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PlayStation Basement #53 - Wild Boater

This review was originally published on the Console Purist Facebook group on August 31st, 2019.

Hello, and welcome to PlayStation Basement! PlayStation Basement is a weekly review of an odd or obscure game for the original PlayStation. Games are rated Good, Bad, or Neutral. Now, let’s go!


Summer is ending, and I had a bad day today (mostly all my own fault). Tonight let’s relax with the waves for one last time this year in the exciting, but still meditative, sport of kayaking with Wild Boater. Wild Boater was developed and published by Tao Human Systems in Japan on November 2nd, 1999. The game was planned to have a European release from Midas Interactive, but it was canceled. Maybe Midas realized that the waves would be too much for them. Let’s take a look at the river before we ourselves set to paddle out.


The cover art for Wild Boater is awesome! A swirl of water split into white and blue and the title is all there is. It’s a great simple design. The manual itself folds out like a poster showing the controls and characters. There are even some stickers. It’s just a great packaging job, and it seems that it’s safe to get started.



The graphics in the game are pretty cool. A short FMV opens the game in an exciting way - a guy  paddling through white water. Then we have three different courses, each with their own color scheme and scenery. Each one is unique but none are crazy out there. I like the simplicity of this choice. The four characters have different designs that make them stand out, though they may paddle a bit stiffly. I love the bright colors that the developers chose for this game. It really makes it nice to look at. Now let’s paddle further into the noisier areas of the water.



There isn’t much to say about the sound in Wild Boater. Mostly, you hear the river and your character paddling in it. Sometimes a character may yell or cheer, such as if they hit a wall or go off a waterfall; otherwise they are quiet. The only musick is in the opening FMV; it’s cheesy rock stuff, but it’s a cheesy FMV with a cheesy voiceover. Basically, the river is all you really hear in this game.


The actual gameplay is simple: it’s just about controlling a kayak. You control the boat by hitting the shoulder buttons. L1 moves the paddle to the left side, and R1 moves it to the right side. You can use the L2 and R2 buttons to turn in the corresponding direction. Knowing the speed to paddle at and the times to turn are the key elements to this game. You want to start with slower, fuller paddles and speed up as you go. You can’t paddle too fast, or you’ll just be spinning the stick in the air. Steering is lenient, but hitting a wall is still a bad thing. You can under and lose some time, and time is the main opponent in Wild Boater. You get around 30 to maybe 50 seconds to reach the next checkpoint in each race. If you run out of time, you must start the race over. If you make it to the checkpoint, the time fills up once again with a new amount of time. Unlike many games like this, Wild Boater does not add time when the player reaches a checkpoint; instead, you are given a new allotment of time to get to the next area. It is always the same amount of time, so it is key to master each area; doing better earlier won’t help you later.

That’s really all there is to it. There are three races and four characters. You can try to get the high score in each race. Wild Boater is a simple game, but it is unique and fun to play. I like it very much as a nice game to play for a short time.

Wild Boater receives a Good.


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Location: Pittsburgh, PA, USA

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