Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer

"There's no better game to immerse you in the surfer lifestyle..."

Nearly everything I knew about surfing before I played Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer, I learned from Blue Crush. Perhaps you've seen that movie. It stars a fine selection of hot girls (played by Kate Bosworth and Michelle Rodriguez, among others), and there's a lot of pretty water. Well, I now know a lot more about surfing. And to be honest, Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer is everything Blue Crush was, with the extremely noticeable absence of Kate Bosworth and friends. More importantly, though, it's an addictive and challenging title that will keep you busy for hours, provided you like the extreme sports genre of video games at all.

To be honest, the main reason I bought this game is that it was in the bargain bin for $20 and it is published by the people that brought us Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. Those two points in its favor made Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer something of a must-buy.

When I stuck this beauty in my GameCube, nothing changed. The first thing that hit me was the introductory video. In it, Kelly Slater's voice describes the essence of what he feels it means to be a surfer, while video of various beaches scrolls by. You get a look at each of the professional surfers featured in the game, and there's soothing music throughout. Definitely a change from the intro to Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, another game released around the same time.

From the video, the player is presented with the boat. This is a very cool concept. You watch the camera glide down a somewhat realistic looking hall, then you swing into the side room. This is the opening menu system, where you can choose how you wish to play on this lovely day. There are several options, ranging from the standard career mode, to practice, to multi-player and free surf. Each is of course a thrilling option, but for me it could only be the career mode.

As is standard in this type of game, you next get to pick who you will take to the waves. Since I knew absolutely nothing about professional surfers and was willing to admit that I'm a beginner, I chose Kelly Slater. The game is named after him, so I figured I wouldn't be going wrong. Once that was out of the way, it was time to head to the first beach.

The fine production values that first greeted me when I placed this disc in the GameCube were set to continue. I soon found that each beach you choose to surf at is preceded once by a video in which Kelly Slater gives you some details about the beach, drawn from his personal experience (including the training beach, which I'll get to in a moment). While he talks, you get to see video of the beach and other surfers. Then it's time to complete those goals.

Generally, a level has four or five goals. These are about what you would expect, challenges such as scoring a certain number of points within your time limit, pulling off a good selection of tricks as they are presented to you without falling too far behind, and scoring particularly high in a given category. It's a simplistic arrangement and I quite like it. Particularly nice is the fact that on any given beach, you only are required to complete one of the specific goals, which is easily distinguished from the others. What this challenge entails is different from stage to stage, and it's generally the most frustrating of the goals for that stage. But it's nice players have a choice. Of course, you'll likely want to complete each optional goal, as doing so will unlock additional moves and stats.

Now that the preliminaries are out of the way, it is at last time to get surfing. When your character first appears on the screen, he or she will be lying on a board in the water. A wave is about to arrive, so your first action will be to quickly press the 'Y' button so your boarder stands up. From there, it's time to turn toward the rising wave and show it who the boss is.

Unfortunately, the wave is likely to remain the boss for a good long while. Your first few attempts are likely to be disasters, if you suck nearly as much as I did. It's not that your boarder controls particularly badly, but rather the fact that there's so much to take in. Sure, the game just amounts to how you plan to assault the wave, but there are a great deal more options than you might imagine.

For thise reason, I suggest you save yourself a great deal of mental anguish, bite the bullet, and start with the training beach. This area isn't a training 'beach' so much as it is an artifical wave simulator. You get a giant pool to yourself and you can practice whatever moves you like. It's definitely a great way to start. Kelly Slater walks you through the steps, and directions appear on screen. You'll learn how the wave can be your friend, how to surf faster, how to slow down and fall into the barrel of the wave where you can do some really cool tricks not possible elsewhere, how to perform arial tricks, and so much more. This is likely the best training area a game has ever presented, and I highly recommend it.

Once you've got that out of the way, you can head back to the beaches. At first, particularly if you excelled in training, there's not much challenge. Low point requirements mean you can easily clear out your required objectives. Score 10,000 points before time runs out? Child's play! You can get that doing no more than floating a few waves. Spray the windsurfers? No biggie. There's plenty of time. However, things quickly get more aggressive. By the time you reach Antarctica, you've been given some good challenges. Then, quite suddenly, things fall to pieces.

