WAKEBOARDING UNLEASHED (XBOX, PS2)


Is Tony's time at the top nigh?

By WILL BARKER

There's a big difference between 'action' sports games and sports games, and Activision's O2 range falls into the former category.

From one of the oldest and most respected US-based computer and videogames publishers, we've had skateboarding with Hawk, snowboarding with Palmer, surfing with Slater, bicycle motocross with the Hoffman and now we have wakeboarding with a dude called Shaun Murray.

The average sports game offers realism above any other aspect, and joy is usually derived from completing what are generally rational tasks in believable places.

The games listed above, on the other hand, are action sports games, where physics are looser, tricks are crazier and blood spills. While I'm all for action sports games, I do tend to get a little crabby due to the unrealistic physics on offer, and being an avid wakeboarder (and snowboarder, BMXer, and bodyboarder) I often daydream of how cool the O2 games would be if more true-to-life.

But, at the end of the day, I've played 'em all and I'll be honest - I really love 'em.

Sure, they're not exactly 'accurate' and the things your extremely gnarly alter ego can do are sometimes downright ludicrous, but perhaps that's part of what makes them so compelling. Which in turn kinda makes me look stupid after arguing that I get upset about the lack of realism.

My head hurts…

In the real world, wakeboarding is an amazingly fulfilling sport. It's a bit like snowboarding, but you can carve tighter and deeper and the tensile rope allows you to slingshot about the place. Sometimes you've got a dude in the boat throwing beers at you, and sometimes there are topless chicks asking… Oh, right. The game.

Beginning like most of the O2 games in the series, you get some seriously hi-res, DVD quality footage of wakeboarders doing what they do best (no, not playing backgammon with monkeys), and it must be said that the camera angles used are superlative.

Anyway, like the other games in the O2 range, you have a number of 'base' options from the menu screen after the intro fades out, staring with one player and two player, load/save, videos, options and playlist.

My first port of call was one player, followed by the career mode. What ensues is the ultimately the same as the other O2 games, where you can pick one of seven boarders and must pass roughly 16 objectives and challenges on each level, of which there are 11.

After coarse calculations, this results in a grand total of three objectives for the entire game and, upon outside consultation with a motley crew of chain-smoking mongeese, the final figure lands at about 170 objectives/challenges, which ain't too shabby.

There are also gaps to conquer too, and the more of these three tasks you complete, the more levels, stats and boards you'll unlock. The career mode is quite the long haul and I thoroughly enjoyed the majority of the challenges, though there will always be the odd frustrating objectives.

Beyond the single player campaign, which is pretty damned tough and rewarding to boot, there's a free ride mode and also a free drive mode where you get pilot the boat and do water doughies. Cool.

In addition, there's a plethora of two player modes, which I absolutely love and, for me at least, they elevate this game above and beyond the Tony and Hoffman titles.

There are four modes on offer when playing two-up, including Tug-O-War, which is kinda like a squeeze mode. Both players start off behind the boat and the more technical tricks you do, the shorter your opponent's rope gets.

The winner of this volatile two-player mode will have ample amounts of rope left, while his opponent's get so short that he will eventually be ripped to bloody shreds on the speed boat's V8-powered propellor, and then eaten by sharks and later pecked by seagulls.

Next up is the Trick Attack - a good old fashioned favourite that even the purists will be able to stomach: The boarder with the highest score when the time runs out wins. Nice and simple, but can often turn into a one-sided affair. Especially if your best mate's a blind cephalopod.

The third mode for two players is Horse, the classic 'take-it-in-turns' trick attack mode pioneered by Tony Hawk and loved by millions the world over.

The last mode is probably one of the most enjoyable - co-op. Ever since Halo stormed onto the Xbox, I've totally craved anything with those four (three?) special letters, and Wakeboarding Unleashed doesn't disappoint.

One player takes control of the boat and tries not to scrape the enamel off the hull by mounting rocky outcrops while the other player holds on to the rope for dear life and hopes to hell that the driver doesn't do too many 120-degree handbrake turns, despite the fact that boats don't have a handbrake. Natch.

