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| On November 15, 2001 Microsoft launched the Xbox Video Game System in North America. Many dismissed the system as the next 3DO, but they could not have been more wrong. The Xbox has taken the world by storm, offering game experiences that often blur the line between fantasy and reality. The true successor to the DreamCast is finally here. And it is the Xbox. |
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| Wakeboarding Unleashed |
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| Review by: |
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| SUMMARY:
Get ripped across a lake by a high-powered speedboat and trick through dangerous terrain. Feel the rush as you crash into houseboats and catch huge air in 9 exotic levels with 7 world-class wakeboarders. Tired? Then drive the boat and help your friend pull off challenging technical tricks on the most realistic-looking water ever. Check out the Activision's Official Wakeboarding Unleashed Website for more info. |
| REVIEW:
One of the guys I go to school with does a lot of Wakeboarding. He constantly talks about it all day. I didn't have any idea what he was going on about, and I just credited his nonsense boarder-speak to the fact that he does drugs and the psychoactive ingredients probably messed with his mind. I was browsing IGN however, and I saw an ad for Wakeboarding Unleashed, and it looked pretty cool though. From what I understood from my stoner friend, it was a fairly fun sport, so I decided I'd rent the game. Wakeboarding is an odd sport. You see, as the rider, you hold onto a rope and get pulled by a boat. So that you don't break your ankles, your feet are firmly attached to a board that you stand on. As the boat moves through the water, it creates a wake because of its speed, on which you need to do tricks. In the real world, doing tricks on the wake alone is a lot of fun, but in the video gaming world, it would get very boring. Activision recognized this potential problem and set the game in crazy environments, with tight corridors created by buildings, land masses, and other boaters. Without the crazy stages, this game would be nothing, however, it's chock full of zaniness. Wakeboarding Unleashed takes place through a series of different areas, such as Florida, a Bayou, and Hong Kong. The different stages are filled with things like half-pipes, rails, and even an alligator or two. All this equates to allowing you to bust out crazy tricks all over the different areas, and the stable of tricks is astounding. The setup is very similar to the Tony Hawk's Pro |
| Skater series, except that the results of tricks are different. Pulling off the tricks is fairly easy, but getting high scores comes from linking the tricks together, which is much more of a challenge. Fortunately, you can do a number of moves, such as manual balancing on the water, grinds, and grab tricks together to score higher amounts of points, which is a necessity for every level.
Each level has a dozen or so varied challenges. While every level has something along the lines of score X amount of points or do a certain combination of moves, some of the levels have a lot of variety and action in them. Some of my favorite |
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| The best water effects since Morrowind |
| challenges include a stereotypical banjo player calling out tricks for me to perform, dunking fisherman in the water, and boat racing. Yes, each level allows you to take control of the boat and race it around, collecting fuel for it along the way and battling against the timer.
One of the most important parts of a game like this is not the environments, the stock of riders (there are 10 different riders by the way) but of the mechanics of the rope and the AI behind the motions of the boat. The rope is unforgiving. It doesn�t wait for anyone, and tugs you along no matter how much you try to slow yourself. Of course, you can always let go of it by just tapping a trigger so that you can pull of a more unrestricted trick, but 95% of the game you stay tethered to the rope. As for the boat, the driver is a pro, and goes through areas on a set path that never changes. All of this should equate to a game that lasts for hours. I think though, because the game is so similar to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater that I had an unfair advantage, what with knowing the trick setup and how to link together combinations. While it was a lot of fun, I blasted through the game in just about 6 hours, and after I'd completed it to about 80%, the rest of the challenges were boring and I didn't feel like doing them. I bet that time would double if a person was new to Activision's Extreme Sports lineup though. Also, some minor collision problems plague the game, and a few times I went right through stuff I shouldn�t have, like cliffs and such. But don't let the quick pace in which I beat the game dissuade you from purchasing the title: there actually is a lot to this game. Every level features a variety of challenges, gaps, and objectives to complete, all for the holy quest of becoming the best in the world. There's a ton of little things to do in the game that you can chose to do, and there's even a solid co-op mode where one player drives the boat and the other does tricks. You'll want to go back and spend a lot of time in the game because of the groove mode as well, which allows you to freely explore most of the areas of the game. For even more free exploration, there�s a Free Ride mode also present in the game. Graphically, Wakeboarding Unleashed simply looks incredibly well done. All of the animations are incredibly slick, the levels are vast and open, and the rider animations are superb. One thing I specifically liked was the water effects. The wake from the boat simply looks incredible well done, and like water it flows and changes as the boat turns. The splashes that occur after you land a trick or crash are great too, but I wouldn�t accept anything less. The audio is also well done, featuring hits from The Pixies and Van Halen, and a well-rounded cast from other bands that I�d never heard of before the game. Being that this is an Xbox game, it�s great that Activision continued to support the in-game soundtrack option. I love this option. Overall, I think that Wakeboarding Unleashed is a great game, even if there are a few minor flaws with it. If you can deal with some collision issues and a somewhat short length, you�re in for a good ride through a bunch of courses, with some great tricks along the way to keep you company. Wakeboarding Unleashed should be in your library of games. |
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| Publisher: Activision Developer: Shaba Genre: Xtreme sports Players: 1-2 U.S. Release: 6/4/03 |
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| Would you like to become a reviewer for Diehard Xbox? If so, send an email to diehardxbox@ yahoo.com with the name of the game you would like to review stated in the subject. |
| - Matt Wadleigh (6/18/03) |
| Screenshot courtesy of GameSpot (c) |
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