Total Game Boy


Wave Race
By Nintendo
Game Boy

 
Published in Total Game Boy Issue 01

Huge on the N64, but can Wave Race hope to survive on the Game Boy?

Wave Race

It seems that some people could find themselves just a little bit misled by the re-release of the Game Boy's Wave Race after the widely loved, next generation Wave Race 64! Originally released in 1992, this racer has almost nothing in common with the Nintendo 64 game, except being about racing jet-skis. You have been warned!

There are only two modes of play, but either can be tackled in three different classes relating to engine power (550cc, 650cc and 800cc) to offer some form of long term interest. The simplest of the two modes is Circuit, and it's advisable you begin here if you don't want to work yourself into a painting rage with the fiddly Slalom mode.

In Circuit, you race three opponent jet-ski riders around winding courses from a direct overhead perspective, very much like the first Micro Machines games. The 'track' is only a shaded path of water, surrounded by a generous lighter-coloured area of yet more of the stuff, so you can slide way out on the bends without worry, and the occasional ramp spices things up when the lot of you are neck-and-neck.

On Slalom, you have the same style of tracks, but with annoyingly tiny bottleneck spaces between square markers through which you must go to be allowed to keep racing with the others. The sheer number of times you'll batter off these markers and be hopelessly delayed behind the pack tends to make this kind of race far less enjoyable, with a much bigger gap between all competitors. Boo!

With enough cartridges, link cables, and Game Boys, all four riders can be human players in Wave Race, which is quite an intriguing (if frighteningly expensive) proposition. However, you're not going to get many hours out of this one fun game mode, and RC Pro-Am has a similar feel but far more exciting handling and better animation - pick that up instead!