Wave Crasher Review
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Wave Crasher Review

Our Review by Rob Rich on February 17th, 2012
Rating: starstarstarstarblankstar :: HANG ELEVEN
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Ride the waves (sound and otherwise) in an unexpectedly entertaining fashion.

Developer: Magmic
Price: $0.99
Version: 1.0.1
App Reviewed on: iPhone 3GS
Graphics / Sound Rating: starstarstarhalfstarblankstar
User Interface Rating: starstarstarstarblankstar
Gameplay Rating: starstarstarstarblankstar
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: starstarstarstarhalfstar

Overall Rating: starstarstarstarblankstar

I knew precious little about Wave Crasher when I first jumped into it. I knew it allowed the importing of personal music and involved "riding waves" of a sort, but that's about all I was going on. Then I played it and discovered that I was pretty much on-the-money. What I wasn't expecting was to have so much fun with it.

The overall point in Wave Crasher is to adjust the waves in a way that allows the jet skier to net as many coins and multipliers as possible and net a high score. Sliding a finger up and down the screen will adjust the height of the waves, and depending on the angle they can launch the little daredevil past out of view or skip him along in a more straight path. What's more interesting is that levels are structured in a manner that's entirely dependent on the music. The waves themselves vary in size and frequency from song to song, and anyone with a robust personal library probably won't run out of content any time soon.

Wave Crasher will give back as much as players put into it. Anyone with a large music collection on their iOS device won't run out of content anytime soon. Which is awesome, because getting into the rhythm of bouncing from wave to wave just right and netting tons of points can become almost zen-like. It's even more hypnotic when factoring in the personalized music. Which, I would hope, is made up of lots of favorites.

The problem with Wave Crasher is that it will only give back as much as players put into it. Yes, I know I'm repeating myself. This is because there's only one track immediately available. At least at the moment. Importing music is a cinch and I totally encourage it, but anyone who doesn't use their device for such a purpose (we do exist) will no doubt feel disappointed. Another problem I've noticed is that there's practically zero challenge to it. There's no way to fail a level, it just keeps going until the song is over. I know the idea is to go for the high score, but there's absolutely no consequence for failure. Because there is no failure, technically.

Still, my gripes are mostly nit-picks. Besides, anyone downloading a game that's specifically built around importing music only has themselves to blame if they don't have many songs to choose from. Wave Crasher isn't all that tough, but it's certainly entertaining.

iPhone Screenshots

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iPad Screenshots

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