Not knowing what to expect, I slid in the Splashdown disc hoping for at least a decent looking racer. After the game loaded, my roommate passed out and I wet my pants on the spot. The game looks that good. After waking up (and in my case cleaning up) we stammered a few kindergarten words like did, I'd, cat what, you - it's before managing to say 'game look good!' I think it was the water that made us recede to a toddler-level vocabulary. I'm getting emotional just trying to describe it right now. Try to remember the last time you were at a large body of water like a lake or a river. Now take the sparkling, the random waving motion, the splashing and the reflections and imagine them looking exactly the same in a videogame. I thought Metal Gear Solid 2 and Ico had incredible water effects but Splashdown is somehow able to blow them away. It would be easy to look at the water effects and say that Splashdown is a terrific looking game but when the rest of the game is considered, the game looks, well... fantastic! I'm glad that all the work didn't go into having the best looking water effects, but into having the best looking game. You have to consider that the actual price of the game could be considerably higher than the retail cost after you have to go to the doctor to have your jaw re-attached when it falls on the floor, though. So after you go to the doctor, (take the Game Boy Advance to help you through the surgery) go back home and try to look a little deeper. Notice the way that the characters are exquisitely animated and the fact that there aren't any jaggies and how the textures look great? Good, you have eyes - those were obvious, I'm talking a little deeper. Good! You got it. The sun flare, the misting of the water off the back of your officially licensed Ski Doo, all of the little elements are there. It's like my mom used to always say: 'Splashdown puts the graphical smack down on all the other foo's - Woomp!' I always dismissed it as some mindless drabble, but now that the game Splashdown is out, she actually makes sense.
Know what a Ski Doo sounds like? Well it's the opposite of a Ski Don't. Just kidding! If you want to know, you gotta be down with the Splashdown. The game features the true to life sound effects that you as a hardcore gamer would demand. Much like with Gran Turismo I found myself making high pitched vroom - schick - shuck (shifting) - vroom sounds. The water sound effects are also great and aren't overpowering when compared to the engine sounds and the soundtrack. And the soundtrack, oh the soundtrack! Usually not a fan of the 'punk' genre, I was turned off at first but after a couple races I yearned to be the girl at the rock show. Even if you don't like punk music you will most likely appreciate Splashdown's soundtrack. If you do like punk, the game will only be the cost of a Hurley T - shirt, so go out and get it! Each character is voiced with a small degrees of success. The voices are simple, boring and regular in every way. They don't subtract from the game, but I bet they could have saved 12 bucks in production costs by not hiring the mediocre actors that they did.
