Surfing is not anyone’s sport. It takes passion and ‘balls’ to surf through 10 foot high waves. It takes courage and commitment to go out there every single day even when it is raining to practise in the ocean. Watching the sport on television or live on the other hand is more than enjoyable. I know of a lot of people who are massive surfing fans but because they are afraid of the ocean, they can only watch the sport on television. Thanks to game developers though, there are a number of surfing games that people who can’t afford to go surf in the ocean can play and feel the thrill of surfing. Today we are going to take a look at some of these surfing games and what they are all about.
Before we take a look at the mobile and pc games, I have to mention that surfing as a sport has been under-represented in terms of video games. Although there are a handful of exciting surfing games for the world to enjoy, I still feel that there is a lot to be explored. There are many more opportunities in the surfing world that the programmers and game developers can take advantage of and come up with even better games especially now that the number of surfing fans is burgeoning tremendously. As earlier mentioned though, there exists a good number of surfing video games which have been there for quite a while. Most of these are a bit old but they sure were classics. Let’s take a look at the 5 best surfing video games for surfers;
5. Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer
Arguably the best surfing game ever released, Pro Surfer was developed by Neversoft, the same team responsible for the incredible Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater series. With similar trick controls to the Tony Hawk games, Pro Surfer let players take to the waves in a number of different locations including South Africa, Hawaii, Australia, Tahiti, Spain and North America. Each of the said locations has its own distinct characteristics. From the size of the waves to the graphics used to depict the locations, each location is different in its own way and this gives you a true feeling of virtually travelling through the world in the game. The game also had a realistic feel attached to it because it used real life surfers from back then. Besides Slater, it also included a number of other real-life surfers, including Lisa Andersen, Tom Curren, Nathan Fletcher, Bruce Irons, Rob Machado, and Kalani Robb.
4. TransWorld Surf
This is the other classic that we all enjoyed and still enjoy playing upto date. Transworld Surf is easily the most graphically impressive, responsive and most enjoyable surfing game ever to be released. It offers a unique gameplay experience and is full of tricks which can be performed by the surfers. The game had different modes of play and as a player you could choose from pro tour mode, single run mode, free surf mode and multiplayer mode. There were various levels through the game and the level of complexity and difficulty increased with each level. The graphics of this game are so real you can see the individual droplets as you surf through the waves.
3. Sunny Garcia Surfing
The highlight of this game is really the fact that its main star was the then Surfing champion from Hawaii called Sunny Garcia. The guy was so prolific and loved across the surfing that the programmers had to license him and use him as the face of the game and it duly paid because the game became huge. Back in 2002 this was every kid’s dream game. The fictional locations were enthralling to surf in as well. The idea of the game was a pretty awesome as well. While surfing, you needed to look out for sharks, other jet skis, reefs in the ocean and many other debris. It was generally enjoyable to say the least.
1. Surf’s Up
This was a tie-in video game to the 2007 film Surf’s Up and it was a great success. The game has penguins surfing through the ocean just like in the original movie. This game brings out the kid in all of us with bright colors and collectables, but there’s a shark in the water which you have to watch out for. The game has various modes of play and essentially you are required to race against other penguins and come out on top. In each race, you’ll have a list of three objectives that include scoring a certain number of points, passing through a certain number of glowing gates and collecting a certain number of surf idols. There are more than 10 levels in the game and you will only unlock the next level if you pass the current level with the threshold points. Its graphics might not have been as deep back then but it was a thrilling game to play.