Surf's Up (Xbox 360, 2007)

Surf's Up is based on the 2007 animated film with the same name. You play a penguin who surfs (duh!). I actually liked the movie and just randomly bought this game one day.

Story:
The plot of the movie is never really used in the game. It of course has all the same names, locations, and people from the movie but it just kind of has you go from place to place for no reason. It's too bad that the story doesn't exist in this game but oh well.

Graphics:
Graphically this game looks pretty good. The water effects are pretty cool. The items and stuff in the levels also looks good. What made me realize how nice the game looked was when I noticed how my character actually had a wet shine to him from the surfing. It's a nice little touch and he really looked like he just got out of the water.

Sound:
The game uses the actors from the animated film which is cool but they aren't used except for brief sound clips if you get near them in the stages. The music has songs by A and by The Plain White T's. A very Indie feel for sure and it fits the surfing theme rather well. Sound effects could have been better but it’s a low-budget game so what do you expect? The waves don’t really make good wave noises (if that makes since) and most of the sound effects for crashing and picking up items are pretty lame.

Control:
Control in the game is very easy. It is like a REALLY simplified version of the Tony Hawk Pro Skater games. You move with the left analog stick. L trigger is used to grind the top of a wave. A simple trick is done with the A button, advance tricks are done with the B button. Y button activates “Stoke Mode” which does a few special tricks for a short period of time. X allows for freestyle movement with the right analog stick.

Gameplay:
So the game has 5 locations but besides the layout they play pretty much the same. Each stage has 4 things to do in them and you can do them in whatever order you want (you can also retry each map and location as much as you want). There are two scores to go for. A semi-easy score and the hardcore score. Once you get better boards and learn the courses the harder score will be super easy. After that there are some penguins idols floating around the levels. Collect them to unlock new items in the game. You also can go through X amount of gates.

There are some mini games that are fun but short. The game took me just a few hours to beat but I am an experienced gamer. Like I said above, It is almost like a really simple Tony Hawk and I played those for years, so this game was super easy. But I would think that a younger kid it might have a lot more playing time.

All said and done I must admit I enjoyed playing this game. It's rather simple and doesn't have a whole lot to offer but as a kid's game it's very pleasing. Kids will love it and parents will enjoy playing it with their kids. It’s a great family game for sure!!!

Story - 2/10
Graphics - 9/10
Sound - 9/10
Control - 9/10
Game Play - 8/10
Replay Value - 6/10

Overall Score - 8/10