The original Playstation is one of the most important video game consoles in the history of electronics. Many changes to the way video game development was conducted took place during these years. While big budget 3D blockbusters were marketed to the sky and back, some other companies realized they could target lower price points. Before the Playstation, most lower priced games were re-releases of older, successful games, but the cheaper manufacturing and shipping costs of CDs and jewel cases persuaded some companies to just develop and release lower priced games, which would come to be known as a budget title. The PC gaming market had been doing this since its inception, but consoles could finally get in on the small priced release train. Lower the scope of the game, don't add too many features, and focus like a laser on what will be in the game, and these developers and publishers could release a rather competent game for $20. BursTrick Wake Boarding!! is one such game.



BursTrick was originally released in July 2000 in Japan before releasing at the end of February 2001 in North America and Europe. It was developed by a company called Metro Corporation, who self published the original Japanese release, with Natsume picking up the rights to publish in North America, and JVC grabbing the European publishing rights. In Japan, the game would later be re-released by D3 Publisher as part of its incredibly long running and successful Simple series of budget games.

BursTrick Wake Boarding!! is heavily influenced by arcade games. It basically is one. The game features two modes, Obstacle and Trick. Obstacle mode has the player going through a gauntlet of six courses, with each lap having a score minimum requirement to keep going. At the end each course has its own score minimum to allow passage onto the next course. Trick mode is a series of three courses with the player doing tricks off the wake from the boat pulling them. Trick mode has a much shorter time limit. Doing tricks in trick mode uses both a timing system and multiple button inputs. Tricks will need a combination of direction buttons and face button, all being done at the right time. Short scenes play out between tracks, where stereotypical late 90s beach bums give the player some pointers about what's coming up next. You're just a guy out on the wakes working through a wakeboarding tournament in both modes. Trick mode is easily the harder mode. Any experience with an arcade racing game with obstacles on the track makes the Obstacle mode quite easy in comparison. There are different characters and wake boards to choose from, and a few spots in each to unlock.


The game looks pretty decent for a Playstation game. It is a bit rough compared to some of the bigger budget games, but they function rather well. The biggest problem with the game's graphics is its messy framerate. There's not any big areas where the framerate tanks and you play a slideshow, but it does slide up and down just a bit. The controls for the game are quite smooth and work well, and the game does include some more subtle physics at play. Players will find themselves able to bounce around a little bit if they slide back and forth across the boat's wakes. The audio quality is fine and is much like the rest of the game's budget feel, simple but professional.

BursTrick is actually one of the only wakeboarding games that has ever been made, there's only about three total. Anybody with an interest in the sport, whether its casually or very hardcore, simply does not have many options when it comes to video games to play on a day of bad weather. Its a more focused budget title with few bells and whistles, and what is included in the game is quite good. The graphics could have used a bit more polish. The few characters that are in the game are ripped straight out of the late 90s. Its actually rather charming how the game feels like a time capsule to twenty years in the past. BursTrick has remained a budget priced game since it released, and remains unbelievably cheap to purchase to this day. There are a ton of inexpensive but decent Playstation games still floating around there, and while a collector might expect a low price to mean the game is easy to find during local hunts, that's not always the case. There are simply so many Playstation games that some are cheap simply because they get lost in the list, one of the very few wake boarding games to ever be made should stick out from the crowd, at least a little bit, and yet this one does not. In fact, none of the others, Wakeboarding Unleashed, Big Air Wakeboarding, and Wakeboarding HD seem to stand out at all either.

Permalink | Comments [0] | Digg This Article | Tweet