Wellenrennen 64 Ist jetzt 25 Jahre alt, Und es regiert immer noch
Über die Feiertage veröffentlichen wir einige unserer besten Features erneut, interviews, Meinungsartikel und Diskussionspunkte aus der Vergangenheit 12 months von Mitarbeitern und Mitwirkenden gleichermaßen — Artikel, von denen wir glauben, dass sie unsere sind das beste von 2021. Darin findet ihr unsere gewohnte Mischung aus Nachdenklichkeit, Frivolität, retro Sachverstand, Gaming-Nostalgie, und – natürlich – Begeisterung für alles, was mit Nintendo zu tun hat. Enjoy!
Let’s get the controversial early opinion out of the way, just so any pitchfork wielders can start sharpening their implements right away: a lot of Nintendo 64 Spiele haven’t aged very well. Of course they haven’t, because it was a console in which Nintendo was at the bleeding edge of 3D graphical technology, a bold move that seized it a place in history as the company delivered genre-defining home console experiences that simply hadn’t been possible before. In terms of consoles, it was a system with games that set the 3D standards in platformers, Ego-Shooter, action-adventure games, Sie nennen es. Mario, The Legend of Zelda and even good-old 007 blew minds back in the late-’90s.
ich war 12 years old, and all of the usual classics did indeed excite me a great deal. Yet one of my most played games in that era was Wellenrennen 64, a jet-ski racer and sequel to a Game Boy title I’d never heard of — and yes, liebe Leser, it’s aged just fine.
Back in the day it was one of the most arcade-like games I’d ever seen on a console; remember this is an era where light-gun games and SEGA Rally on the Saturn were hugely impressive — yes, einfachere Zeiten. I didn’t live in a town with a real arcade, so whenever I saw coin-op machines on a trip I would obsess over playing them (much to my parent’s annoyance).
The game would throw you around and let you know to respect the elements
Wellenrennen 64 had that vibe, für mich, and it had that water. It may not look too wild nowadays when we have the likes of Sea of Thieves recreating the sea in stunning detail, but the idea of a game with realistic waves and physics to match seemed fanciful at the time. Yet that’s what the game achieved. You weren’t racing a jet-ski around as if it was a car on a flat surface; the game would throw you around and let you know to respect the elements.
Natürlich, as better players and speedrunners know, the waves opened up some pretty fancy jumps and shortcuts, which fühlen absichtlich. I would be lucky to get through a run in ‘normal’ difficulty, but would sit and watch my older brother tackling the toughest CPU AI and taking every shortcut on offer. It’s a game that gets genuinely difficult if you’re up to the challenge, so even today there’s good replay value. You can be rubbish like me, oder wirklich get to grips with the mechanics and dominate — the development team did admirable work.
What really sticks in my mind, alongside the joy of bouncing around on the waves, is the soundtrack. Good grief that soundtrack is pure ’90s arcade gaming, with a pitch-perfect synth sound and melodies that will stick in your mind forever. When a colleague mentioned the anniversary was coming up on 27th September, the music started in my head, like a Spotify recommendation that was, einmal, good. Kazumi Totaka, take a bow.
All of these memories, natürlich, were formed on an inferior version, zu, though my ignorance was bliss at the time. Being in the UK I was rocking the PAL 50Hz version, and didn’t realise it was faster and even better in other parts of the world until years later. For those wondering whether this matters in the here and now, yes it does, so hopefully Nintendo Switch Online won’t go that way — although, worryingly, it looks like it just might.
Seriously, just look at the difference. I’m grateful that the young me didn’t see this when I was happily enjoying the PAL version:
Wellenrennen 64 isn’t currently on the N64 list for Nintendo Switch Online, and you have to go back a little while to see hints that the series could come back in the future. Wir irgendwie had a nod to the idea way back in Wii Sports Resort, zu versuchen, die Frau zu finden, für die er so hart gekämpft hat, bevor seine Zeit abläuft, da sein Körper von Tag zu Tag schlechter wird a certain futuristic racer this series has been dormant since the GameCube era. At the very least we’ll hopefully see this classic arrive on NSO eventually, especially as it did get releases on both the Wii and Wii U Virtual Console.
If it’s the 50Hz version in Europe, obwohl, I’ll definitely be downloading the North American app to play it. Until that time, here’s to Wave Race 64 — a classic that was fun, relentlessly optimistic and is still a blast to this day.
Die Rennstrecke ist nur ein Teil einer sehr beeindruckenden Insel: