N +

Wave Race 64 is STILL amazing! and I don't mean in JUST the fun aspect either, the water behavior is still some of the best water you will find in video games, Not only did it get the water looking good, they also made it fun, and not irritating to play on.

Rules of the Wave - Basically in wave race, you race kawasaki jet skis through different courses as fast as possible in either Stunt, Time Trail, or actual Race modes to become the best Wave Racer. You aren't trying to save the planet and there are no weapons to use to your advantage, but there are a few shortcuts that can be accessed by the changing of the tide on different laps, or by using special tricks like the "Submarine Dive"... but well get back to that in a second. There arent too many levels but there is a great variety in how they look and feel, very good range in course design I must say, and just making it through the level isn't the entire story, there are red and yellow bouys that float in the water that you must pass on the correct side or you loose power. If you pass a bouy you get a small boost in power, pass five bouys consecutively and you get max power! however, if you miss even just one bouy, you drop back down to the lowest setting! Oh No! You can also fall of your jet if you hit somthing too hard or fail to land a trick, you don't want to fall off... it takes a couple seconds to get back onto your jet, and your power drops out

Tricky Sweet - Aside from using the submarine dive to sneak under obstacles to enter shortcuts, there really are no advantages to doing the tricks in the game - well except for earning that dolphin to ride around in at Dolphin Park. The tricks are mainly to show off your mad skillz! hit a jump and are flying over your buddy? Do a barrel role to taunt him! no jumps but you are still just in front of her? jump up on your jet ski backwards to watch her try and catch up!

What up playa!? - You have four characters to choose from (that can be renamed) that have different attributes! choose wisely as Acceleration, Speed, and Grip vary greatly amoung the three boys and one girl. Of course if you are playing multiplayer (up to 4) you can all choose the same character if you want, you wont have to get stuck with Mr. Slow Pants if your buddy got Speedy Ms. Quickinsteine. But you can also choose your JetSki and edit it's attributes if you want.

VC Edition - Back in the day, Nintendo and Kawasaki had an agreement for Wave Race 64. The JetSkis and in-game ads were all to be Kawasaki branded. Today the liscencing agreement is over so Kawasaki doesn't need to have it's prescence in the game so Nintendo changed all the texture mapping on the banner-ads in-game to display Wii and DS ads! They also ripped the Kawasaki brand name out of the title screen! Nifty huh? I would image that Nintendo benifited from the Kawasaki brand in terms of realism and brand-name draw to it's game, fans of Kawasaki JetSkis would want to play the game a little more because of the support, and I am sure a couple dollars were tossed Nintendos way from Kawasaki as well. But what does this mean for future VC games? probably more of the same, liscenced agreements that are expired can be altered. But it also means that online may one day be implimented into retro games (I pray Goldeneye 64 becomes online), and like Duckhunt, Wii functionality is possible.

Wave Race 64 plays perfect, even by todays standards the game is top notch, and there really arent too many jet ski games out anyway, but it's still the best one I have EVER played for any system, and there was a JetSki game on xbox even! N+ 10/10 Do it, if you got the points, just buy it, I promise it's one of the best investments those points will ever buy, espessialy if you have 4 controllers (Classic or Gube)

Cost: 1,000 Wii points
Rating: E for Everyone

The Americas List of Virtual Console Games
The European List of Virtual Console Games
The Japanese List of Virtual Console Games