 Up's: Interesting concept, "new sports" as we are told, looks pretty enough I guess.
Down's: Limited in every sense. Odd Japanese explained moves, 3 characters, 3 locations, minimal depth of play!
Whenever reviewing a game I always try to be objective, try to take the good points of the game, highlight them, and hopefully give something for other gamers to look forward to - whilst obviously noting some of the shortfalls that you should be wary of. I'll try to do the same with Sky Surfer with this review, but don't expect too much!
 The game revolves around the concept of strapping a snowboard to your feet and chucking yourself out of a plane, with the idea being that the "amazing" stunts that you can unravel on the way down will give you suitable scores and interest to progress to the next level. Unfortunately, the menus are lightweight, with two game types, three character choices, and half a dozen board options, not forgetting the demonstration mode (not a practice mode that would be very useful to try and master the rather odd moves that you can do, but instead a confused "show" of what you could do if you really tried!).
Looking at the "Dive to Air" mode first you find yourself with just over a minute to press combinations of buttons (13 in total, and all with Japanese explanations) to pull off stunts that usually result in a sarcastic comment about being bad at the game. I'm not sure how you're supposed to progress after that. I managed to pull off about 3 or four moves before the subtitles told me in Japanese that I was probably crap at the game, and then had to watch myself spiral to my doom, before I pull the chute and glide to a mysterious arrow on the ground. Now that might sound highly defeatist, but there's not many other ways to describe it. Other PS2 games have Japanese documentation but are playable and highly enjoyable; I predict that an English version of this game would be as unfulfilling.
 Graphics and sound are fine, but surely a game as potentially interesting as this one needs more! I mean the three locations are pretty much the same, seeing as you spend all of the "trick" time in the clouds anyway - and a cloud is a cloud to me!
The Beat Balloon mode is fun for a bit, you bob up and down on a bouncy castle with a turbine underneath and squash balloons within the time limit - but again you are exposed to the limitations of the game! The allocated time is too short, and the graphics here look clumsy and hurried, with failure again leaving the player no real incentive to try again...
Some reviews are long and detailed, some are short and concise. This one is longer than it should be, there's not much to say about this game. It's polished enough for you to recognize that its PS2, but only just, which in my mind is sufficient comment to try and dissuade you from buying it. Enter the first, and hopefully one of the few, real flops of this glorious new machine. |
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 Reader Reviews
N/A
| Score: |
| 3 |
| Gameplay |
| 2 |
| Graphics |
| 6 |
| Sound |
| 6 |
| Value |
| 3 |
| "Enter the first, and hopefully one of the few, real flops of this glorious new machine" |
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