There hasn't been a jetski game on the market for about a year and a half
which I assume would have disappointed those who enjoy the genre. I
myself am a fan of these games and have spent many hours playing Splashdown
and Wave Race, trying new tricks and attempting new times.
Carve has entered the fray with developer Argonaut behind the helm.
Surprisingly though this game, whilst a lot of fun, doesn't bring anything
entirely new to the genre and this in itself is not necessarily a bad thing
due to the simple fact that this game is shaping up to be shipped at a
discount price if other countries release prices are anything to go by.
In it's essence this is a racer and the
first person to get over that line wins. Tricking during the race though can
assist in speed boosts or other ways of getting a winning edge over the
competition. Doing a single trick will award you with a small boost in speed
but stringing a few in a row will see you pounding the water ahead of the
pack, or overtaking them in any case. The feeling of speed is authentic
enough and the jetskis perform admirably upon the waves.
Getting speed up by doing tricks is also
pretty easy
with just a few button presses and toggles of an analogue stick. Sometimes I
did find that I was anticipating a trick after hitting what I thought to be
the right buttons and something else would occur. Nothing major and it never
affected my standing in the race, nor caused me to crash, it was just a bit
odd when it happened.
Graphically Carve is a very nice looking
game
with some very nice water effects and animations. Tricks look great when
they are pulled and the resulting thud when hitting the water is sensational
fun. I think that this game would have scored higher had it been the first
in a genre as they do pretty much get it right the whole way through,
however one must bear in mind that others have done it just as well and
better quite some time ago.
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