Originals November 29, 1999

Transworld Surf

Posted by: kombo

Surfs Up! Infogrames and Angel studios enter the surfing game industry with Transworld Surf, along with the goal of making the first high-quality game in this genre. No matter what developers have tried in the past with this seamlessly easy to develop game, they have failed, mainly because of the fact that it isnâ€™t an easy to develop game. Unlike its cousins, the Skateboarding and Snowboarding genres, there is nothing â€˜stableâ€™ in surfing to grab, grind, flip off of, or manual, and the environments are always changing. In Transworld Surf, you play one of 13 core surfers, who will go off on the realism and reverence to the surfing culture incorporating their own personal surfing styles. There are several modes of gameplay, which include Pro Tour (career mode), Multiplayer, Free Roam, and Single Session. The graphics in this game are incredible, the water effects, character models, massive surfing environments, and backgrounds suit this gamesâ€™ needed sense of realism. Angel has even included extras such as shark attacks, dolphins, karma and photographers. Gameplay Staying true to the Tony Hawk style of gameplay, Angel has successfully created a surfing masterpiece in its gameplay. You will find yourself cursing at the television set at first, because you wonâ€™t be able to pull anything off, wipeout after wipeout after wipeout. This is one aspect of these types of games that I really enjoy, I never expect to go into a game with a handicap, making me appear good the first instant I play, this is one plague that could make a game boring, fast. If you are fresh off of Tony Hawkâ€™s Pro Skater 2x, you wonâ€™t have any problemo Tackling the controls, A is jump, B is laybacks, Y is a floater (grinding), the white button dives (under the wave to skip it, if itâ€™s looking a bit nasty) and the trigger buttons pull off several air tricks. With due time, and plenty of practice, you will be the surfing champion. One of the most enjoyable aspects of Transworld Surf, is ridinâ€™ the barrel. With perfect camera position (behind the surfer, directly in the center of the tube), and closing waves, you will use your balancing skills and timing to accurately pull it off without wiping out. This is your chance to rack up some major points. Graphics What can I say? There has never been a surfing game as beautiful as Transworld Surf. Random waves boasting realistic bubbles, foam, colour and size, incredibly detailed water effects, nicely modeled surfers, and backgrounds from 9 real life locations make this game undoubtingly one of the top surfing games ever developed. You surf outside the boundary, and you are treated to a rude Shark Attack, there are fishermen in their classic wooden boats all over the ocean, you may run into some friendly dolphins and you might get your picture taken by photographers. Needless to say, the amount of detail put into mere extras into Transworld Surf just show how much Angel wanted to really make an astounding game. Sound The music in Transworld Surf features what one would expect, your basic punk, rock, tubular music that surfers are into. Although the game features tons of tracks, if you still think its music is awful, donâ€™t sweat it, Angel has done the smart thing, and has taken advantage of the Xbox Consoleâ€™s music uploading capabilities. But donâ€™t be fooled, it isnâ€™t in the options menu off the main menu, choose your music in the pause screen during the actual game. The sound effects leave something to be desired, very monotonous, however it isnâ€™t loud, in-yo-face effects, so it didnâ€™t get too annoying. It would have been nice to have more variety in the things the surfers shout out while on the wave. Overall The gameplay is a bit tricky at first, but with due time, you will appreciate itâ€™s style. It would have been nice to have a bit more variety in the sound effects department, and even in the amount of tricks you can actually pull off. All in all, Transworld Surf offers the first solid, entertaining and eye pleasing surfing game ever released on any platform, we canâ€™t wait to see what the other Transworld titles bring to the Xbox early this year. --Matt Durrant