Originally making its debut on the Playstation 2, Splashdown finally emerges and makes it's way to Microsoft's XBOX. With the addition of new characters, levels, and hi-res graphics with the ability to use your own custom soundtrack, I would think that even without these enhancements, Splashdown would still turn some heads due to the sheer fun of playing the game with or without friends.
Visually, the game looks extremely nice. From the coral reef being shown through the clear blue seas to the cotton candy like clouds that get pierced by the sun's streams of sunshine; visually, this game does so many things right that it's silly. The tracks scattered through out the world (Florida, Antarctica, Spain, etc.) are created through the use of buoys' and floatable arrows dictating when a sharp turn is ahead or letting you know the layout itself and not moving out from it. Day and night along with weather effects are all within the game, and they must be seen to truly witness how incredible a night course through the Amazon River can be or scattered showers pounding down on the Florida Everglades. Simply breath taking.
Sound wise, the game, for majority of the time, falls pretty short. Musical tracks consist of songs that you've heard over the radio almost a year or two years ago. Such as Smash Mouth's "All Star" and Sum 41's "Fat Lip". Thankfully though, Atari took advantage of the XBOX's hard drive and utilized the customizable soundtrack feature allowing you to burn and play your own songs. Sound effects are what you would expect when racing with sea doo's, but my god the voices for the characters are just god awful. I assume the creators of the game had the idea of putting in some humor when creating lines for the characters to say during a race, but it's the typical surfer accent, muscle head sayings that are repetitive and at times, down right annoying. If only there was the option of muting the characters when playing, sigh.
The game play is accurate, easy, and most importantly loads of fun. Controlling your character through any type of waves is a slice of cake. Plus the trick scheme used in the game is surprisingly easy and plays a crucial part in the game. Performing tricks is done by holding the Shoulder buttons or face button with the single direction on the D-Pad until you come back down on the ocean. The longer you hold or chain a string of moves, the better your sea doo performers by speed and handling. Slack on performing tricks, or making your selection of tricks repetitive, and you'll eventually come to gain little to no adrenaline for your sea doo. Making both speed and tricks crucial to winning the circuits.
Competing in over 18 photo realistic location with 40+ tracks to complete, you'll definently get your money's worth. You'll be expected to unlock hidden riders to join your zany crew of 9 sea doo riders by completing challenges tossed at you or by completing the game's 3 circuit modes. Plus then there is also the hidden wet suits you'll be searching for as you race in the circuit or time trail modes. So as you can already tell, there is much to. Oh, the game also comes with a challenge mode against another friend, yes friend as in one, but the limited amount of screen you'll be given, and the akward camera (oddly enough only in this mode), makes it a total waste of a mode. Besides that though, Splashdown has much to offer that you will have racing and even non racing fans coming back for more.
Splashdown is a watercraft racing game. Using the latest state of the art Xbox technology, Splashdown takes advantage of all the fantastic capabilitie...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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