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Review by Andy Coyne

Genre: Sports sim

Format: CD

Developer: Activision

Publisher: Aspyr Media

Minimum System Requirements: 700MHz G4, (PowerBook G4 DVI or better, iBook 32VRAM or better), Mac OS X 10.2.3, 256MB RAM, 520MB hard drive space, 32MB VRAM

Review Computer: 1GHz G4 iMac, 768MB RAM, Mac OS X v10.3.2

Network Feature: No

3D Support: Required

Price: $29.99

ESRB Rating: E (Everyone)

Availability: Out Now

Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer is yet another attempt to appeal to the "extreme sports" enthusiasts in the world; the ones whose last words in life will be something along the lines of, "Hey, wanna see something cool?" It is of the same genre of "classic" titles such as: Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 Tony Hawk's Underground, Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX, Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX 2, and Shaun Palmer's Pro Snowboarder.

The fact that Activision, the company that creates these "games," is still in business is a miracle (or maybe a curse for us) because these games, apart from the title, characters, board design, and scenery, are exactly the same. Same controls, same basic moves, same annoying game play, same basic objectives, and the complete inability for your character in the game to die, which is a pity because after the 87th time he bails doing an "air judo," you want his vitals to be rammed in a meat grinder.

Games of this genre are the bane of the software reviewers. We have to spend our free time playing a game that becomes more of a chore to complete than a privilege. These games are repetitive, unoriginal, uncreative, and require the endless memorization of thousands of button combinations that must be input lightning-fast at precise moments. Unless you want to remember and deal with all that crap, you are going to hate these games.

The games can actually be fun, as long as you take them in very small doses and enjoy button-mashing; unless you possess magic fingers, that's all you'll be able to do. Unfortunately, the incredibly long time it takes to load each level makes you feel you have to play the game extra long to make the wait worthwhile.

The game itself has no plot line, no intelligent process. You choose an available character, choose one of the available beaches, and surf, trying to complete specific objectives custom to each beach. You complete objectives to unlock bonus items. Using the bonus items, you complete more levels. And unlock more stuff. Over and over again. I haven't played a game that repetitive since baseball. Or golf.

Now, the basics of surfing. You start out lying prettily on your board as a wave approaches. You then press the "floater" button (default number pad 8) to stand up, and then "carve" (hold default number pad 4) to build up speed. Finally, you tap random buttons until you manage to do a random trick and build up points. As you build up points, you fill up your "special meter" until it is yellow. Wanting to do a special trick (only doable when your meter is yellow), you ride up to the top of the wave and hit the jump button, then point your board in a certain direction and hit a button combo to do some flying trick. Unfortunately, if you time it a millisecond off, you land badly, bailing. After a quick scene of you almost drowning, you reappear in your original position lying down on the board. So, you get up, and carve again to pick up speed. Then, you press the stall button (default down arrow) until you are inside the "tube" of the wave. In there, you press left and right in a desperate attempt to balance your board until you flip over.

Now, what can I say positive about this game? Well, the graphics are very good. However, every time I tried to use the max settings, the game would unexpectedly quit on me in startup. But, the second-best settings still actually impressed me. The waves looked clean, nice and smooth, but lacked the dark, oily color of beach water. Oh well, the game obviously isn't going for reality when it lets surfing neophytes like me instruct world champion surfers like Kelly Slater what to do.

The cover art on the box is also really good.

But, speaking of the appearance of the game, the camera angles sucked. It took way too long to adjust to either of the two camera angles. In addition, the water lacked the quality of being, well, clear. So, sometimes you go into the "tube" of a wave, and the camera will follow you from outside the wave, so you can't see what you're doing. And, since you can't see what you're doing, you end up bailing. And you will bail, repeatedly, no matter what you do. There is also an unlockable bonus camera angle: 1st person view, however, since you lack any form of peripheral vision, unless you turn your entire board around, you aren't going to see the giant wave about to make you part of the ocean floor.

Speaking of bonuses, Kelly Slater does have some unlockable features, though not nearly as many as in the Tony Hawk games. However, there are secret levels, characters, surfboards, and moves. Some of them are unlocked through the process of the "career mode" (single player mode), and the rest I unlocked through cheats (available at cheatcc.com). I particularly enjoyed playing as the Tiki God with the "Maxed out cheats" and "Higher Jumps" cheats on, but you are also able to play as Tony Hawk (on a surfboard for some reason), pro motorcyclist Travis Pastrana, and a strange creature that looks like the love child of ET and Yoda.

There are 30 regular levels in the game featuring variations of 15 different beaches around the world. There is also a bonus beach and level located in space for some odd reason, with gravity. Again, this game is not going for reality.

New levels are unlocked when mission objectives from previous levels are completed. The objectives range from scoring thousands of points in just air tricks to plowing over fat people in inner tubes. Once you become more comfortable with the game, the objectives get much easier to complete. However, to the whole hitting people and objects thing: though I usually don't complain about the occasional killing of civilians in video games (in fact I enjoy it immensely), the camera angles make it excruciatingly difficult to see your target until it is just about to crest the wave, making it more annoying than enjoyable.

The game features three multiplayer features. The first one is called Push. In it, the screen is cut in half evenly to begin with, and as the players complete tricks, the amount of screen designated for each person will increase or decrease depending on how well they are doing, until one of them is pushed off the screen. The second mode is "Head to Head," in which you just try to get a better score than your opponent. The last mode is "Time Attack," in which one person goes at a time, and the higher the score the less time your opponent has to do their run and get a better score than you.

If you don't have any of the afore mentioned games of the genre and enjoy memorizing more crap then you had to in your combined high school social studies classes, then go ahead and buy the game. However, if you have any of the other games, don't buy this one. Just pretend Tony Hawk is skating on water, and you have the same game.

By the way, if you have panther, make sure you have the updater, available at Aspyr.