With Tony Hawk receiving so much love from the fans, Activision decided to expand their lineup with several Hawk spin-offs, including BMX, snowboarding, and early next year, dirt-biking.  They also released a Tony Hawk-style game based on the sport of wakeboarding.  Prior to its release I didn't even know the sport existed.  I had seen clips of it on TV but thought it was surfing with a boat and a rope.  Despite my lack of knowledge of the sport, Wakeboarding Unleashed Featuring Shaun Murray ended up being one of my favorite titles released this year.

Naturally I was excited to hear that Activision would be releasing Wakeboarding Unleashed on the Game Boy Advance.  If they found a way to port Tony Hawk, there's got to be a way to port this game as well.  Right?

Wakeboarding Unleashed starts off like every extreme sports game.  The title screen leads you to a menu with six options (five of them relating to the gameplay aspects, the other for changing things like the brightness of the colors).  Career, Tutorial, Multiplayer, and Single Session will not get the attention of most gamers.  They may be great modes, but everyone knows what to expect from them.  On other hand, you'll probably pause for a second when you scroll to the fifth game mode – Balloon Burst.  You can probably figure out what the goal is just by the title, but it's definitely not a common mode for any game.  Balloons are placed high and low, and it's your job to grind and jump the best you can to pop them all.  The more balloons you pop, the better chances you'll have of winning.

When you decide to attack the career mode, you'll be faced with six courses to conquer.  Each course includes either an objective list (grind a specific target, beat the high score, collect the letters to spell WAKE, etc.) or one goal that must be completed in order to move on the next course.  The single goal has to do with the competitions where points matter most.  There's a medal to be won, and if you don't have the skills to nab it, you won't be taking it home.

The GBA version of Wakeboarding Unleashed is scaled down to the point where it's barely recognizable, so you won't have any trouble combo-ing your way through this one.  You can hold a button or two and press the directional bad to execute the few tricks this game has to offer.  Should you accidentally hit the wrong button or try to perform too many tricks before landing, the game will show a silly animation of the wakeboarder hitting the water.  The water is hit, but barely penetrated.  Apparently it's some kind of solid substance in this game, as opposed to the liquid form we know in reality.

Something that you'll realize a mere ten seconds after starting the game is that Wakeboarding Unleashed is far too technologically advanced for the Game Boy Advance.  Game Boy Advance's core power is not that far beyond the Super NES.

This makes the game feel flat.  You're moving forward, which I suppose is intended to emulate the third dimension.  After all, that's how the sport works, and that's what the PlayStation 2 version was like.  But all that you see – water, ramps and rails – is dull.  You can use the ramps to lift yourself high into the air, and you can grind the rails to gain extra points and reach items that are too high to grab otherwise.  But the game is not engrossing in the least bit.  It doesn't immerse you in its watery world, it keeps you at a distance.  It's almost like staring at a poor copy of a famous painting; no matter what, it just doesn't look right.  In this case, the game doesn't play right.

Gameplay: 5
Wakeboarding Unleashed has only one problem: it isn't much fun.  Its small variety of game modes, its scaled-down trick system, and its hard-to-look-at visuals would have been acceptable if the game were at least entertaining.  Somehow or other they missed the boat with this one, which is ironic, considering what sport this is.

Graphics: 4
This game just barely provides a visual.  Really – there isn't much to Wakeboarding Unleashed.  Flat water, ramps and rails.  Occasionally you might see a piece of land or an arrow telling you where to go next.  Big whoop.

Sound: 7
What's another word for repetition?  Find it, insert it here, and you've got the sound of Wakeboarding Unleashed.

Difficulty: Medium
The game is practically in the second dimension, so judging the distance between you and a rail is not easy.

Concept: 4
There's nothing new here, and shock upon shock, there's nothing familiar here either.  Familiarity would have improved this title by giving it some of the great gameplay mechanics found in the PS2 version.

Multiplayer: 5

Overall: 5.9
Wakeboarding Unleashed is better than most ports, but the Game Boy Advance is not equipped to handle a game of this stature.  The developers had very little to work with, forcing them to bring the game down to a level that's often too weak to enjoy.