Sunny Garcia Surfing
Score: 60% ESRB: Everyone Publisher: Ubisoft Entertainment Developer: Krome Studios Media: CD/1 Players: 1 - 8 Genre: Sports
Graphics & Sound: Probably the first thing that comes to mind when surfing is brought up is water, and when it comes to video games, water can either be the prettiest or ugliest aspect of the game. In Sunny Garcia Surfing, the water falls somewhere in the middle. The effects are acceptable, but since the game revolves around water, you'd think they could spend some time on it and make it look great. Even though the beaches in the game always seem calm and crystalline, 20-foot waves manage to pop up out of nowhere. There's no chop, rocks, or coral to look at. Just a lot of smooth water. The character models aren't anything to complain about, and the boards, while not the most complicated of things to simulate, do look like surfboards. Some people say that music can make or break a game. While the music in SGS might not break the game completely, it does beat it into a small pile of putrid debris. What few tracks there are will have you puncturing your eardrums out, as it will seem a better alternative to listening to that awful music. Unless you're a serious fan of punk/ska music, go ahead and put something, anything, else on.
Gameplay: The last surfing game I played was H3O, and boy was I disappointed. So when I picked up SGS, I didn't expect all that much from it. They lived up to all my expectations. Although it looks, sounds, and controls better than H3O, it just isn't that great of a game. There are a variety of modes that you can choose from once in the game. The first you're going to want to be sure to check out is Freesurf. Here you get to hone your surfing skills without any of the limitations found in the other modes. Once you get bored of messing about in Freesurf, you should be ready to take on the more challenging modes. Amongst them are Championship, Arcade, Time Attack, Challenge, and Multiplayer. The only one really worth it's salt is Championship, where you take on other surfers at various beaches. Speaking of the surfers, all the surfers you can choose from are real life surfers who can pull off their very own trademark moves. Going far in each mode will unlock new surfers and boards, but you won't really notice the difference between their skills. It's nice to get to use real people in the game, but a create-a-surfer option would have added a lot of value. A real downfall was the addition of a few objects to the water, in hopes of making the game more challenging and adding some variety. Instead, these objects, including buoys, mermaids and mines, (yes, I said mines), will anger you until you get double vision. A cheap trick to try and add gameplay value that ended up backfiring. Arcade and Time Attack are pretty simple, requiring you to get the maximum score in the least amount of time. Kick it up a notch with the Challenge mode, where you have to surf against the computer and beat its score. Although you can unlock more surfers, boards and beaches, these modes become tedious very quickly. It's not enough to hold your attention for very long. The multiplayer aspect could have saved this game, but instead adds more holes to an already leaky ship. The most interesting part of multiplayer is an option where up to eight surfers can surf it out on a single wave, picking up power-ups and using them against each other. Like the rest of the game, this gets boring very quickly. The rest of multiplayer is just seeing who can get the highest score. Unimaginative and yes, boring.
Difficulty: Don't let the concept of surfing scare you. This game appeals to the masses, even if you've never even been in water before. Getting the hang of it should only take a few tries, and if you're still stuck, the instruction book comes with more information on surfing than you'll ever want to know. The difficulty will gradually progress as you go through the game, easing you into bigger and tougher waves. Difficulty settings make the game really easy, all the way to extremely hard. Plenty of stretching room here.
Game Mechanics: If you've never surfed before, don't think you're going to be able to after playing this game. It's true that they do teach you the basics of surfing, but the control is simple enough for anybody to use. The analog sticks are used to move you around the waves, and jumping can catch you air. Tricks are done a la SSX, where various button combinations will get you different tricks. Overall, the controls are simple and will appeal to the average person as well as the hardcore surfer. I tried playing this game with the Thrustmaster board, and I put emphasis on the word 'try'. The board will add a few more minutes of fun to the game, but will soon grow old pretty quick. It's not a bad board, but the combination of the two is a recipe for disaster. You can't really compare surfing games to any other type of game. They are unique in style and abundance. I'd like to call them an elite few, but I can't. These games are far from elite, and SGS is no exception. The gameplay is thin, the music is horrible, and the replay value is low. Surfers might be the only ones to appreciate this game, but they probably won't enjoy it for much longer than anyone else.
-Snow Chainz, GameVortex Communications AKA Andrew Horwitz
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