Wave Race: Blue Storm

Wave Race: Blue Storm is a jet ski racing game released as a launch title for the Nintendo GameCube on November 18, 2001.

Overview

Wave Race: Blue Storm is a sequel to the 1996 Nintendo 64 game Wave Race 64. Wave Race: Blue Storm was developed by Nintendo-owned development studio, NST and published by Nintendo.

Features

Five separate modes of play: Championship (wherein the majority of gameplay takes place), Time Attack, Stunt Mode, Multiplayer, and Free Roam. Descriptions of each of these modes can be found below. There is also a Tutorial mode for beginners, which walks the player through the controls of the game.

Eight characters from which to choose. Characters are ranked in five different categories to allow the player to select a character most suited to their style of play and/or ability. Detailed description of all characters can be found in the Characters section below.

Three difficulty levels: the Normal, Hard, and Expert Circuits. The Normal Circuit has five courses; Hard has six; and Expert has seven. The player must come in third place or better in one circuit to unlock the next, more difficult circuit.

Eight courses to play, each of which varies significantly depending on which level of difficulty the player selects. Some courses must be unlocked by beating the game on different levels of difficulty.

Realistic water and wave effects.

Dynamically shifting environments. Courses change due to weather (for example, rainfall adding to the water level of a course, thus enabling passage over a previously blocked area).

Gameplay

Note: this section is only concerned with gameplay of the Championship mode. Short descriptions of other modes can be found below. Some aspects of Championship mode are carried over to some other modes. For example, the player navigates buoys in Time Trial mode in exactly the same manner as in Championship mode.

Players begin by selecting a character to use for the entire championship. Following this, the player is presented with a screen showing the courses on which they can race and a weather forecast for each day of the circuit. The more difficult the circuit, the more races (and thus, days) the player must complete. Players can select the order in which they wish to race the courses. This decision can be affected by aforementioned forecast. If the player finds a certain course to be more difficult when it is raining, he or she can elect to play that course on a day which is forecast to be sunny.

After the selection of a course, gameplay begins. Players begin in a field of eight racers. Position at the beginning of a race is determined by your finish in the previous race, e.g. a player finishing third in one race will begin in the third position before the starting line of the following race. In the first race, players begin in eighth. As the player waits for the race to begin, a stoplight changes from red to yellow to green, indicating the start of the race. If a player times it just right, by pressing the accelerator exactly as the light turns green, he or she will receive a turbo, which can be activated at the player's whim and which significantly boosts the speed of the player's craft for a short time.

The player then begins to navigate the course. In every course, buoys are set up in two colors: red and yellow. Red buoys are supposed to be passed on the right; yellow buoys on the left. Passing buoys correctly builds up your turbo meter. Other than the method mentioned above, which only works at the very beginning of a race, turbos can only be acquired by correctly navigating five of these buoys or by performing a stunt (see Stunt Mode under Game Modes, below). Each stunt, like each buoy, fills one-fifth of the meter. Incorrectly passing a buoy results in the loss of any built-up turbo stages. This leads to some degree of strategy. For example, a player might build up a turbo, then use it to cut off a buoy placed in an awkward manner, or one off a distance to the side, thus eliminating much of the time that would have been used to get to and correctly pass that buoy.

There are other, smaller red buoys which mark the boundaries of each course. Going outside of these buoys is not recommended, as staying outside of them for too long results in a disqualification.

During the race, the player is often bombarded (depending on weather conditions) with waves and rain which can force an inexperienced player off-course, or into obstacles or other riders. Successful navigation of these waves is essential. This is where the game's uniqueness in the genre comes to light. Waves are completely random and are affected by the weather, making for a different experience from that of most other games in the racing genre, such as the PlayStation 2's Splashdown. It also makes for an extremely challenging, some might say frustrating, experience.

Every race consists of three laps. Often during a race, shortcuts will be revealed as the player passes each lap. Spotting these shortcuts as they appear can be essential to victory.

At the end of each race, the player is awarded points proportional to the place in which they finished. The points are awarded as follows:

Ranking	Points
1st Place	12 points
2nd Place	10 points
3rd Place	8 points
4th Place	6 points
5th Place	4 points
6th Place	3 points
7th Place	2 points
8th Place	1 point

A player needs a certain point total at the end of each race in order to advance to the next day. If this total is not reached, the player must begin the circuit again.

