LogFAQs > #951240001

35. Splashdown: Rides Gone Wild (PS2, 2003)


The jet ski racing game doesn't have many reps, and while I am not surprised, I do love the potential of such games. Wave Race is the most popular series, but I feel like it peaked with its first game on the Game Boy as the later games had their struggles with wave physics, especially in regards to requiring players to pass through buoys (while also not requiring the AI to do the same). I've played one-off games like Carve and Wave Rally that didn't have any lasting appeal. The Riptide games are pretty good but are an uneven experience. I also own Aqua Moto Racing Utopia but have yet to play it. Luckily, Splashdown: Rides Gone Wild exists as it is head and shoulders above anything else in the sub-genre.

It is the follow-up to Splashdown but with a cartoony, over-the-top flair. You have your goofy characters, silly courses that include a spooky castle, a gold mine, and a prehistoric waterway, and you race with an emphasis on tricks and boosting while largely ignore water physics. There is a ton of content here with championship events that take place on the aformentioned silly world courses, stadium races that take place in indoor arenas, freestyle events that have you doing tricks on additional indoor courses, and multiple versions of time trials that include some of their own courses. There's also an unlock system for characters and such that keeps you coming back for more. It's all a ton of fun, but the main reason why it is all the way up here is because of the game's efforts to make every lap unique on the world courses.

The concept of multi-lap courses offering wildly different experiences depending on the map is something that I wish more games would explore. Games like Beetle Adventure Racing and Snowboard kids offered a lot of shortcuts and branching paths, but that isn't quite the same thing. Black Rock Studio's (makers of my #90 game, Pure) final game was Split/Second which allowed the player, and even the AI, to trigger various course effects that could yield substantial changes on future laps, so that's close to what I am looking for. However, nothing that I have tried has come close to Splashdown: Rides Gone Wild. Here, scripted events occur throughout your race that make things more exciting. Each race has several unique events, and if you are in the lead or in view of it, you get to see it all unfold in real time. Pirate ships use cannons to alter the layout, high-speed chases going on around you create obstacles to shift your path, and so much more. It's really a novel thing, but it's something that I always adored and wished was used in more games.

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KCF can't actually be a real person but he is - greengravy
If you smell what the rock is cooking he's cooking crap - ertyu