25 Years Later, Wave Race 64's Water Is Still Undefeated
In the 1990s the quality of a game's visuals could be measured by its water. Today we take great water for granted, unless it's really special. But back in the 20th Century, when 3D visuals were relatively primitive, a fantastic water effect could stop you in your tracks. There was a time when a character moving through a body of water and leaving visible ripples in their wake, or the sun glinting off the surface, was spellbinding. You'd excitedly call people over to look at the TV and think this is it. This is the best a video game will ever look. We were wrong, of course. But there's one '90s game famed for its water that really was something special—and remains unbeaten in the field of simulated H2O, even today.
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The Nintendo 64 wasn't short of impressive visual showcases, whether it was the snowspeeder battle in Shadows of the Empire, GoldenEye's gloriously theatrical motion captured death animations, or basically the whole of Super Mario 64. But for me, the game that really illustrated the 64-bit power of this console was Wave Race 64. Launching in 1996 to great acclaim, this Nintendo-developed, Shigeru Miyamoto-produced Jet Ski racing game was absolutely stunning to look at, and a delight to play too. Those bouncy, splashy, jet-powered watercraft were an absolute joy to toss around the game's generous selection of gorgeous liquid-based tracks. I couldn't believe how real the water looked when I first played it.
It doesn't look real now, and the technology is outdated. But here's the remarkable thing: it's still the best video game water. Better than the roiling oceans of Sea of Thieves, Subnautica's alien abyss, or Assassin's Creed Odyssey's sparkling
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