Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer – PS2 – Review

With the release of Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer,
Activision O2’s quest for total domination of all the extreme sports sub-genres
is yet another step closer to realization.  They’ve owned skateboarding
since the first Tony Hawk Pro Skater game was released, Mat Hoffman’s Pro BMX 2
has put them in a great place against the Dave Mirra franchise, and now because
of Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer, surfing seems to be in the bag as well.  So
just what makes this game so remarkable?

Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer puts you on a surfing
boat and lets you live the life of a professional surfer.  In career mode
you can expect to take part in photo shoots (to make the cover of surfing
magazines), competitions, fight for sponsorships, and more; it all comes with
the territory. Living the life, you’ll go to some of the most impressive surf
spots on the planet where you can cut the salty water with nine different actual
professional surfers.  From the icy shores of Antarctica to the warm
beaches of Hawaii; it’s your goal to conquer them all.  The other modes of
play within the game are FreeSurf and multiplayer.

In addition to Kelly Slater, big names such as
Lisa Andersen, Tom Curren, Rob Machado, and Nathan Fletcher can also found
within the game.  Each of these surfers has their own unique attributes,
which include balance, air, spin, and speed, and as a result of these
differences in abilities, they each perform very differently out on the water.
They also each look just like they do in real life as no corners were cut when
modeling and rendering these incredible athletes.  Unfortunately though,
there’s no create-a-surfer option within the game.

To get a feel for the game it’s best to start out
by taking the three part surfing tutorial which takes place in Japan at a famous
indoor wave pool.  This tutorial, which is narrated by Kelly Slater
himself,  is extremely helpful for getting the hang of the game, as it
explains how to pull off all of the basic maneuvers; from the simple task of
picking a wave and standing up on the board to launching off of a wave and doing
a front flip.

The actual control scheme is just like we’d
expect it to be; it’s much like the controls in Tony Hawk, but adapted for
surfing.  First you must decide whether or not to catch a particular wave.
If you want to hop on it, you simply have to paddle away from it and then press
triangle.  If you want to dive under it and wait for another, all you have
to do is turn and face the wave and hit the circle button.

Once you’re standing up and riding the wave you
can perform face tricks, air tricks, and tube/barrel tricks.  Face tricks
can be done by pressing square, circle, or triangle along with a directional
button or by pressing one or a combination of these buttons twice.  So, for
example, double tapping circle while on the face of the wave will result in a
tail chuck. 

To do an air trick all you have to do is face
toward a wave, hold x until the lip is reached, let go and then press either
circle or square along with a directional button.  Pressing square results
in a flip trick, such as a shove it or a heel flip, all of which are very cool!
Circle on the other hand lets you do grab tricks and many of these will look
familiar if you’ve played the Tony Hawk games (nose grab, indy grab, mute grab,
etc).  Just think of the wave as a moving quarter pipe.  I still can’t
figure out how in the world these surfers can possibly perform these tricks, but
I guess that’s why they’re professional surfers and I’m not.

The last variety of tricks, those that take place
within the tube or barrel, are the most unique to the game and the hardest to
get used to.  To do one of these moves, first you must get in the barrel,
which is done by holding down on the directional pad.  Once your speed
decreases enough, the wave will come above/around you and a balance meter
appears.  At this point you can do tricks by pressing triangle and a
direction, but you must always stay aware of the balance meter or you’ll quickly
bite it and get churned by the awesome power of the wave.

Not surprisingly, a special trick meter plays a
huge role in Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer as it does in Activision’s other games.
Actually, it is even more important in this game than it is in others, since it
plays key two roles.  First, it is the only way you can link tricks for
huge combos (sorry, no manuals in surfing); second, it allows you to pull of
sick special moves.  The most effective way to fill this meter is by doing
face tricks, but landing perfect air tricks can also do the trick.  Once it
is filled up, successive tricks will be added to the combo, but this is assuming
you don’t have any sloppy landings as this will completely cancel the combo and
the special meter will fully decrease.  This concept actually works out
very well, since it makes it challenging, but not impossible to create big trick
combos.

