
the N64 library. And I wouldn't lie about that. It does
feature one of the best soundtracks. Even though the music
does sound like a 16-instrument computer midi, it is still
rich and beautiful, and upbeat, and perfect for the
surroundings, and that's all I need from music. And the
best part is, it's loud! I can hear it! Unlike most N64
games, the music is so weak. This is a big part of how the
game's music got the score I gave.
The sound of the game is superb! All voices are great!
Except, of course, the announcer, who becomes monotonous.
I wouldn't want to mention what he says, for I may lose my
place as the pest of the page :). But the racer's voices
all are natural and what anybody would expect. And the
watery splashes are all natural and realistic, which is
wonderful. The motor in the game seem to be unchanged from
the original Jet-ski motor, and nothing's annoying about
that, thank you Nintendo. And the bumps and stuff are all
great. But one little prob: The crashes are silly. They
seem to only recorded one sound for the bumps and crashes.
But only two flaws, both not so major, and I believe that
this is a game with sounds that reach way past above
average.
The controls in the game isn't just plain. You don't just
race. You don't just turn and accelerate. What's left?
Stunts! Lots of stunts! All of which can be used in a
number of ways! One of me and Slimu's favorites is making
the girl racer to a handstand, then racing towards a
pillar, and *CRASH!!!* "Aye!!!!" *Heh heh* It's just so
funny! But first, I'll say how the basic controls are.
Everything's pretty basic. No complex button combinations
to race. The controls can be changed by Grip, and some
other options of which I forgot. But there's 3 controller
configurations, and that's already good enough. Actually
great!
The challenge of the game isn't exactly what I call fair.
They don't have a Easy Mode for beginners, and each
difficulty level advances a bit too far. Like, I'm on
Normal Mode. It's average and real easy, and I beat it.
Hard Mode. Aye! They're all scary! Finally beat it. Expert
Mode? Help me! Never went past expert mode. So I would
conclude that the game's AI is not the best, but the Hard
Mode is always a good challenge, and when I get really
good, I might give the Expert Mode a chance.
The replay Value of the game is pretty good. It stinks that
I haven't beaten the game yet, but it's nice to know I have
gotten the dolphin code :). Check the CCTTs for info 'bout
that. The two-player mode is also fun, and the stunts mode
is fun also. But all pretty much average.
Now the stunts...um...find out for yourself. Buy or rent
the game. I think this is a worthwhile game, and everyone
should give it a chance, because this is the first
quality-filled extreme racer for the N64.
Graphics 8.9
Music 9.0
Sound 8.9
Control 9.2
Challenge 8.0
Replay 7.8
Overall 8.7