Wave Race: Blue Storm

ウェーブレース ブルーストーム

I got another jetski racing video game for you which was released in late 2001 for the GameCube: Wave Race: Blue Storm! It is the sequel to the 1996 Nintendo 64 game Wave Race 64, which we previously talked about. Like the previous post, it has the same gameplay mechanics but there are indeed some differences. Shigeki Yamashiro directed (and, also produced with Minoru Arakawa and Shigeru Miyamoto) the game, the game’s composers are Lawrence Schwedler and James Phillipsen, and Raymond Yan is the game’s artist, who left Nintendo Software Technology (the game’s developer) two years later.

Characters

• Ryota Hayami (age: 23, from Japan) is the most balanced character, good for beginners and experts alike. Ryota Hayami is also a returning character from Wave Race 64. Akari Hayami is his younger sister.
• David Mariner (age: 37, from the USA) has high top speed and a strong grip, but is very difficult to maneuver and has slow acceleration. He is best for experienced players. He is also a returning character from Wave Race 64.
• Akari Hayami (age: 21, from Japan) has a low top speed and a weak grip, but high acceleration and maneuvering, making her recommended for beginners. She was not originally from Wave Race 64, but rather from 1080° Snowboarding. Ryota Hayami is her older brother.
• Nigel Carver (age: 28, from Great Britain) is one of the heavier characters, but he is easy enough to control.
• Ayumi Stewart (age: 26, from the USA) is a fairly balanced character, good for beginners to experts. She is also a returning character from Wave Race 64.
• Rob Haywood (age: 24, from the USA) is a heavy character, similar to David Mariner in terms of strengths and weaknesses, best for the more experienced players. He was originally from 1080° Snowboarding.
• Ricky Winterborn (age: 18, from Canada) is similar to Akari Hayami, but more stunt-oriented. He was originally from 1080° Snowboarding.
• Serena Del Mar (age: 19, from Brazil) is not particularly heavy, but she is challenging enough to control and is more directed towards advanced players.

Unlike the first game, this game does not have the Kawasaki banners, though the first game’s Wii Virtual Console (now discontinued) release does not feature Kawasaki banners due to expired licensing deals. These were replaced by Wii and Nintendo DS (both now discontinued) advertisements. When the game was released on the Wii U’s Virtual Console (again, now discontinued) in 2016, the Kawasaki banners were restored. Instead, this game has the Slim Jim logo on some of the racers’ jet skis.

Gameplay

Players begin by selecting a character to use for the entire championship. Following this, the player is shown the courses on which they can race and a weather forecast for each day of the circuit. The more difficult the circuit, the more races (and thus days) the player must complete. Players can select the order in which they wish to race the courses. This decision can be affected by aforementioned forecast. If players find a certain course to be more difficult when it is raining, they can elect to play that course on a day which is forecast to be sunny.

After the selection of a course, gameplay begins. Players begin in a field of eight racers. Position at the beginning of a race is determined by your finish in the previous race, e.g. a player finishing third in one race will begin in the third position before the starting line of the following race. In the first race, players begin in eighth. As the player waits for the race to begin, a stoplight changes from red to yellow to green, indicating the start of the race. For pressing the accelerator exactly as the light turns green, the player will receive a turbo, which can be activated at the player’s whim and which significantly boosts the speed of the player’s craft for a short time.

The player then begins to navigate the course. In every course, buoys are set up in two colors: red and yellow. Red buoys are supposed to be passed on the right; yellow buoys on the left. Passing buoys correctly builds up the player’s turbo meter. Other than the method mentioned above, which only works at the very beginning of a race, turbos can only be acquired by correctly navigating five of these buoys or by performing a stunt. Each stunt, unlike each buoy, fills from one-fifth to three-fifths of the meter depending on the stunt. Incorrectly passing a buoy results in the loss of any built-up turbo stages. This leads to some degree of strategy. For example, a player might build up a turbo, then use it to cut off a buoy placed in an awkward manner, or one-off a distance to the side, thus eliminating much of the time that would have been used to get to and correctly pass that buoy.

There are other, smaller red buoys which mark the boundaries of each course. Staying outside of them for too long results in a disqualification.

During the race, the player is often bombarded (depending on weather conditions) with waves and rain which can force an inexperienced player off-course, or into obstacles or other riders. Successful navigation of these waves is essential. This is where the game’s uniqueness in the genre comes to light. Waves are completely random and are affected by the weather, making for a different experience from that of most other games in the racing genre, such as the PlayStation 2’s Splashdown. Every race consists of three laps. Often during a race, shortcuts will be revealed as the player passes each lap. Spotting these shortcuts as they appear can be essential to victory.

At the end of each race, the player is awarded points proportional to the place in which they finished. A player needs a certain point total at the end of each race in order to advance to the next day. If this total is not reached, the player must begin the circuit again. Victory comes when the player finishes first, second, or third overall in total points at the end of the circuit. For the expert circuit, the player must finish first for all weather conditions in time attack mode.

I never owned this video game, nor the first game. Blue Storm received “favorable” reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. The game was praised for its water effects, weather effects, and physics. The weather effects in the game, most people agreed, were outstanding. They caused wave height to vary and often came on slowly, or would let up surprisingly in the middle of a race. The weather also affected the course layout, adding to the game’s variety. Physics in the game was unmatched by any other water-based game at the time. Waves that varied in height and intensity, wakes from other riders, and more all attributed to the overall feel of the game and were usually mentioned as one of the game’s positives.

Blue Storm sold 62,003 units in Japan, and was the third best-selling launch title for the GameCube in North America, behind Luigi’s Mansion and Star Wars Rogue Squadron II: Rogue Leader.

The game won the award for “Best In-Game Water” at GameSpot’s Best and Worst of 2001 Awards, and was nominated for the “Best Driving Game” award, which went to Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec.

That’s the end of this game’s review, and thanks for reading. Please remember to have a jet ski license in your US state or Canadian province if you’re going to ride the waves.

Thanks for reading this article,

Cory Roberts.