In this mode, there are objectives for both players, where various challenges involve collecting petrol, doing tricks and steering the boat through targets. Even without the objectives, the bare-bones effect of hooning about with a buddy in tow is extremely enjoyable.

The physics involved in Wakeboarding Unleashed are very solid - until you hit the wake and fly 100 feet into the air. Still, it gives you a good deal of time to perfect your inverts, which look absolutely sensational.

There are plenty of tricks on offer for the savvy of D-pad, including manuals, grinds, wall rides, special tricks, double-tap moves, no handers and the list goes on.

With many of variations on all moves, such as double taps with anything (grab, invert buttons, directions etc) and combinations of all these -- and let's not forget spinning while tricking to up the score - make this a very tasty proposition for those already well-drilled in the Tony Hawks and Matt Hoffmans. Suffice it to say, if you liked the latter games, you'll love this.

The single player game is good, solid fun, and will teach you how to master all the tricks of the trade with the various objectives on offer. Just like all good games in the O2 series, you'll have to beat top scores, knock five tubers off their inflatable rubber rings and trick over massive obstacles and such.

Gameplay is very addictive and the sport of wakeboarding translates superbly from real life to digital life, with great water physics and effects.

The idea of the taught rope controlling some of your lateral movement is also a rather fun concept, and it's ace watching your boarder get dragged to the right - mid-air - as your boat driver decide to take a shortcut.

Hitting the wake at full tilt, projecting into the air, then pulling off tricks and landing them are probably the four most important aspects to gameplay, and while together they form what is one of the most rewarding exercises in videogaming, the gameplay is not without flaw.

Oftentimes your tricks can seem to glitch if you land on solid earth, or anything that's not a highly viscous liquid, and the manual's look a bit dorky at times too. On the whole though, the pros far outweigh the cons, and Shaba has crafted a terrifically addictive game to get stuck into.

The levels that Wakeboarding Unleashed throws at you are pretty good - some are brilliant and some are a little lacklustre, though in general there's a lot to like, as the mix is nice and varied. Sometimes I found that the AI-controlled boat (following the same path time and again) is a little boring, and human pilots always tend to offer a more - how do you say? - hazardous ride.

The game's difficulty belies its action sports origins, as Wakeboarding Unleashed has a delightfully well-paced learning curve, where you'll find that busting out alternate paths, special moves and sky-high scores won't be an instant occurance.

Most who are familiar with the O2 franchise will be able to rip it up good and proper from a fairly early stage, but even with the know-how of similar games, Wakeboarding Unleashed is a very different and perhaps even more dynamic offering than the other sports action games from Activision.

The music line-up is a little eclectic, but fitting nonetheless. There are in fact more songs on the playlist that made their debut before 1990, than those after, with the 1969 song "I wanna be you dog" performed by The Stooges as one of the more aurally pleasing tracks.

Of course, you can also add your own ripped custom playlists, which is nice, and the sound effects do their job well.

All things considered, this is a tip-top game. While many will disagree, I reckon this is also the best game in the O2 range, with a more intriguing method of locomotion on offer, combining the best bits of snowboarding, waterskiing and, umm, something else that I can't think of right now.

The visuals aren't class-leading, but they are very nice to look at: The water effects (mottled reflections, the wake from the boat) are very realistic and the motion capture on the boarders is, as always, phenomenal. When you're flying through the air with the board trailing like an aeronautical device, inverted of course, it looks amazing, and feels pretty good too.

There really isn't anything missing from this game, save for maybe online play, and Shaba has delivered the goods and then some in this instance. We did find that loading times with our copy of the game on the Xbox were horrendously long, but this was an isolated incident (we hope).

Wakeboarding Unleashed featuring Shaun Murray may be a departure of naming connventions for the popular action sports O2 brand, but who cares when both single and multiplayer action is this good, and with enough longevity to keep you happy for months.

Wakeboarding Unleashed elevates Activision's action sports franchise to another level. Highly recommended.

ORIGINALITY 90%
SOUND/GRAPHICS 90%
PLAYABILITY 85%
ENJOYMENT 95%
OVERALL 95%