The true Wave Race is when you hotwire an ice cream truck by the boardwalk and crash it in a sandbank after a low-speed chase with the Santa Monica PD, only to shake them a few hours later after stealing someone's jet ski and taking to sea. I can't see the shore anymore, in all directions is an endless expanse of blue. If the cops think they can wait me out back on land, they've got another thing coming. I can stay here forever under the providence of the Pacific, whose gentle waves provide me an endless bounty. You can pick a crab up and bite into it like an apple out here.
This leaves me plenty of time to talk about Wave Race 64, a beloved Nintendo 64 classic and certifiable Summah game. This was one of the first titles to hit the 64, and it's a damn impressive one. Think about going from 2D games to something like this, where the crashing waves bop your jet ski around and influence the physicality of every race. This was a pretty big jump, and a very important one in the paradigm shift from 2D to 3D, and while it may not look or feel as impressive today, I think the water effects still exude that Silicon Graphics charm. There's something about old water effects in games that I find very appealing, the GameCube has some great examples of this too, particularly with Super Mario Sunshine.
The controls are also very intuitive, and for much of the same reason Mario 64's were. Although Nintendo wasn't the first to market with a 3D machine, they were still setting the standard for how they played. Their early games in particular feel very thoughtfully designed, crafted around the unique form factor of their controller and kept as simple as possible to make it easier for kids to jump right in and have fun. The analog stick never feels like a hindrance, even after decades of refining how 3D games play, and you can just as easily slip into a game of Wave Race 64 today as you could in 1996, making it a perfect cart to pluck off the shelf when you want to cool off during a hot Summah day-
uh wait, that sounds like an engine, hold on
one of ya'll can help me make bail, right? i hit what i hope was a manatee on the way out here so i think it's going to be expensive
This leaves me plenty of time to talk about Wave Race 64, a beloved Nintendo 64 classic and certifiable Summah game. This was one of the first titles to hit the 64, and it's a damn impressive one. Think about going from 2D games to something like this, where the crashing waves bop your jet ski around and influence the physicality of every race. This was a pretty big jump, and a very important one in the paradigm shift from 2D to 3D, and while it may not look or feel as impressive today, I think the water effects still exude that Silicon Graphics charm. There's something about old water effects in games that I find very appealing, the GameCube has some great examples of this too, particularly with Super Mario Sunshine.
The controls are also very intuitive, and for much of the same reason Mario 64's were. Although Nintendo wasn't the first to market with a 3D machine, they were still setting the standard for how they played. Their early games in particular feel very thoughtfully designed, crafted around the unique form factor of their controller and kept as simple as possible to make it easier for kids to jump right in and have fun. The analog stick never feels like a hindrance, even after decades of refining how 3D games play, and you can just as easily slip into a game of Wave Race 64 today as you could in 1996, making it a perfect cart to pluck off the shelf when you want to cool off during a hot Summah day-
uh wait, that sounds like an engine, hold on
one of ya'll can help me make bail, right? i hit what i hope was a manatee on the way out here so i think it's going to be expensive
Reviewed on May 12, 2023
3 Comments
I also like old water effects; as a kid I wished characters like Crash or Spyro wouldn't die the second they touched the water, let me swim in it! It's too pretty to just be a death trap!
Weatherby
11 months ago