Well, have you heard of him? Murray doesn't quite get the star treatment here - the original 'Shaun Murray's Pro Wakeboarder' was binned in favour of making the sport the star. And Shaba has clearly developed the game with a keen sense of wakeboarding's limits in mind.

Take, for example, the fact that you're 'unleashed' from the boat. Pressing L2 (or riding behind an obstacle) releases you to briefly explore the environment or extend tricks and grinds before calling for the rope. It's a neat innovation that expands upon the otherwise linear approach the game is forced to take. Let's face it; you're being dragged around by a boat - it doesn't get any more linear than that.

There's a generous array of pro riders to choose from - none of whom you'll have ever heard of - and, while the levels won't time out, you'll have to maintain a good level of tricks to keep your (wait for it) Groove Meter up. If this runs out, so does your time. Unleashed is different in that only after you've completed a certain percentage of the game can you proceed to the next level/location. Happily, how you go about achieving that is left to you.

As well as the usual array of level goals (high scores, combos, grinds, manuals, etc) a variety of challenges can be opened. These vary from timed challenges to a number of boat-driving events such as racing around the course or picking up flood-stranded farm animals. The choice of avenues for earning points means that getting stuck on the one trick that will enable you to make progress is a thing of the past. There is a good two-player mode too, including tug of war (the better you are, the more rope you get) and the co-op mode in which one player drives and one rides. Nice, but essentially only sidelines to the main game.

Levels are designed around taking the gamer to lovely locations including a flooded town, a swamp, a waterpark and a tropical jungle. Each is lavishly designed and beautiful to ride, but there's just not enough variety. Wakeboarding Unleashed suffers from relying on following a set course and using obstacles to perform well-timed tricks. Miss the opportunity and you'll have to wait, keep your Groove up and come back next lap.

So once again, Activision's O2 label has produced a technically enjoyable and good-looking extreme sports game that's hampered by the constraints set upon it by the sport it seeks to emulate. Attempts to break out of those constraints take us even further away from what makes the sport fun in the first place. The game's only real saving grace is its price. Available at just over the cost of a premium DVD film, this may not be an essential purchase, but it's definitely worthy of a wet weekend or two.

Graphics 70%
Beautiful wakes and water sheen.

Sound 50%
Extreme sports tunes, the thrum of the engine.

Gameplay 60%
Challenging and varied routes to success.

Lifespan 60%
Plenty to play through, but no motivation to do so.

Overall 60%
Fun and frothy, but slightly limited in scope and inevitably lies in the wake of its extreme sports big brothers.