Another very nice feature is the R3 button
(pressing down on the right analog stick), which allows you to "cash in" your
combo before your special meter runs out.  Having this ability lets you at
least score some points if you think you may not last much longer without
bailing.

After you have a decent understanding of how the
game is controlled, it’s time to get into the meat of the game and take on the
first surf spot in career mode.  Only two locations are available to surf
when you start out, so you must complete the objectives within it in order to
open up more.  Each spot actually has two sets of objectives (about 7-10
total), but only the first set must be completed to open up the next beach.
Ranging from scoring 15,000 points to knocking down windsurfers, fulfilling
these objectives not only opens up new surf spots, but doing so can also give
you access to new surf boards, tricks, cheats, and your surfer’s attributes will
often increase too.

While the objectives could be a lot worse, the
diversity and shear number of them is nothing like that within Tony Hawk’s Pro
Skater or Mat Hoffman’s Pro BMX, which is a bit disappointing.  Even with
the understanding that there’s only so much you can do out in the water, it
seems like more unique tasks or just more tasks in general could have been
included.

FreeSurf is another game mode that allows you to
practice surfing without any time constraints.  A sub mode of this is icon
challenge, which drops icons on the screen that say a trick name and the button
combination to perform it.  This is somewhat like Tetris because the icons
keep coming down at a certain interval in time (whether or not you complete the
tricks) and once they’ve built up to the top of the screen – you lose!

There are also three different multiplayer modes
within Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer.  In addition to the typical head-to-head
split screen and time attack (one surfer at a time) modes, the unique push mode
has been included.  Introduced in Mat Hoffman’s Pro BMX 2, push mode is a
split screen contest in which the screen sizes change as a result of the tricks
that each player does.  Pull off a huge combo and your opponent’s screen
may quickly shrink down to almost nothing.  Once one player completely
takes over the screen the game is over.  While this mode is pretty fun to
play, it would have been nice if there were more multiplayer modes to choose
from.

If you want extras, Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer has
them.  There are unlockable features including videos about the surfers,
beaches, and even Kelly Slater’s own 30 minute TV show.

Activision’s first attempt at the surfing genre
has turned out to be very impressive.  It’s obvious that their experience
from other titles is really playing a large part in the development process and
this is probably the reason why the game is so good the first time around.
Both longtime surfers and those who are afraid to even get near the water will
be able to appreciate this game’s solid gameplay, stunning graphics, and the
superb career mode.  Surf’s up, bro!

Gameplay: 8.5
The ability to pull off a huge diversity of
tricks coupled with the logical combo system makes this one a great play.
The physics are right on and as a result the various surf spots ride very
differently as they should.

Graphics: 9

Water has never looked so good on screen!  The transparency, break, and
fluidness – everything about it is amazing.  All of the surfing locations
look very unique and realistic; from the actual water color to backgrounds, you
won’t be disappointed.  In Antarctica, for example, there’s snow falling
from the sky, glaciers out at sea, and the southern lights in the background.
The surfers having been rendered beautifully and their animations are also well
done.  Having two different camera settings (beach and follow) and a look
behind function is also nice.

Sound: 8.5
The soundtrack isn’t the high
energy type as many would expect from this extreme sports title.  Instead,
much of it consists of mellow tracks, which are perfect for when you want to
hang loose.  Artists such as Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, and G. Love &
Special Sauce are featured.  The water sound effects really add to the
experience, and are appropriate whether your waiting for a wave, in a breaking
section, in the tube, or underwater.   However, all the surfers
(except Lisa Andersen) make the same exact noises when they’re pulling off a
trick or falling

Difficulty: Medium

There’s a perfect balance between difficulty and playability.  Everyone can
have fun with this game, but only some will be able to master it.  Having
to only complete the first set of challenges to open up the next level is nice
for the not-so-skilled.  The tutorial mode is also extremely helpful.

Concept: 8
Career mode especially is not a new concept, but it was very
nicely thought out in Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer.  However, the objects
could have been a bit more diverse and unique.

Multiplayer: 7.5
I realize there’s only so much you can do with a surfing
game, but having more play modes would have been nice.  Push mode is fun,
but the other two are generic and typical.  No internet support.

Overall: 8.5