Have you ever wondered what would happen if you took the core gameplay of the Tony Hawk series but replaced the iconic skateboard based gameplay with speed boats? Then replaced the human characters with animals and gave it a synth-fueled 80s Miami Vice vibe? No? Neither have we. But LA based studio Funktronic Labs have made exactly that game with Wave Break.
Making Waves
Wave Break has been out on the Switch for a little while, but has now made the jump to Xbox. The ‘skateboating’ premise is somewhat crazy but it is a tonne of fun as you rip up a number of waterways as a bear in a powered-up speedboat whilst performing ever more extreme stunts.
The game has the Tony Hawk feel down to a tee as you kick-flip and grind your boat around to get ever growing combos. Like Mr Hawk’s games, there are a number of missions to complete during each run, to bank you some extra goodies. This sees you having to collect items and pull off a set combo across a certain area.
You can even pull out a gun, which opens up game options as well as hinting at things to come in other modes.
Mode Selector
There are a good few to be found here beyond the career modes, if you just want to enjoy the maps or brush up on your skills, then there is the free play mode. As well as the time attack, where you have to score the most points as you can, on or offline.
And then things get a bit more interesting when you head to Deathmatch mode, where you battle it out with other players to get evermore powerful weapons to get the upper hand in the battle, to see who can bank the most kills.
Across the modes you’ll bank cash, which you can spend to upgrade your character and boat to make it more powerful, stronger and faster. Or you can change their look, thanks to a few customisation options.
Beyond the core modes there is a fun and mostly easy-to-use track editor, where you and some mates can craft their dream stunt run or ultimate battle arena. It’s a nice addition to the game.
Vapor Wave
Visually, the game has real Miami Vice vibes with neon pinks and sunset glows being the colour palette of choice. The soundtrack backs this all up, featuring original songs from some of the best synthwave artists around like Timecop1983 and Kalax.
The Switch release of Wave Break did have a few issues that did impact the fun, ranging from clipping through the map and going out of bounds with no way to return, to just flat out falling through the map.
Over my time with the game on the Xbox Series X, I haven’t experienced any of these issues – a huge plus as they were very much true combo killers.
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Wave Break is a truly bizarre concoction. However, it pulls off this vibrant cocktail in a most delightful way to deliver a fun and addictive game. that goes the steps needed to be much more than just a tribute and to ultimately make its own waves.