Wakeboarding Unleashed featuring Shaun Murray – PS2 – Review – PS2 – Review

Prior
to playing this game, I had absolutely no idea what wakeboarding was.  I had
seen the sport before, but I never really knew what the point of it was, or
what the athletes do.  Wakeboarding is, in a nutshell, surfing with a
boat-towing friend.  The wakeboarder (who is riding a variation of the
surfboard) holds onto a rope that is being pulled by a boat.  While holding
on, the wakeboarder will attempt to perform several crazy stunts (flips, spins
and the like).  Wakeboarding Unleashed takes that concept to the Tony Hawk
level by throwing in nine spacious levels, dozens of challenges and
objectives, as well as two challenge-specific levels.

The wakeboarding style,
where you’re almost always being pulled through the level, creates a much
different extreme sport experience.  Whereas in other games you can just skate
or bike around the course as much as you want, Wakeboarding Unleashed is a bit
more restrictive, yet still feels open and free.  Shaba’s new Rope Mechanics
enable the player to perform incredible tricks, let go of the rope
(intentionally or otherwise), perform a few more and grab the rope again
without ever stopping.  If you let go of the rope and you lose momentum, thus
slowing down, or the boat gets too far away from you, the game will reset your
position and you’ll automatically be attached to the boat again.  But as long
as a trick is in motion, the game will not prevent the player from finishing a
killer combo.

Every action button is
virtually the same as they are in Tony Hawk, so it won’t take you five seconds
to grind a wire (it’s called boardersliding in this game, but it’s the exact
same thing).  What might take some time is getting a hang of the unfamiliar,
unstable terrain.  Curved mountains, pipes, ramps and other environmental
surfaces enable you to launch yourself into the air, but the majority of the
game requires the use of boat-created waves.  As the boat pulls you through
each course, water is shot out from under it, forming a short (but wide)
wave.  Riding on top of it won’t do you much good, unless you’re performing a
manual.  By riding on the outer edge of the wave and then sharply turning
towards it, you can jump high into the air.  From there, you can perform
combos, boarderslide or attempt to reach new areas.

Nine of the 12 levels
have several gaps, challenges and groove objectives.  The gaps are significant
areas in the game that must be tricked through in order to complete each
level.  Groove objectives are a mix of both unique and traditional tasks that
must be performed, such as earning a certain number of points or
boardersliding (grinding) five objects.  The challenges take the groove
objectives even further by making the player unleash more combos, perform more
tricks and do crazier things than had been done before.  One of my favorites
is the Video Shoot.  For this challenge, you’re given an easy task like
earning 40,000 points in 20 seconds.  The hard part comes from the awkward,
constantly moving camera angle (this is a video shoot, remember)?  The
controls almost feel reversed, and while you can make mistakes, you cannot
crash!

Another thing that can’t
be ignored is the absence of a time limit.  Where did it go?  Who knows and
who cares!  Finally extreme sports games have gotten away from using a timer. 
Wakeboarding Unleashed’s Groove Meter is not as kind as the one in Aggressive
Inline.  Increasing the meter’s energy is not as easy as performing a few
simple tricks.  Long, powerful combos are needed to add life to the Groove
Meter.  It depletes slowly, but chunks of life are taken away with every
crash.  So as pretty as the graphics are, you won’t want to waste much time
sightseeing; perform well first, watch the waves later.

All of this adds up to
one heck of a game.  Wakeboarding Unleashed feels like a successor to
Aggressive Inline in that it does many new things, but still has a classic
extreme sports feel.  This is one extremely addictive game, and lucky for you,
it retails for $10 less than most brand-new games.  Make no mistake though –
this isn’t a "value" title.  The quality is just as high as in the games that
retail for fifty bucks.  Pro skaters and aggressive inliners: this is the game
you’ve been waiting for.

Gameplay: 9
If this sounds
like a good time to you – jumping 100 feet into the air, holding onto the
board while performing 360s, landing into a manual and then repeating the
process all over again without crashing – then Wakeboarding Unleashed is a
must-buy game.  It was for me, and to be honest, I’m not the world’s biggest
extreme sports fan.  But I love highly polished extreme sports games, and
since this is one of them, I couldn’t resist playing it.

Graphics: 8.8
If there’s one
graphical effect that continues to impress on the PS2, it’s H2O.  Wakeboarding
Unleashed isn’t particularly impressive in the splash department (not enough
particle effects or animation), the reflective, detailed and interactive water
effects are fabulous.

Sound: 6.5
I love rock
music, but Wakeboarding Unleashed missed the boat.  Its soundtrack is
comprised of songs from bands like The Pixies and The Flaming Lips, as well as
a few bands I’ve never heard of.  It’s not a bad soundtrack.  If you like
these bands, then it’ll sound great to you.  But I don’t happen to be a fan of
any of them.

Difficulty: Medium
Either my extreme
sport skills have greatly improved, or Wakeboarding Unleashed is somewhat
easier than Aggressive Inline.  This is still a very challenging game, but you
won’t start pulling your hair till you reach the fifth level.

Concept: 8.5
Wakeboarding
Unleashed’s new Robe Mechanics are stellar.  This game takes the wonderful
Tony Hawk concept to a whole new level.

Multiplayer: 7.6
The two-player
mode is typical Tony Hawk stuff, along with a unique co-op mode where one
player drives the boat while the other player controls the wakeboarder.  Cool
concept, but only if you can convince your friend to drive the boat (and not
crash it).

Overall: 8.9
Wow!  You know, I
expected good things from this game, but I never expected it to be as good as
it is.  Shaba (the developer) hit the bull’s eye and this is only their first
shot at wakeboarding.  Just think of what they’ll be able to do with a
sequel…