PlayStation Now Reviews is a new mini-series I’m trying out where I give micro-reviews to some of the weirdest and most obscure games on the subscription service. Have to make my money back somehow, right?
Wakeboarding is something I will never really understand. How do they not fall over? Who decided that they should tie some rope to the back of a boat and let some poor bastard hold onto it for dear life? It’s not the most popular of sports, either, which is why it’s a little odd that it had its own video game with Wakeboarding HD.
Let me tell you something about Wakeboarding HD: it’s more addictive than I could have ever imagined. When I saw the purple shark and PS1 looking character in its thumbnail, I feared the worst. I thought it would be a budget cash-in, harking back to the PlayStation 2’s Play It days – if you don’t know what I am talking about, you’re lucky.
However, I was pleasantly surprised. Wakeboarding HD has a really charming mix of retro, Tony Hawk-lite (incidentally, Creat Studios, the brains behind this, also made Tony Hawk’s Motion for the Nintendo DS) gameplay with a neat soundtrack that is probably what all the cool kids like these days. It’s very straightforward: do the thing; don’t fall down and drown. You only need to use a few buttons and combos are as easy as they come. It’s the kind of game where you can just decompress for a while and let your brain have a nap, which is always nice.
Wakeboarding HD doesn’t treat you too kindly with difficulty spikes, though. One minute you’re coasting along, thinking about who invented casserole, and then the game demands that you don’t touch the water for a minute while you hum the Swedish national anthem.
Obviously, this isn’t a classic game, and it doesn’t do anything to warrant much acclaim either. The only wakeboarding game I know of is missing content and variation, especially in the customisation stakes. There isn’t much incentive to return after you figure out what the game is all about, but if you let it, Wakeboarding HD can help you waste a whole afternoon of doing adult stuff.
It has rough edges everywhere, including graphically, but if you can look past that, there’s still plenty of fun to be had here. I really do wish they had spent more time on character models instead of just ripping them all from DeviantArt, though.
Should I play it? Have a spare fifteen minutes? Go for it. Just don’t expect to fall head over heels in love.
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