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IGN Review of Surf's Up
Before we begin, I'd like to personally apologize for Surf's Up the movie and the marketing blitz that includes this videogame. That's not to say the movie's bad -- I haven't seen it -- but I feel like its creation is my fault. I saw March of the Penguins in theaters and helped kick off this obsession with flightless birds. I also watched Even Stevens and helped give birth to Shia LaBeouf's movie career.
Sorry, everybody. My bad.
In case you haven't been surfing Mr. LaBeouf's personal website, Surf's Up is the new animated movie from Sony Pictures following Cody Maverick. An Antarctic nobody, Cody's determined to become a somebody in the world of surfing animals and sees his chance to shine with the Tenth Annual Big Z Memorial Surf-Off. Roll the title screen!
Of course a summer movie means the obligatory tie-in videogame, and Surf's Up released a tidal wave of content on every platform under the sun this week. The game could have gone in one of two movie tie-in directions -- either players guide LaBeouf's character through tedious tasks that don't happen in the movie or players surf.
Ubisoft chose the surfing route, and the result is a delightful, frustrating and shocking product for your system of choice.
Unlike lots of movie tie-ins this year (yeah, Spider-Man and Pirates, I'm looking at you.) Surf's Up stays true to its source material. The menus are stylized to match the movie's feel, the actors lend their voices, the in-game action looks good and the gameplay can be fun. Your goal on the waves is to rack up the highest score possible by grinding on rails, passing through glowing gates and pulling off air-grabbing tricks while jumping off a massive tidal wave that's always on the side of the screen.
When you're first getting the hang of hanging ten, Surf's Up brings out the kid in all of us with bright colors and collectables, but there's a shark in the water -- you can beat Surf's Up in about three hours.
Championship, the main game mode, has you choose a character and board and take the duo through five different levels that each pack between one and four races. In the end, that adds up to 13 tracks to cut loose in, but they all feel the same. In each race, you'll have a list of three objectives that include scoring a certain number of points, passing through a certain number of glowing gates and collecting a certain number of surf idols. Succeed, and the game records your progress and more of the 13 levels become available.
Here's where it gets weird. Although the 360 controller is equipped with buttons to perform cheers, basic tricks and hold tricks, to rake in the points, you just need to repeatedly tap the circle button while jumping off the wave on your side. That means for three hours you're pulling the joystick to the left or right, pressing A and furiously tapping B. However, it's not as boring as it sounds. As I played through Surf's Up today, I had fun maneuvering to new grind locales while trying to pull off point-grabbing moves such as Chicken Joe's "Wiggle-Wiggle." It was simple and repetitive, but there were spots of enjoyment in there.
If you get sick of the same old races, you're welcome to try multiplayer and Leaf Slide, but you're about to be disappointed all over again. Multiplayer is offline split-screen -- which is fine -- but it only features two tracks to duke it out in. Leaf Slide is a simplistic mini-game that puts Cody on a leaf and slides him down a dirt track. You make sure he avoids the obstacles and reaches the goal before the time limit. That's it.
There's leaderboards, you can change your board design and add accessories to your favorite character, but the best silver lining in the game is for kids who get this game from an out-of-touch parent. You, my friend, now have leverage in any monetary argument your folks might throw at you.
SCENE: Six Months From Now …
MOM: Now, junior, I don't think sending you out to see that new slasher movie with your friends is worth $10.
JUNIOR: Mom, I respect your opinion, but I disagree. You bought me Surf's Up, a three-hour game for $50. Thus, you've already established that an hour of my time is worth $16.66. This slasher movie is two hours long, which puts the hourly cost at $5. That's nearly 75 percent less than what you paid for an hour of Surf's Up.
MOM: You're brilliant! Thank God for math classes!
JUNIOR: Thank God for IGN.
JUNIOR winks at the camera. Fade out.
©2007, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
Sorry, everybody. My bad.
In case you haven't been surfing Mr. LaBeouf's personal website, Surf's Up is the new animated movie from Sony Pictures following Cody Maverick. An Antarctic nobody, Cody's determined to become a somebody in the world of surfing animals and sees his chance to shine with the Tenth Annual Big Z Memorial Surf-Off. Roll the title screen!
Of course a summer movie means the obligatory tie-in videogame, and Surf's Up released a tidal wave of content on every platform under the sun this week. The game could have gone in one of two movie tie-in directions -- either players guide LaBeouf's character through tedious tasks that don't happen in the movie or players surf.
Ubisoft chose the surfing route, and the result is a delightful, frustrating and shocking product for your system of choice.
Unlike lots of movie tie-ins this year (yeah, Spider-Man and Pirates, I'm looking at you.) Surf's Up stays true to its source material. The menus are stylized to match the movie's feel, the actors lend their voices, the in-game action looks good and the gameplay can be fun. Your goal on the waves is to rack up the highest score possible by grinding on rails, passing through glowing gates and pulling off air-grabbing tricks while jumping off a massive tidal wave that's always on the side of the screen.
When you're first getting the hang of hanging ten, Surf's Up brings out the kid in all of us with bright colors and collectables, but there's a shark in the water -- you can beat Surf's Up in about three hours.
Championship, the main game mode, has you choose a character and board and take the duo through five different levels that each pack between one and four races. In the end, that adds up to 13 tracks to cut loose in, but they all feel the same. In each race, you'll have a list of three objectives that include scoring a certain number of points, passing through a certain number of glowing gates and collecting a certain number of surf idols. Succeed, and the game records your progress and more of the 13 levels become available.
Here's where it gets weird. Although the 360 controller is equipped with buttons to perform cheers, basic tricks and hold tricks, to rake in the points, you just need to repeatedly tap the circle button while jumping off the wave on your side. That means for three hours you're pulling the joystick to the left or right, pressing A and furiously tapping B. However, it's not as boring as it sounds. As I played through Surf's Up today, I had fun maneuvering to new grind locales while trying to pull off point-grabbing moves such as Chicken Joe's "Wiggle-Wiggle." It was simple and repetitive, but there were spots of enjoyment in there.
If you get sick of the same old races, you're welcome to try multiplayer and Leaf Slide, but you're about to be disappointed all over again. Multiplayer is offline split-screen -- which is fine -- but it only features two tracks to duke it out in. Leaf Slide is a simplistic mini-game that puts Cody on a leaf and slides him down a dirt track. You make sure he avoids the obstacles and reaches the goal before the time limit. That's it.
There's leaderboards, you can change your board design and add accessories to your favorite character, but the best silver lining in the game is for kids who get this game from an out-of-touch parent. You, my friend, now have leverage in any monetary argument your folks might throw at you.
SCENE: Six Months From Now …
MOM: Now, junior, I don't think sending you out to see that new slasher movie with your friends is worth $10.
JUNIOR: Mom, I respect your opinion, but I disagree. You bought me Surf's Up, a three-hour game for $50. Thus, you've already established that an hour of my time is worth $16.66. This slasher movie is two hours long, which puts the hourly cost at $5. That's nearly 75 percent less than what you paid for an hour of Surf's Up.
MOM: You're brilliant! Thank God for math classes!
JUNIOR: Thank God for IGN.
JUNIOR winks at the camera. Fade out.
©2007, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved