Wave Break Review: Pretending It’s A Superman

Wave Break is, truly, like their marketing would tell you, the world’s first skate-boating game. Whether or not that premise alone wins your mindshare, I’ll leave up to you. That being said, Wave Break is beyond aesthetically pleasing featuring an absolute banger of a soundtrack with promised support in that avenue. However, beyond the presentation is a punishingly hard skater with egregious load times and mere remnants of a story.

Presentation

Like I mentioned above, in terms of an aesthetic, Funktronic Labs absolutely nails it. Their 80’s synth wave Miami Vice vibes shine throughout. Wave Break features blood money mob boss themes, purposeful effects like lens flares or glitches reeking in 80’s ambiance, as well as smart graphical choices that allow their vision to shine.

The aesthetic couldn't be complimented more by the soundtrack. The team literally picks you up and plops you in their world in a matter of milliseconds. In a world that features animals driving boats while performing skate tricks, that really shouldn't be understated. They even got Weezer. I mean, tell me what you want. It doesn’t get much better than that. The Wave Break playlist quickly found itself in my Spotify playlist and this genre of music isn’t usually my jam.

Lastly, in terms of their presentation, I can wholeheartedly assure you that this is a passion project. Wave Break lacks zero heart. I cannot stress enough how much the presentation urges you to buy into their vision. They simply killed it.

Story (Spoiler-free)

In terms of a narrative, hoo-boy, I wouldn't say there is one. From what I can tell there are four playable characters being; a bear named Big Pin the Kingpin, a weasel named McHutchenson the Detective, a muscle clad alligator named Axel A. Axel, and a dirty hobo raccoon by the name of Hobo. Now, the game is marketed to have an episodic storyline, but I would say this sort of episodic model is merely a set of a few levels. There is dialogue between characters when you enter said levels, and when you are tasked by others to do certain things or blow something up, but I wouldn’t say they progress any through-line of a narrative.

I can say that crimes are committed. I cannot say that they are genuinely crimes in this world. In a world with mob bosses, murder, and blood money, the opposition that is law enforcement is pretty much non existent outside of McHutchenson being labeled as a detective.

Overall, if you quizzed me on my seven to ten hours of game time, I don’t think I would pass on any and all grounds. The promise of a storyline is simply not true. Not only did I not care about the characters presented here, I never even felt that the writing team tried to latch on to me, the player, in that way. I do wish to stress that the lack of a story isn’t a fault, but when a story is marketed as so it does feel like a big miss when it is nowhere to be found. 

Gameplay

First and foremost, this game is punishingly hard and not so beginner friendly. While the game controls well for the most part, there is no genuine tutorial outside of basic movements and jumps. In a game so purposefully difficult, the lack of a thorough tutorial is simply not okay. Due to this lack of teaching I found myself struggling so much that I ended most of my sessions in disdain rather than joy. On top of that, when your time has run out or you are booting up the game, the load times don’t pull any punches. I could totally see my struggles weighing less on me if I didn’t have to revel in them for full minutes at a time after I fail. 

As you play, you are awarded with cash by completing certain listed tricks or tasks. However, this cash seems to be inconsistently awarded. I would merely drive around looking for collectibles not doing tricks at all, and I would be rewarded with four hundred dollars in cash to spend accordingly. Contrarily, I would do a radical amount of tricks or find certain collectibles only to be rewarded a giant goose egg. The cash was simply all over the place in more ways than one. 

With the cash awarded appropriately or not, you can buy cosmetics for your player or boat as well as stat buffs. Now, if you struggled with this game as much as I did, I suggest spending your score on skill buffs. If not, pimp out your ride or your animal pilot of sorts. The choice is yours, but mine felt made for me. I never once bought anything cosmetic. I couldn’t afford to if I wanted to complete the campaign.

As disheartening as the cash issues I listed above and brutal difficulty are, I ran into a fair amount of instances where I would complete a task and not receive any cash. I would also experience some instances where my task was cut off in the middle of completing. I would be grinding on a rail per the task’s request, only to be told mid completion that I have failed. I would then repeat the exact same grind only to progress a little further each time or shoot the one offering me the task out of frustration.

On a more positive note, the homage in terms of gameplay to classic skaters wasn’t lost on me. Wave Break is simply a successful pallet swap, as cliche as it sounds, for fans of the genre. The game also offers five separate avenues of play. Freeplay, Time Attack, Park Creator, and, the most intriguing Deathmatch. Deathmatch was by far the most fun I had with the game outside of the soundtrack. While I struggled to obtain a respectable k/d ratio, I could tell this mode had promise for those more fortunate in maneuvering the parks.

Breakdown

Game: Wave Break

Developer: Funktronic Labs

Availability: Switch, Steam, Stadia

Reviewed on Switch

Pros:

+ Deathmatch

+ Aesthetically pleasing

+ Banger Soundtrack

+ Heart

Cons:

- Lack of meaningful tutorial

- Load times

- Gameplay inconsistencies

- Lack of promised story

Final Thoughts

While Wave Break isn’t a game for me, I can confidently say it is for some. Those familiar with skaters or accepting of an overbearing challenge can definitely find something to enjoy here. I simply just didn’t have a lot of fun personally. The aesthetic alone wasn’t enough for me. That being said, I cannot say Wave Break lacks heart. It feels like a passion project that simply needs a little more to welcome new faces to the genre. 

Reviewed by Austin Ernst