Finished "Normal", "Hard" and "Expert" Championships.
Game is extremely punishing if you make mistake, with long recovery time if you fell from the jet ski, which makes almost no chance to catch up with your opponents. What makes it worse - if you don't get enough points to access next race in the circuit, you are disqualified and need to start championship from the first race. Considering that final cup has 8 races and your only mistake can cost you the chance to compete, this is pretty hard punishment and severe time investment into perfecting every turn and pray to not be overthrown by the unpredictable waves or your opponents, who also can tackle you in the most unexpected moment.
After countless tries to apprehend "Expert" cup, I gave up and started to use suspend points before each race start. I'm considering it a nice compromise for the good of my nervous system.
After this rambling, I must say, that this must be a pretty impressive game for its time, and right now it still stands as one of unique racing games on the market. The games' famous wave physics system is fantastic and makes racing feel fresh, dangerous and a little unpredictable. You really feel their volume, opposition and necessity in careful traversal through them.
The handling of jet ski is also surprisingly realistic and needs to get used to, but when you do, and when you understand how these machines behave, it all feels extremely satisfying. Making turns in advance for manoeuvring effectively through the serpentine of floating beacons, diving to go through obstacles above the water, jumping full speed on the trampoline making sure you chose the right angle so that inertia will position you correctly after landing on the water - all those moments extremely impressive and satisfying thanks to the physics engine and track design.
Overall, it's a nice small wonder of a technology and still pretty original type of racing, which with help of NSO is accessible more than ever.
Game is extremely punishing if you make mistake, with long recovery time if you fell from the jet ski, which makes almost no chance to catch up with your opponents. What makes it worse - if you don't get enough points to access next race in the circuit, you are disqualified and need to start championship from the first race. Considering that final cup has 8 races and your only mistake can cost you the chance to compete, this is pretty hard punishment and severe time investment into perfecting every turn and pray to not be overthrown by the unpredictable waves or your opponents, who also can tackle you in the most unexpected moment.
After countless tries to apprehend "Expert" cup, I gave up and started to use suspend points before each race start. I'm considering it a nice compromise for the good of my nervous system.
After this rambling, I must say, that this must be a pretty impressive game for its time, and right now it still stands as one of unique racing games on the market. The games' famous wave physics system is fantastic and makes racing feel fresh, dangerous and a little unpredictable. You really feel their volume, opposition and necessity in careful traversal through them.
The handling of jet ski is also surprisingly realistic and needs to get used to, but when you do, and when you understand how these machines behave, it all feels extremely satisfying. Making turns in advance for manoeuvring effectively through the serpentine of floating beacons, diving to go through obstacles above the water, jumping full speed on the trampoline making sure you chose the right angle so that inertia will position you correctly after landing on the water - all those moments extremely impressive and satisfying thanks to the physics engine and track design.
Overall, it's a nice small wonder of a technology and still pretty original type of racing, which with help of NSO is accessible more than ever.