It’s a commonly known fact among most gamers – Games based on movie licenses almost always suck. In general, the pressure to release something ANYTHING by the time the movie hits the street is so great, you end up with a shovelware title.
With all these thoughts in mind I opened up my review copy of “Surf’s Up” with some trepidation, prepared literally for the worst.
I have to say, Ubisoft surprised me. It’s very apparent when you first play the game that the developers were determined, come hell or high waters this game was going to be a blast.

Surf’s Up is based on the upcoming animated picture by Sony Pictures, due to hit the theatres June 8th. The movie features penguins and other cute little animals that are about to take part in a big surfing competition. The game itself doesn’t bother with much of a story, instead choosing to focus on specific locations from the movie, where the gamer gets to take part in surfing competitions. The core of the game is a single player “Championship” mode, and there is also offline, split-screen Multiplayer as well.

Gameplay:

There are a total of 5 different levels, each of which has between one – four races. You start off in Shiverpeak (Cody the Penguin’s home) and work your way to the grand finale race in the Boneyard. The gameplay mechanics work fairly simply … there is a big wave on the side of the screen, which you can crest to gain speed, and jump off of to do tricks. You can perform tricks such as grinding, flips, holding your board in the air … in many ways the game feels a bit like a simpler Tony Hawk’s game but with surfing instead of skating. The more tricks you perform the more your energy bar at the bottom fills up. You can use your energy for bursts of speed, or if you let it fill up you can perform “super tricks” by pressing Y. Each event lasts about 5 minutes, and you have to score a set amount of points in order to continue on to the next race. You can also supercharge your score by picking up scattered 2X, 3X, and 5X point multipliers, which adds a bit of a strategic element to the game. Often I found myself holding off on using my Super Tricks until I could grab a point multiplier.

The trick system while fairly simplistic is a lot of fun, and since the game is essentially “on rails” half the fun of the title is finding out what’s cool things are coming up next for you to grind and perform tricks on.
In terms of difficulty the game starts off with gentle swells, but by the end you are cresting insanely huge monster waves.
There are a couple other game modes including offline multiplayer (two races) and a leaf slide mode consisting of 3 fairly simple races.

Graphics:

I’m not really a graphics whore, but I felt the game looked really nice. The water effects were beautiful, and included an effect of water “splattering” on the camera. The frame-rate holds solid; there aren’t any horrible “glitching” issues or anything like that. All in all I felt the title really captured the “feel” of what a surfing game should feel like. The character models are adequate as well and animations are well done for the most part.

Sound:

The game’s soundtrack I really enjoyed. While it consists of rock songs from bands like Simple Plan and Homegrown, I found that the “feel” of this music fits in really well with the whole “surfer dude” outlook of the title. The nice thing though about the 360 version is that if you don’t like the music you can always use your own custom sound tracks.

Longevity:

Here we have what is probably the single greatest downfall of the title. Speaking for myself I was able to finish the game in less than 2 hours. I spent an extra hour doing un-lockables to grab some of the better achievements. Each race has 2 secondary objectives, one of which is to go through as set amount of gates, the other which is to score an even higher score than what is necessary to complete the race. These secondary objectives unlock things like extra characters, extra surf boards, and different surf board patterns. Some of these secondary objectives are somewhat challenging, but nothing that won’t take you more than a few tries to do. There are also “troll” statues scattered throughout the game’s races, statues which unlock the special “legendary wave” stage and a special “leaf slide” stage which is similar to the slide mini game in Super Mario 64.

In the end for most adults the game is going to be a cakewalk. An extremely fun cakewalk, but a cakewalk all the same. If you are looking at the game for yourself, be warned that you’ll be able to finish it in an evening. Definitely Surf’s Up is a game to rent or buy when it hits budget prices. If however you have kids that are going to go see the movie, this game is a perfect buy for the little tykes. Not only is it likely to keep them enthralled for hours, it’s a game that you’ll get some value and entertainment out of as well.

Overall:

Surf’s Up could have been another crappy shovelware title based on yet another animated movie license. Instead it turned out to be one hell of a fun ride, albeit an extremely short one. If you are looking for a family friendly title, which has some entertainment value for the adults of the house, I can whole heartedly endorse picking up Surf’s Up. If on the other hand you are looking for a game that will keep you engrossed for days on end … this probably isn’t the game for you.

In the meantime, I’m grabbing my board. Surf’s Up!