Soapbox: Wave Race 64 Is Now 25 Years Old, And It Still Rules

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 games 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, first-person shooters, action-adventure games, you name it. Mario, The Legend of Zelda and even good-old 007 blew minds back in the late-’90s.

I was 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 Wave Race 64, a jet-ski racer and sequel to a Game Boy title I’d never heard of — and yes, dear readers, 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, simpler times. 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

Wave Race 64 had that vibe, for me, 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.

Of course, as better players and speedrunners know, the waves opened up some pretty fancy jumps and shortcuts, which feel deliberate. 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, or really get to grips with the mechanics and dominate — the development team did admirable work.