Wave Race 64

 N64, Wave Race 64 (1996) game

Hard to believe this game is 30 years old, one of the launch games of the N64, or at least one of the very earliest titles. My connection with it was a mere few days borrowing from a mate in 2000, my nostalgia-meter centred on the GameCube sequel, 'Blue Storm' which was obviously far more technically impressive being, again, a launch game or close enough, and one to show off the new consoles' capabilities. The earlier title (which actually wasn't even the first in the series - that honour goes to the humble Game Boy, a proving ground for many later great Nintendo franchises like 'Zelda' and 'Metroid'), still holds its charms despite being little more than a tech demo for the amount of game actually there: it's very easy to finish everything within a few hours, and despite the tough difficulty curve, any experienced racer will see the end very swiftly. If it can be called an end when there isn't even any rolling credits that was becoming standard! The slim content can't hide the fun and challenge, however brief it may be, and why I call this a technical demo is down to the incredibly advanced physics and realistic movement of the waves - I think this would have been Nintendo's first truly 3D racer and on the N64 the start of an unofficial mini 'extreme' sports series that encompassed greats '1080º Snowboarding' and 'Excitebike 64,' but the important thing here is its ability to successfully evoke riding the waves.

Not enough to simply slalom between the bouncing buoys, you also have to read the currents and pull of the water in much the same way you'd later experience with the snow of '1080' and the soil of 'Excitebike,' giving it a unique quality not often seen in the racing genre, other than perhaps rally games, and certainly uncommon in the late-90s. There are only three opponents to race against (who'd return for the sequel), the usual small/manoeuvrable, medium, and unwieldy/high top speed custom racing options, so it's not doing anything outrageous, at the same time it's a beautifully crafted experience in every way (perhaps my only criticism, other than the extreme brevity, would be the absence of a rear view since you can see icons of racers close on your tail at the bottom of the screen and it would have been useful to get a better idea of distance sometimes, though not essential). It's also beautiful graphically speaking, another harking to its tech demo style in my eyes, with the expected wide range of water conditions and locations: the smooth glide of Drake Lake (with its tricky weave through wooden posts at the end), to the inherent glow of Sunset Bay, and includes little flourishes such as dolphins or the odd killer whale, even a helicopter, to show off some power and it's all so well judged and designed and relies on such pure control skill - just the kind of racing I like.

The lack of options can't prevent it from being considered a classic, and there are still a few things to do: aside from the Championship which consists of four difficulty levels (including an actual reverse of all tracks rather than the usual mirror mode, which puts a different spin on things), there's Time Trial in which you have to decide whether to corner sharply and drop in speed, or keep the speed up, but corner more widely, and if you should take jumps or weave around them. Only two-player simultaneous play was possible at this point in the N64's young life, but another technical limitation was evident in the black borders at top and bottom of the screen which has the advantage of making it appear to be a surprisingly early widescreen display, unless you play it on a widescreen monitor and realise it's not the aspect ratio! Lastly, there's Score Mode with scattered rings to amplify your score, and a number of fancy tricks to be performed. Fun, but basic, and I always feel score-based gameplay is only ever of interest if you have other humans on the scoreboard. But as the origins of a Nintendo sub-genre which they should bring back if they haven't already on Switch, it deserves a place in positive memory.

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