Get in the water!
- NA release: 1st June 2007
- EU release: N/A
- JP release: N/A
- Developer: Ubisoft Quebec
- Publisher: Ubisoft
- NGC Magazine Score: 69%
- Mods Used: Widescreen Hack
Happy Feet wasn’t the only animated penguin film to get a GameCube tie-in, as Surfs Up also followed suit, both apparently rushed to market because of the March of the Penguins documentary making penguins popular. Other than the obvious point of surfing penguins, I couldn’t tell you anything about the film or the story, as the game doesn’t tell you a single thing about the plot or the characters.
But that’s a good thing, as the game isn’t trying to turn the film into an action game or a platformer, but rather takes the concept of surfing penguins and makes a game about that: so this is a straight up extreme sports game, complete with some simple Tony Hawk-style objectives for each level. And the most surprising thing: this is easily the best surfing game on the GameCube.
Sure, it’s not as “authentic” as the others, but the others were fairly dull as a result, as the skills for surfboarding don’t lend itself to as much of a spectacle as skateboarding. In Surf’s Up, the level is an extremely long wave with lots of ice in the way to create obstacles, grind rails and ramps to perform jumps. All while a wave comes in from the left and slowly consumes anything.
The best way to describe it is an on-rails Tony Hawk game, where you’re constantly going forward while you move left and right to use the wave or to weave between other obstacles, jump through gates (for one of the objectives) and so on. There’s also a “leaf slide” mode with a few levels where you do down large slides. Overall, quite fun.
Fun
Ultimately, though, it’s a button masher of predictable proportions, containing a random mix of surging penguins/chickens/giraffes. Not bac, but not worth £40
Chrissy Williams, NGamer Magazine #14 (Wii Review)
Remake or remaster?
A re-release would be fine.
Official Ways to get the game
There’s no official way to buy Surf’s Up.
Europe
Japan
North America
GameCube Games by Date
2002: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
2003: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
2004: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
2005: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
2006: Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec
