Wakeboarding Unleashed featuring Shaun Murray – GBA – Review

Against all odds game
developers ported Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater to the Game Boy Advance.  The "port"
wasn’t as exciting as its PSone counterpart, but it was one of the few GBA
games that could be classified as a next-generation title.  It used polygons,
its environments were interactive, and the trick system was far superior to
anything seen on the console at the time.

With Tony Hawk receiving so
much love from the fans, Activision decided to expand their lineup with
several Hawk spin-offs, including BMX, snowboarding, and early next year,
dirt-biking.  They also released a Tony Hawk-style game based on the sport of
wakeboarding.  Prior to its release I didn’t even know the sport existed.  I
had seen clips of it on TV but thought it was surfing with a boat and a rope.
Despite my lack of knowledge of the sport, Wakeboarding Unleashed Featuring
Shaun Murray ended up being one of my favorite titles released this year.

Naturally I was excited
to hear that Activision would be releasing Wakeboarding Unleashed on the Game
Boy Advance.  If they found a way to port Tony Hawk, there’s got to be a way
to port this game as well.  Right?

Wakeboarding Unleashed
starts off like every extreme sports game.  The title screen leads you to a
menu with six options (five of them relating to the gameplay aspects, the
other for changing things like the brightness of the colors).  Career,
Tutorial, Multiplayer, and Single Session will not get the attention of most
gamers.  They may be great modes, but everyone knows what to expect from
them.  On other hand, you’ll probably pause for a second when you scroll to
the fifth game mode – Balloon Burst.  You can probably figure out what the
goal is just by the title, but it’s definitely not a common mode for any
game.  Balloons are placed high and low, and it’s your job to grind and jump
the best you can to pop them all.  The more balloons you pop, the better
chances you’ll have of winning.

When you decide to attack
the career mode, you’ll be faced with six courses to conquer.  Each course
includes either an objective list (grind a specific target, beat the high
score, collect the letters to spell WAKE, etc.) or one goal that must be
completed in order to move on the next course.  The single goal has to do with
the competitions where points matter most.  There’s a medal to be won, and if
you don’t have the skills to nab it, you won’t be taking it home.

The GBA version of
Wakeboarding Unleashed is scaled down to the point where it’s barely
recognizable, so you won’t have any trouble combo-ing your way through this
one.  You can hold a button or two and press the directional bad to execute
the few tricks this game has to offer.  Should you accidentally hit the wrong
button or try to perform too many tricks before landing, the game will show a
silly animation of the wakeboarder hitting the water.  The water is hit, but
barely penetrated.  Apparently it’s some kind of solid substance in this game,
as opposed to the liquid form we know in reality.

Something that you’ll
realize a mere ten seconds after starting the game is that Wakeboarding
Unleashed is far too technologically advanced for the Game Boy Advance.  Game
Boy Advance’s core power is not that far beyond the Super NES.

This makes the game feel
flat.  You’re moving forward, which I suppose is intended to emulate the third
dimension.  After all, that’s how the sport works, and that’s what the
PlayStation 2 version was like.  But all that you see – water, ramps and rails
– is dull.  You can use the ramps to lift yourself high into the air, and you
can grind the rails to gain extra points and reach items that are too high to
grab otherwise.  But the game is not engrossing in the least bit.  It doesn’t
immerse you in its watery world, it keeps you at a distance.  It’s almost like
staring at a poor copy of a famous painting; no matter what, it just doesn’t
look right.  In this case, the game doesn’t play right.

Reviewer’s Scoring Details

Gameplay: 5
Wakeboarding
Unleashed has only one problem: it isn’t much fun.  Its small variety of game
modes, its scaled-down trick system, and its hard-to-look-at visuals would
have been acceptable if the game were at least entertaining.  Somehow or other
they missed the boat with this one, which is ironic, considering what sport
this is.

Graphics: 4
This game just
barely provides a visual.  Really – there isn’t much to Wakeboarding
Unleashed.  Flat water, ramps and rails.  Occasionally you might see a piece
of land or an arrow telling you where to go next.  Big whoop.

Sound: 7
What’s another
word for repetition?  Find it, insert it here, and you’ve got the sound of
Wakeboarding Unleashed.

Difficulty: Medium
The game is
practically in the second dimension, so judging the distance between you and a
rail is not easy.

Concept: 4
There’s nothing
new here, and shock upon shock, there’s nothing familiar here either.
Familiarity would have improved this title by giving it some of the great
gameplay mechanics found in the PS2 version.

Multiplayer: 5

Overall: 5.9
Wakeboarding
Unleashed is better than most ports, but the Game Boy Advance is not equipped
to handle a game of this stature.  The developers had very little to work
with, forcing them to bring the game down to a level that’s often too weak to
enjoy.