There aren't many water based racing games at all on the Xbox, and the release of Carve only brings up the number to two. A bit surprising really as Wave Race 64 is considered a classic game (and an all time favourite of mine) and it's a mystery, with the high number of games from other racing genres, and the high popularity of the sport that developers and publishers haven't really seen to be interested in backing more games like this.

While the 27 tracks in Carve may contain plenty of depth (urgh, bad pun alert), the gameplay doesn't and because of this Carve is a surprisingly easy game to pick up and start playing well right from the start. The racing action is purely arcade styled with the aim being to naturally finish the races as highly ranked as possible (preferably first) and earn as many trick points as you can. The reward for trying to get your trick point score as high as possible is extra unlockable bonuses and performing tricks gives you turbo boosts that, when used strategically can mean the difference between a top 4 place or coming last. Your ‘Rush' (turbo) meter also fills up when tricks are completed successfully and when full, hitting the ‘L' trigger sends your rider into ‘Rush' mode, a temporary flat out speed boost with some pretty cool graphical effects. The tricks are pretty easy to pull off and if you forget the combos it's just a case of pausing the game and looking them up. Tricks can be completed in the air off the numerous ramps found throughout the tracks and there are also a number of tricks you can do while riding such as spins and handstands.

Carve contains 8 fairly forgettable characters split into 4 teams, each with their own pros and cons. Some are faster but poorer at tricks and bumping while others are slower but better at tricks and so on. Generally I found it better to pick the faster riders as it can be fairly easy to fall behind and you need all the help you can get sometimes when you need to finish a minimum of fourth place. The handling feels pretty good with responsive controls but quite often in the first few laps of most races I found it a bit tricky to work out where I had to go due to the water splash effect on your screen. There are cues from the buoys that you have to navigate during the race as to which way you need to turn, but the splash effect can make it tricky to see further ahead. Your watercraft don't have a real generous turning circle at high speeds though so planning which angle to take through the corners is crucial and sometimes hampered because of this.

The buoys that you have to navigate around are coloured red and yellow and must be navigated around in the instructed direction. You can cut corners but you are penalised time and if you miss 5 buoys you are disqualified straight away. This wasn't a major concern as choosing the speedier characters meant that always seemed to have plenty of time up my sleeve and deliberately missing the occasional buoy can give you some good short cuts. With the varied, large number of tracks and seven other riders on the course at once there is loads of action in Carve and with plenty happening on screen the framerate stays nice and high.

The tracks themselves all look pretty good and feature a wide range of locations such as city canals and bayou's through to arctic tracks but the lighting is pretty basic. The water, which would be the make or break feature of any water based racer, looks fine and interacts well with the objects floating around in it but your own watercraft seems to be simply gliding over the top of it the whole time. The water spray is handled by some nice texturing but could have used the power of the Xbox a whole lot more. As you pass through the water, you leave a textured wake behind you but you never seem to affect the water itself or leave ripples or create your own waves while racing or when you crash. It would have been nice to see a stunt park for practicing your tricks or even a level editor but there's plenty of tracks and I guess I'm just being a touch fussy.

The sound effects in the game are fine with adequate engine and ambient sounds and the water noises all sound good as well. The voice in the game from your teammate is pretty ordinary and offers absolutely no advice to you at all during the races. Sure the team aspect of the racing is never really tackled as you can't give them orders or anything but the voice acting is terrible and could have been handled heaps better. It would have been great to know what position your team mate is in and issue orders to them to try and slow the people behind them down to let you try and catch up or have them target a specific other racer.

The multiplayer side of Carve supports up to 4 players in split screen mode but also full Xbox Live support featuring arcade and team based racing for up to 8 players. The team based racing can get a touch frustrating as missing buoys affects both of you but it's definitely fun and something different and in a budget title gives you almost no reason to not consider picking it up.