Suddenly, you're given far less time than you'd expect to complete the objectives, the tricks are much harder, and things make a great deal less sense. Tricks are called out and half the time, you don't know what the heck they mean, even after the splendid training session. As for the instruction manual, well, it's just pictures of the surfers and a list of tricks. Nothing you can't find in the in-game menus. It was at this point that I realized the game is not good for those who are even remotely prone to anger while playing videogames.

Consider a common scenario. Kelly Slater begins a stage. He's paddling in the water. His goal? To complete 15 icons (you do this by performing a series of tricks without falling behind by more than 5 tricks or so). The timer starts and you mash the 'Y' button. Kelly lazily stands up on his boards while the timer merrily ticks down. You turn toward the wave and start paddling as the first of those icons makes its appearance. It is one that demands you jump up into the air and press the 'left' and 'B' buttons together. So you rush toward the crest of the wave, release the 'A' button, and Kelly jumps a few feet off the wave. Quickly you press the button and he starts spinning like a top, but already is on his downward decent. You start swearing as he hits the water and falls off his board. The game informs you he landed sideways. You're treated to a picture of him plunging down into the water while the timer infuriatingly continues counting down. Angry, you're mashing the 'Y' button while he slowly climbs onto his board again. But now you're in such a rush that you're more prone to mistakes. As you paddle toward the wave, a blast from the side sends you spinning. You peak the crest, get maybe an inch into the air, then fall off your board. More animations, no stopping of the timer. And so it goes.

The simple fact is that this is one of the most frustrating games I've ever played. There's really no way I can possibly stress that enough. The longer you play, the less you can concentrate and the worse your surfer does. I spent hours completing just one goal. When I got done, was I satisfied? Not really. I was relieved more than anyone should ever be after completing a portion of a game. I was practically weeping tears of joy.

Yes, it's that bad. And it's that good. Remember? I said I spent hours on one objective. And I did. Somehow, despite how frustrating it is when your surfer takes another dunk, you won't want to stop playing. You'll think how close you were before, how one more play should do it. And you'll keep trying while the hours pass. Somehow, you just can't help yourself.

Maybe it's the graphics. I'm most of the way through this review and yet, somehow, I've completely failed to mention that the waves in this title are absolutely beautiful. Sunlight sparkles perfectly, ominous clouds darken the deep, murky water, or whatever. Each location has a different look to the water, definitely giving you a feeling that you've progressed to a new location in the world. While it's obvious that the developers couldn't possibly make one stage seem shockingly different from the next, they made good efforts. Play this game long enough and you'll be able to look at a screenshot and say what beach it is from, what the waves are likely to do, and what to fear most. Also, the surfers are animated quite well. The real star, though, is the water.

Unfortunately, the GameCube's limitations come into play. When you watch the video introducing each area, you'll see all kinds of bluriness. Little spots dance from the shoulders of the people walking on the beach, the sky is unnaturally hazy, the picture darker than common sense says it should be. That's right; video is horribly compressed. Seldom have you seen compression this noticeable. It's a shame that the system had to hurt the game in this sense. The clips are certainly watchable, and they still add to the game, but hardware is definitely a blow against the titles otherwise outstanding personality.

Then there's the sound department. I wish I could say something wonderful, but I really can't. Music is minimal. Not only that, but it's not terribly good. While I approve of the decision to eschew the punk sounds so common in games of this type, there simply isn't enough here. Tunes are mostly soothing, sometimes annoying. Every once in a while, this instrument breaks into things and you wonder what the hell the developers were thinking when they selected what's here. Fortunately, you have a lot of control over how things sound. You can turn off music and ambience, and choose from sound modes that include surround sound. Very nice.

All of this leaves me scratching my head as to exactly what sort of recommendation I should make. Ultimately, it comes down to an explanation. This is not Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4. Despite similar play mechanics, it never claims to be. It takes place entirely on the water, there's not a lot of immediately apparent variety, and this most definitely isn't a titel for everyone. However, it has enough setting it aside from the crowd that I have no trouble recommending it for at the very least a rental, and most likely a purchase if like me you can find it for $20. At that price, this game was a steal. Look for it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/08/03, Updated 06/08/03