TGS 06: Wild Water Adrenaline Featuring Salomon Hands-On

TOKYO--Wild Water Adrenaline Featuring Salomon (the name refers to an endorsement by a sporting goods manufacturer) isn't being pushed much by Sega here at TGS, with a meager two-minute demo on a sole PlayStation 2 being available in a neglected corner of its booth. Its niche appeal is probably to blame for that, although from what we've played, it seems like it'll be a fun and perhaps challenging adventure into the wild rapids of water sports.

From what we can tell of the game from the pictures near the demo station, it'll feature both kayaking and rafting exercises. The rafting sections of the game feature larger rafts with four passengers, but we're not sure how that will work with one controller, since solo kayaking was the only option available in the demo.

The kayaking is fairly fun, with some controls that are difficult to pick up at first. As you dash down the rapids, you have to dip your paddle into the water on either side of the kayak to control your movement and speed yourself up. To push yourself forward on the left side of the boat, you rotate the left analog stick counterclockwise, while pushing yourself forward on the right requires you to rotate the right stick clockwise. Since you're rotating them in different directions, it can be easy to mess yourself up and rotate one or both in the wrong direction, but after a minute or so of practice, the controls become a bit more natural.

Complications arise when you do mess up, since rotating the sticks in the wrong direction will cause you to paddle yourself backward. A further wrench in the gears is the fact that you quite often have to paddle on only one side of the kayak to navigate around an obstacle, and going from rotating one stick to the other to both is kind of like patting yourself on the head while rubbing your stomach--fairly difficult until you get the hang of it.

That said, by the end of our run we were indeed getting into the flow of things, no pun intended. Although the game doesn't have a huge showing at TGS, it still shows some promise based on the short demo we played. Stay tuned to GameSpot for more information on Wild Water Adrenaline as it becomes available.