Surf World Series Review – Hang Ten With A New Kahuna

By Zac LaRocque-Walker
8 years Ago

There was a time when extreme sports games were all the rage&period; It seemed that every developer was in on the genre in some way, having some variety of skateboarding, BMX, or surfing games&period; Tony Hawk of course was the king of the castle, but Activision put out a few other extreme sports games, including Kelly Slater&&num;8217&semi;s Pro Surfer&period; It was a pretty simple, but fun, arcade surfing game&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s been years since it came out, but playing <a href="http&colon;//www&period;surfworldseries&period;com">Surf World Series</a> has reminded me of the fun I had with Kelly Slater&&num;8217&semi;s Pro Surfer all those years ago&period;&NewLine;<amp-youtube layout="responsive" width="500" height="281" data-videoid="Bbj8cgw3jUA" title="Surf World Series - Announcement Trailer | PS4"><a placeholder href="https&colon;//www&period;youtube&period;com/watch&quest;v=Bbj8cgw3jUA"><img src="https&colon;//i&period;ytimg&period;com/vi/Bbj8cgw3jUA/hqdefault&period;jpg" layout="fill" object-fit="cover" alt="Surf World Series - Announcement Trailer | PS4"></a></amp-youtube>&NewLine;Surf World Series is basically an arcade surfing game with an emphasis on a pick up and play setup, but it has a trick system that allows for lengthy combos and high scores&period; When you start up the game, you head out on a lengthy tutorial, that caused a little tedious by the end, but it does teach you all that you need to know to play the game well&period; As your little surfer sits out, you wait for the right wave to come, and then start paddling in to eventually start your run&period;&NewLine;The controls when you are playing are fairly tight for the most part but they take a bit of getting used to&period; As you carve and swerve along the surface of the wave, gathering momentum, you can do a number of tricks&period; The meat of it will of course be your spins and grabs&period; There are grabs you can easily pull off as you launch in the air, and you can rotate as you take off, but it&&num;8217&semi;s best to preload your rotation&period; Additionally, the flashier tricks can only be done as you build up your trick meter, and then you enter in a three button command before you take off into the air&period; This can lead to some very impressive moves, but you do need to be aware of your speed and how you are taking off and landing&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s very easy to botch a landing if you don&&num;8217&semi;t have enough air, but thankfully you are penalized mere seconds if it happens&period; There is a decent variety to the tricks, and it&&num;8217&semi;s easy to build up combos and get a good chain going&period;&NewLine;<figure id="attachment&lowbar;129572" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-129572" style="width&colon; 1000px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img class="size-large wp-image-129572" src="https&colon;//cdn&period;bagogames&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/11184354/4-1024x576&period;jpg" alt="" width="1000" height="563" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-129572" class="wp-caption-text">Surf World Series, Climax Studios/Vision Games Publishing</figcaption></figure>&NewLine;The character models look decent enough, and there&&num;8217&semi;s a bit of a variety in the game&period; However, I feel that Surf World Series could have handled it a bit better&period; It would have been nicer to see more than a half dozen characters, or at the very least a character editor, to let you create yourself in the game&period; Hopefully in the sequel, they will add a character creator or at least an editor for the available surfers&period; Despite not having this feature, the game does feature a fairly hearty unlockable selection, to keep you playing&period; Much like a game like Titanfall 2, you play and unlock new patterns for your shirts, shorts and boards, allowing for some customization&period; While many will be playing to beat high scores and earn spots on leaderboards, it&&num;8217&semi;s nice that along the way you can unlock some pretty cool customization options, so there&&num;8217&semi;s that at least&period;&NewLine;As far as how Surf World Series looks, well its five locations are fantastic to see&period; You&&num;8217&semi;ll be surfing in America, Brazil, South Africa, Portugal and Australia, and each beach is noticeably different both visually and in how the waves come in&period; The water looks fantastic, with some pretty decent effects in play, and there are a number of periods in the day that your runs will take place in&period; The soundtrack as well is pretty spot on, with some great indie and surf type tracks that really fit the tone of the game, and the music supervisor deserves a raise for the selections picked for Surf World Series&period;&NewLine;So, all of this sounds pretty good, correct&quest; What could go wrong&quest; While I did enjoy my time playing the game, it just felt a little lacking&period; Even with some variety in what happens in one of the five beaches you surf at, it really did start to feel a bit repetitious&period; It was potentially that combined with the limited game modes&period; There&&num;8217&semi;s a single player mode with about forty-five challenges to take on, and usually each challenge will be one of a few different varieties&colon; things like make it to the end of the wave without wiping out, or a big heat challenge where you are just trying to get a couple of high scores to proceed&period; There is some online, where you can play with friends, or just open up and play with strangers, but basically you&&num;8217&semi;re still just surfing solo and seeing where everyone&&num;8217&semi;s score ends up&period; With a limited trick set, and the five beaches, and handful of surfers, it just got a bit old during extended play sessions&period; If I wanted to just play a few rounds, and pick it up and go for about fifteen or twenty minutes, it was gold&semi; longer than that though, I would just lose interest&period;&NewLine;<figure id="attachment&lowbar;129570" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-129570" style="width&colon; 1920px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img class="size-full wp-image-129570" src="https&colon;//cdn&period;bagogames&period;com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/11184101/Surf&lowbar;World&lowbar;Series&lowbar;screen&lowbar;6&period;jpg" alt="" width="1920" height="1080" /><figcaption id="caption-attachment-129570" class="wp-caption-text">Surf World Series, Climax Studios/Vision Games Publishing</figcaption></figure>&NewLine;Climax Studios have done a very good job with Surf World Series, and it&&num;8217&semi;s worth picking up if you&&num;8217&semi;re a fan of the genre&period; While I don&&num;8217&semi;t think it has enough legs to last through extended gaming sessions, it is great for some pick up and play arcade surfing action&period; The beaches do look gorgeous, and the clothing and board unlockables will keep you playing for quite some time&period; If you long for the glory days of extreme sports, Surf World Series is worth a look, but maybe for the more dedicated kahunas among you&period;&NewLine;A PlayStation 4 code of Surf World Series was provided by Vision Games Publishing for the purpose of this review&period;&NewLine;

Categories: Game Reviews, PS4 Reviews
Tags: PC PlayStation Top Stories XBO

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