Surf's Up
PS2
Ubisoft


"Canvass the town and brush the backdrop," goes the Beach Boys song of the same name, which unfortunately is nowhere near the soundtrack of this game, based on the animated movie. "Are you sleeping?" Brian asks. Well, that all depends, really - are you over 10? Because if you are, then chances are the game's going to put you right to sleep.

'Surf's Up' allows players to compete in the Reggie Belafonte Big Z Memorial Surf Off, as seen in the film. The Surf Off takes in five different locations, from the ice fields of Shiverpool, to the sunny beaches of Pen Gu Island. It's been a while since we've had a surfing game of note - 'Sunny Garcia Surfing' back in 2001 is probably the most recent, but for most people, the last real experience with the sport would have been way back in 1987 with 'California Games'. It just seems to be one of those sports, like AFL, that doesn't really translate to video game format very easily.

'Surf's Up' gets around this by taking out the realism - this is more 'SSX' than 'Tony Hawk Pro Skater', and it works reasonably well. Players travel down the length of an impossibly long break, pulling tricks from jumps or from the top of the wave and collecting various bonuses along the way to completing a score-based goal. Essentially though, it's just too repetitive for older players - keep doing the same tricks until you've filled the special trick bar, and then rake in the points until its depleted, then fill it again. Rinse and repeat ad nauseam. It's also very short, even for a children's game. The five levels are made up of a couple of different courses each, but the whole thing can pretty easily be completed within a few hours, and there's not really much reason to go back to it.

It's not a fantastic looking game, but the graphics do their job well enough: the water is disappointing, but the characters are recognisable, and the whole thing is bright and appealing. The soundtrack is an exercise in licensed horror, however, with efforts from A and The Plain White Ts that redefine bland, though it is tempered to some degree with tracks from Elbow and Mull Historical Society.

If you've got young kids who enjoyed the movie, they'll probably enjoy this and, as long as you turn the music down, it's a competent budget priced tie-in. If you don't have kids, well, you probably already know that you're not the target audience.

Alistair Wallis