Splashdown
Hot off the release of ATV Offroad Fury, Rainbow Studios takes to the wakes and waves of the sea.
Published: April 26, 2001
With motorcycle and ATV racing firmly under their belt, Phoenix-based Rainbow studios needed something new. They found it just a few short miles from their offices. Every year at Lake Havasu, the personal watercraft world championship takes place. This served as the perfect foundation for Rainbow's next game. Building on the success of the Motocross Madness games on the PC and ATV Offroad Fury for the PS2, the developers have now turned to the waves and wakes of personal watercraft. Splashdown, the company's next PS2 game, promises to continue the near-perfect blend of easy-to-pull tricks, a solid graphics engine and wide open venues to show both of them off in.
It's been years since anyone has successfully pulled off a good console water-based racer - at least one that uses personal watercraft. Wave Race, Nintendo's jaw-droppingly pretty (and, oddly enough, fun) racer pulled it off with aplomb, but again that was years ago. So while the verdict is still out on what the next-generation version of that franchise will be, gamers eager to do some digital wake jumping have had to wait. And wait. And wait. Luckily, they won't have to wait much longer. Splashdown will hit the PS2 this fall thanks to Infogrames, and when it does, it promises to deliver some pretty and precise aquatic competition.
Rainbow has developed what they call "hydrodynamic physics." It's a big word that basically means accurately rendered water effects like turbulence, rolling waves and the almighty wake in real-time. Anyone who's had the opportunity to go screaming across the water and hit a perfectly formed wake to get some serious air will already be salivating at the prospect of doing it in a 128-bit world. Infrogrames and Rainbow Studios even managed to snag the SEA-DOO license from Bombardier, and they're already hard at work tuning the physics to strike a balance between being true-to-life, and a blast to play. If you've played either of Rainbow's racing franchises, you know how good they are at making the games fun, while still adhering to those pesky laws of physics.
In all, 18 courses will take you all over the world. Spots like Hawaii and the Great Barrier Reef will test you open seas skills, while the aforementioned Lake Havasu and Nice, France will let you see the sights while you race towards the finish line. The most exciting course announced, however, just might be Venice, Italy. The idea of screaming through the claustrophobic canals while darting around gondolas already has our hearts pounding. It looks like Rainbow has made a conscious effort to keep each one of the venues from looking like the other. One look at the screenshots, and you can see, even at the halfway point, that the game looks good - and varied.
Rainbow Studios' record speaks for itself. If you've played any of their previous efforts, you know how fast, fun and gorgeous they can be, and while it's important to remember that this is new ground for the developers, all you have to do is look at the screenshots to realize that this could end up being yet another hit.
It's been years since anyone has successfully pulled off a good console water-based racer - at least one that uses personal watercraft. Wave Race, Nintendo's jaw-droppingly pretty (and, oddly enough, fun) racer pulled it off with aplomb, but again that was years ago. So while the verdict is still out on what the next-generation version of that franchise will be, gamers eager to do some digital wake jumping have had to wait. And wait. And wait. Luckily, they won't have to wait much longer. Splashdown will hit the PS2 this fall thanks to Infogrames, and when it does, it promises to deliver some pretty and precise aquatic competition.
Rainbow has developed what they call "hydrodynamic physics." It's a big word that basically means accurately rendered water effects like turbulence, rolling waves and the almighty wake in real-time. Anyone who's had the opportunity to go screaming across the water and hit a perfectly formed wake to get some serious air will already be salivating at the prospect of doing it in a 128-bit world. Infrogrames and Rainbow Studios even managed to snag the SEA-DOO license from Bombardier, and they're already hard at work tuning the physics to strike a balance between being true-to-life, and a blast to play. If you've played either of Rainbow's racing franchises, you know how good they are at making the games fun, while still adhering to those pesky laws of physics.
In all, 18 courses will take you all over the world. Spots like Hawaii and the Great Barrier Reef will test you open seas skills, while the aforementioned Lake Havasu and Nice, France will let you see the sights while you race towards the finish line. The most exciting course announced, however, just might be Venice, Italy. The idea of screaming through the claustrophobic canals while darting around gondolas already has our hearts pounding. It looks like Rainbow has made a conscious effort to keep each one of the venues from looking like the other. One look at the screenshots, and you can see, even at the halfway point, that the game looks good - and varied.
Rainbow Studios' record speaks for itself. If you've played any of their previous efforts, you know how fast, fun and gorgeous they can be, and while it's important to remember that this is new ground for the developers, all you have to do is look at the screenshots to realize that this could end up being yet another hit.
