Wave Race: Blue Storm Review - Gamecube

Roam is a mode which should be in every racing game, as it adds to the replayability substantially.

In-game, your interface has a lot on it. Up the top left of the screen you'll find a small version of the map, and what lap you're on. In the middle up the top, you'll see what position you are in the race, on the right is the time, followed by all the characters in the race and what position they're in. What's in the bottom left and right hand corners are the most interesting part of the interface though. The left side has five red balls. Every time you miss a buoy, one of them will get an X on it. If you miss all five of them, you'll officially retire from the race and come last. This of course doesn't apply in Stunt Mode as there are no buoys. The right side of the screen has your turbo. Every time you successfully make it through the correct side of a buoy one of the yellow bars will light up. Once you've lit up all four, it's just one more to get the turbo to light up and then with the push of the Z button, you'll find yourself speeding ahead of the other racers. Be careful though, because in a windy situation with big waves, it could throw you off completely.

One part of Wave Race 64 that we all loved was when the tide changed as you progress around the course. This happens in Blue Storm, but not significantly enough on most of the courses. The most noticeable course where it does this is on Southern Island, however there aren't really all that many obstacles to make it interesting enough. You'll find that the learning curve is pretty flat on this game, but in a diagonal way. You'll get better as you progress, and there's no real jump from being an amateur to all of a sudden being able to floor it round the course pulling off insane stunts to impress your friends. The weather conditions will more often than not throw you off, and as well as the tide changing in some of the courses, the weather conditions can too.

Multiplayer

In multiplayer, you can play any of the circuits you've unlocked from championship mode, or you can play Stunt mode. There really isn't anything to add to with gameplay in the multiplayer area, as it's basically just you challenging a friend (or foe if somehow they've gotten into your house and grabbed your GameCube controller) to a game. The player that comes first at the end evidently wins, whether it's the player with the best time or the player with the most points. Yes, it's a four player game, and yes you can all race at the same time.

Graphics

Given ...