Surf's Up: Cartoon Surfing at its Finest! (NOT!)

I think its funny how a Canadian video game offshoot of the major US company, Electronic Arts, is the one that ends up delivering a surfing, cartoon video game for the Xbox 360 to the masses. Ubisoft Montreal is the company that I am talking about, and the game is Surf’s Up. Let’s rehash for moment, if you will, what I candidly say about most games that follow, but don’t precede, a major motion picture. Oh yeah, they tend to suck when they come out following a movie. And so, once again this biding notion rings somewhat altruistically with regards to Surf’s Up; and that’s a fact!

The movie flopped, so is it any surprise that this game also followed suit? Think of these games like the lunchbox scams of the 70s and the 80s, where major motion pictures would sell lunch boxes to garner extra merchandising dollars; but there was nothing special about the lunch boxes. So in the game you can choose from all ten of the main characters from the picture. There are plenty of mini games that are certain to kill hours of your precious time playing.

There are also plenty of different levels that you can beat while you are surfing around as a penguin on a surfboard. But who really cares? Come on people, cartoons on a surf board, isn’t there a better pro surfing game that features Jack Johnson, the pro surfer turned pro musician that can be played instead? Sorry guys, but my rule of thumb sticks true: games after movies most often suck, so why is your lousy cartoon surfing game any exception to this rule—it’s not!

The controls are easy as hell and will take a child but a few moments to get the hang of. The frame rates are okay, there are not that many polygon glitches that I could find. But to be honest, this game attracted about ten minutes of my attention before I sleeved it back up and sent it off in the mail distraught and confused.

“Surf’s Up should more appropriately be titled: gimmick. As games like this wane off the success, or lack thereof, of box office films that are aiming to merely garner more merchandising dollars off an unsuspecting public…not worth playing, renting or owning!”

My Score: .5 out of 10

Check out the Surf’s Up trailer below!