Wave Race

Before Wave Race became famous for its shattering waves on the Nintendo 64, there was a far more modest forerunner right on the Game Boy. Wave Race from 1992 was a racing game in which you sped across courses on a jet ski, trying to pass through gates in the best possible time. For a handheld it was an unusual premise, since most racing games took place on dry land.

Here Nintendo bet on a theme almost no one offered on the Game Boy, namely riding on water. The player controls a jet ski rider weaving between buoys placed along the track. The key is to pass through the marked gates from the correct side, because every gate you miss or round incorrectly affects your result and pushes you toward precise riding.

On the Game Boy's monochrome screen you shouldn't of course expect the flashy wave physics the sequel later made famous. The experience is tighter and more abstract, more about learning the courses and finding the ideal line than about realistic bobbing on the surface. Even so, it was a refreshing change of pace in the sea of standard land races the handheld offered at the time.

Wave Race is interesting today mainly as the root of a brand that later shone on the Nintendo 64 thanks precisely to its groundbreaking rendering of the water surface. This handheld debut demonstrated the basic idea of riding a jet ski and passing through gates on which the later installment built its fame.

For collectors and lovers of Nintendo history, it's a title worth revisiting precisely because of the contrast with the later legend. It's a small window into a time when ideas were still being born and searching for their form on the most accessible hardware.

Why play: The handheld predecessor of the famous water-racing series, interesting as a look at where the jet-ski idea began.