Gaming Target - Xbox: Wakeboarding Unleashed Featuring Shaun Murray

Written by Bryan Montford on August 13, 2003

Full Review: So much fun your virtual butt will be wrinkled from soakin' in the water so long.

Extreme sports are fun, no doubt about it. And hot. And there are some extremely hot extreme sports game on the market. But, like many genres these days, it's a crowded market with a lot of Уme tooФ imitators. Wakeboarding Unleashed doesn't really cover any new ground. It uses a lot of game play elements found in many current games. УYawnФ so there isn't much new here to report Ц except one thingЕ This game is a lot of fun, a helluva lot of fun in fact. It took me a few hours to get into the control scheme and involved with the game, but it's been being played non-stop just about ever since. It isn't just me playing it. My 5-year-old daughter rocks at this game and begs to play it every night when I get home from work. Heck, even my wife played this game, and she never plays anything. (The last video game she played for very long was Ladybug, for Coleco Vision. Remember that title? Heck, remember that system?) So what the heck does my families gaming habits have to do with you? A lot!!! Okay, well, maybe not a lot. But I can tell you; everyone that plays Wakeboarding Unleashed enjoys it.

The first thing to tickle some happy points from me was the opening video and the fact it uses Van Halen, Unchanged as it's soundtrack. Call me old school, but VH still gets respect in my book. It was a fun way to open the game and a nice segway clearing the stage for what was to come. While there was nothing too over the top in the video, or any of the videos in the game, they do add to the overall effect. This is good. Too many games have too many elements that don't integrate well, leaving you feeling like things just aren't connected. This is edgy and hip enough to add some additional attitude and ambiance to the game without being a distraction.

After the intro video you visit the opening screen where you can select your mode of game play. Three options are presented Ц Career mode, where you gain points by completing tasks Ц Free Ride, where you get to wakeboard until your butt breaks and your fingers go numb with nary an interruption Ц and Free Drive, where you get to drive the boat, sans interruptions too. You get no points and there's no progress in either Free Ride or Free Drive modes, but they let you practice or just mess around if that's what you want to do. (There is a mode where you and a friend can play cooperatively. One drives the boat, the other boards). You can also set up your play list from here. Not only does the game feature a wide range of great tunes from bands past and present, you can also use your own tunes you've ripped to disk. This seemed to work pretty well except the title of the song was the only thing displayed on ripped tracks. And for some reason it didn't see some of the ones I have on the drive. The game includes classic tunes from Molly Hatchet, George Thorogood, and Mountain among others. You'll also be treated to music from more current artists like Pavement, The Pixes, Evonix, and the Soledad Brothers too. Turn what you like on, turn off what you don't. You can also customize some game settings from here as well, like sound effects to music volume ratios and control schemes.

Once you choose a game mode you have seven initial riders you can choose from, each with different strengths and weaknesses. All are based on real worldclass wakeboarding champions. While the graphics in this game won't leave you breathless, the models do look like the people they represent. You can choose from Shaun Murray (star of the title), Cobe Mikacich, Collen Wright, Dallas Friday, Darin Shapiro, Parks Bonifay, or Tara Hamilton. Yes guys, you saw right, two chicks in the batch. And yes, both are solid riders, not just eye candy. There are three additional characters that can be unlocked during the course of the game, but I don't want to ruin the surprise by telling you who or what they are.

Each rider starts with a board unique to that character and you can unlock additional boards that give certain stat boosts later. The best of these is the fourth board, identical to all riders, the rocket board. The rocket board, as the name suggests, is rocket powered. Meaning that if you let go of the rope you don't just die in the water. You can cruise around indefinitely with one of these. While not realistic, it does allow you to do a lot of tricks and explore things that otherwise would be impossible. And besides, who ever said this was a wakeboarding sim? This game is about fun, not reality, so rocket powered boards work just fine with me.

If you select career mode you are immediately dumped into a training mode. I had trouble getting some of the moves down. They weren't that hard, I just didn't understand some of them. It got frustrating and I wanted to quit and play something else a few times. Better on screen prompts, maybe like those in Shenmmu might have been helpful. I got through it, but not without feeling like I'd already forgotten things, and generally uptight a bit. Even if you get the controls down solid right off the bat you will probably get frustrated with the constant in-move disruptions explaining things to you. The last thing I want while riding a rail at 60mph, 25 ft off the water on a wakeboard is someone freezing me right as I get onto it, and describing to me how I need to balance or I'll wipe out, then unfreezing me while I'm unprepared. You have a tendency to wipe out. Meaning you have to do that segment again. I found no way to bypass the initial training or to turn off the interruptive prompts.

Once past training you're whisked away to beautiful Lake Powell. You'll find a total of eight unlockable locations in the game, for a total of nine maps. You'll have to unlock the later ones by completing a certain number of objectives with a rider. So until you get good enough, you'll be stuck on Lake Powell. Might as well get cozy for a while. Besides, good ol' Lake Powell has a lot for you to see and do. On Lake Powell you'll find houseboats, canyons, ramps, and tubers that need some УconvincingФ to take a swim.

If you've gotten this far you're about to be rewarded. 95% of the stuff in this game would get you instantly killed in the real world, but that's exactly why it's in a game. And it's a blast. The challenges are in fact challenging. I doubt anyone will just breeze through the opening level, though more advanced players will probably complete multiple objectives in the very first run. As you complete objectives new ones become available and you incur points that can be used for a variety of purposes. The point system isn't complex, but it takes a bit more to explain that I have time or space to do here. But the points you earn will let you add to your abilities, show you secret places, and unlock additional content. It ads a lot of replayability to the title and motivates you to do and see more.

Everything is pretty straightforward from this point, leveling up, completing objectives and in general having a damn fine time of it. Even if it's not terribly original it certainly entertains, and isn't that why we game?

The good:
The game is easily accessible for people of all ages and skill levels. Game play is engaging and entertaining. There's enough to keep you busy for a long time and keep you coming back, plus it's just so incredibly fun to do all those crazy tricks and catch that insane amount of air. You'll keep doing jaw-dropping moves over and over. And lets not forget the hard rockin soundtrack, ever so customizable for your own tastes and tracks.

The not so very attractive:
A lot of the graphics are very last-gen consoleish. There's a PS2 version, and it looks like it. I'm not saying it's ugly, but it doesn't look like it taxes the rendering capabilities of the Xbox. Also, while usually smooth, the frame rate is not stable and changes per amount of objects and activity on screen. The behavior and motions of the models are all the same, so while they look different, they all exhibit the same behaviors and range of actions.