Victory comes when the player finishes first overall in total points at the end of the circuit.

Modes of Play

Championship: This mode is described at length above.

Time Attack: The player races alone through whichever course he or she wishes, provided that course has been unlocked (see Courses, below). The object is not to win, rather to finish is as fast a time as possible.

Stunt Mode: The goal of this mode is to achieve high scores by performing stunts. Stunts are performed by executing certain button combinations. Stunts can also be executed in any other mode, and can be used to build up one's turbo meter.

Multiplayer: For up to four players. Championship Mode and Stunt Mode may be played in this fashion.

Free Roam: Allows the player to roam freely through any unlocked course, with no time limit or other racers. This is useful for beginners to get accustomed to the controls of the game and the course layouts.

Characters

The eight characters in the game are listed below. Each character is rated on a scale of 1-6 in five different categories which affect that character's performance, with six being the best. Each character also has his or her own crew chief, which is nothing more than a voice offering encouragement and advice to the player. An exhaustive list of these is beyond the scope of this article, but general character information is offered.

Ryota Hayami: balanced; good for beginner to expert players.

David Mariner: fastest, weak handling; for experts.

Akari Hayami: very slow; high-intermediate to expert players.

Nigel Carver: excellent handling; for average to expert players.

Ayumi Stewart: balanced; good for beginner to expert players.

Rob Haywood: very fast; for experts.

Ricky Winterborn: very slow; intermediate to expert players.

Serena Del Mar: excellent handling; for average to expert players.

Courses

There are eight total courses in the game. They are listed here with information regarding in which circuit(s) they are played and if they must be unlocked before being available in the other game modes.

Dolphin Park
- Circuits played: None (used for training, warm up, Time Attack, etc.)
- Unlocked: No

Lost Temple Lagoon
- Circuits played: Normal, Hard, Expert
- Unlocked: No

Southern Island:
- Circuits played: Normal, Hard, Expert
- Unlocked: No

Aspen Lake
- Circuits played: Normal, Hard, Expert
- Unlocked: No

Ocean City Harbor
- Circuits played: Normal, Hard, Expert
- Unlocked: No

Arctic Bay
- Circuits played: Normal, Hard, Expert
- Unlocked: Yes

La Razza Canal
- Circuits played: Hard, Expert
- Unlocked: Yes

Strongwater Keep
- Circuits played: Expert
- Unlocked: Yes

Praise

The game was almost universally praised for its water effects, weather effects, and physics.

The water in the game is transparent, translucent and reflective simultaneously. This often varies over the course of a race if, for example, it becomes stormy, the water becomes appropriately less transparent.

The weather effects in the game, most people agreed, were outstanding. They caused wave height to vary and often came on slowly, or would let up surprisingly in the middle of a race. The weather also affected course layout, adding to the game's variety.

Finally, the physics in the game were unmatched by any other water-based game at the time. Waves that varied in height and intensity, wakes from other riders and more all attributed to the overall feel of the game and was usually mentioned as one of the games positives.

Criticism

Most criticism centered around a few major factors: difficulty, graphics, and similarity to Wave Race 64.

Many people felt that the game's learning curve was too steep and so were not inclined to continue playing the game. This was due mostly to the controls, which required a delicate touch on the control stick and proper use of the GameCube controller's L and R buttons, which aid in turning. Fans of the game maintain that the controls are excellent, and just take a little getting used to.

Graphically, the game was flagged having decidedly low poly and with uninspired art design. Proponents of the game claim that the game was using most of the GameCube's power to render the advanced water and physics calculations, and so the environments had to suffer. In addition many believe that the game was unfairly compared to other launch titles such as _Rogue_Squadron_II:_Rogue_Leader and the Xbox launch title Halo, two of the very best looking games of the time, and so suffered greatly in comparison.

Finally, detractors point out that many of Wave Race: Blue Storm's courses are copies or re-designs of courses from Wave Race 64, and as such, the game felt old.

External links

GameRankings.com Wave Race: Blue Storm page 82% average ratio
IGN Review
GameSpot Review

2001 computer and video games | GameCube-only games | Nintendo games

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