It's easy to dismiss Aqua Moto Racing Utopia as generic based on the bad first impressions the controls can give, especially because we all expect it to control just like Wave Race 64. 

But that would be a mistake; even if it doesn't control as well as Wave Race 64, if you give it a chance and learn how to make sharper turns, you'll find a worthy spiritual sequel with great visuals and lots of content to keep you busy for quite a while.
 
 
 
If you landed on this game's Steam page, chances are you've been looking since 1996 for something that controls, even remotely, as good as Wave Race 64. This one comes close, but close may not be enough for some, so let's dive deeper (pun intended).
 
The game has a lot of watercrafts, divided into runabouts and skis divisions. You'll race in 6 championships for each division and buy new crafts with money you acquire by winning races. These championships are short, consisting of up to 5 or 6 races, and require you to place in the top 3 to unlock the next one.
 
All races require you to navigate through buoys on the correct side, slalom style, and just like wave race, if you miss too many, you'll be disqualified. There's a boost meter that fills slowly over time and can be filled faster by performing stunts.
 
There's also a stunt mode with 3 championships, and after all that, it unlocks an extra challenge mode, which consists of a harder championship. 

The tracks all look great and have a good variety of locations and weather, from calm and clear waters in a beautiful sunny beach to stormy, dangerous waters with huge waves near oil rigs. 

Then there's the single events, which consist of 10 freestyle events and a free mode, where you can explore all the game's areas and look for hidden Wilson Balls straight from the Cast Away movie. This mode is better than it sounds, since exploring the huge locations can be quite fun.
 
And then there's the time trial event. If you happen to like time trials, this will be the best part of the game for you. There are 50 tracks to master and get gold medals. This was by far the part of the game that I enjoyed the most; you really need to perfect your lap, and it feels really satisfying when you find the perfect route or shortcut to improve your time and get the gold medals. But be warned, if you care about having 100% achievements in your games, this one will give you some sweat; the achievement for getting gold in all 50 time trials is extremely hard; some tracks have insane time requirements, so much so that I thought the game was broken at first, but after dozens of tries, they are doable, just very, very difficult.
 
 

Ok, lots of fun events, beautiful and interesting places to race, time trials to master, but that's all worthless if the game doesn't control very well, and how does it compare to Wave Race? 

Good news is, for the most part, it controls great; at first you'll feel something is off and probably get angry at the game while trying to make sharper turns, but here are some PRO TIPS: 

• Release the throttle slightly before a sharp turn; in Wave Race, you could make even sharper turns without slowing down, but that won't work here. 
  
• This is very important: hold RT when making sharper turns. This seems useless at first, but you need to get used to this, and the game will be much more enjoyable. 

 
 

In Wave Race you could maneuver while airborne a little bit to correct your direction and angle; it's amazing how this little detail makes that game so much better than all the games that came after and didn't quite manage to get this right. 

In Aqua Moto Racing Utopia, you can only ROTATE your craft in the horizontal axis while airborne, but your craft will keep going in a straight line following the direction it was facing when a wave/ramp launched it airborne. You need to adjust for this and slow down right before the peak of big waves on harder tracks like oil rigs; otherwise, you'll be projected in a straight line so far off the track that it might be impossible to catch up to other racers... or the clock.


Weekly challenges and leaderboards are offline. Online PvP seems to be working; however, there's never anyone playing. It's a shame, because it would be a lot of fun if this game had more players.