Of course, in order to create such a template, we’ve got to study a textbook example of the genre. So enters Exhibit Number 1, the amazingly mediocre Splashdown. Ready class? Let’s begin.

The first step is to find a gimmick. Skateboarding has been done to death and BMX is right behind it. Inline skating and snowboarding receive plenty of attention. I know, how about jet skis? Nintendo already did that? Hmm, okay, we’ll go with Sea-Doos. You know, those sit down jet skis. What a great idea! In fact we’ve killed two birds with one stone. We already have our gimmick and our mandatory license!

Now that we’ve completed the preliminaries we can get down to the important stuff. What songs can we license for our soundtrack? Surely everyone in the world likes Sum 41 and Blink 182. Mix their “hits” up with a few lesser-known grooves and we have an incredible aquatic soundtrack. Don’t worry. It’s all right that none of these songs have anything to do with water sports. If it’s on TRL, it’s good for us.

What’s next? Oh yeah, we need some gameplay. Let’s see. You race against four other “over-the-top characters” around courses from all over the world. Oh yeah, and you jump. You jump a lot and when you do it you jump really high! Of course when airborne, all characters must shout “Gnarly!” or “Radical!” or else it just won’t be any fun.

And now, back to reality…

I’m sure you’ve gotten the point by now. Splashdown isn’t a particularly bad game; it’s just thoroughly average in every possible way. It simply follows the extreme sports formula, doing exactly what it has to and nothing extra. The result is a competent engine, fairly pretty graphics, and some extremely shallow gameplay.

While riding your Sea-Doo you use the analog stick to control your weight distribution. Lean back and your craft will balance out and hydroplane, allowing a necessary speed boost. Lean forward and plow the nose of the craft into the water to cut through sharp corners. That’s all the technique there is. Mastering it is the key to success in tougher events.

For optimum watercraft performance, you have to pull off big stunts. Doing so charges your performance meter, which in turn improves your top speed and acceleration. Crash, or miss a gate and your performance meter decreases causing you to lose your advantage. Holding down L, R, or B in combination with a directional command performs tricks. There are over 25 tricks and you are rewarded for not repeating a stunt during a race. You can also hold the stunt, or even chain tricks together, to gain even more of a performance reward. The harder the stunt you perform, the greater the reward and risk.

Races boil down to an endless pattern of hydroplane, jump, trick, repeat. There are well over twenty courses to mix it up, but they all follow the same pattern. None of the courses is very clever, or sticks out in my mind. They all do the job adequately; yet do nothing to push the limits. I would have preferred fewer, more memorable courses.

It’s also worth noting that waves are hardly used in this game. You will rarely find yourself battling against the elements or fighting to stay off a wake. It’s a shame that the forces of water aren’t used to their full potential. As gamers who have played Nintendo’s Wave Race series can attest, big waves make for challenging, compelling gameplay.

Graphically, Splashdown gets the job done but doesn’t really excel. Looking almost exactly like the PS2 original from 2001, the visuals certainly don’t take advantage of the power of the Xbox. Yes, the water is very pretty. Light reflects, and spray shoots from watercraft as they cut through it. That said, these types of water effects have become very commonplace in recent years.

Environments are covered with some pretty bland textures and character models are merely adequate. It’s obvious that not much work was done to enhance the visuals during the porting process. Unfortunately, the framerate isn’t consistent either. In fact it visibly stutters whenever you go around a corner. If you’re racing in a pack while taking a corner there is a bit of noticeable slowdown.

The game does feature several multiplayer modes, but only supports two simultaneous players. It can be fun to race a buddy or challenge him to a trick contest, but one has to wonder why there is no four-player support. It’s puzzling omissions like this that just magnify this title’s mediocrity.

Overall, we have a title that could have been a lot of fun, but only scratches the surface of its potential. It’s an average game that may offer some brief stints of fun on a rainy day but cannot be recommended for extended periods of play.

· · · PBMax