When Surfing H30 was announced earlier this year for the Playstation 2 many people were excited at the prospect of finally having an authentic surfing experience. How could things go wrong with the raw power and promise of the Playstation 2? Apparently things did not turn out as many had hoped for in the ASCII developed Surfing H30.

The premise of the game is quite straight forward: Choose from 11 different playable characters, all with specific characteristics, special attributes and abilities and navigate them through the waves on 6 unique surfing environments. There are only two modes to choose from: Tournament and VS. Mode. In tournament mode you must progress through the six stages in an attempt to win the tournament. Each stage in tournament mode has a certain point level that must be reached in order to clear the stage. Points are awarded for technique, tricks and finishing under the time limit. In VS. mode two players compete against each other for the most points. Both players alternate turns riding the same waves and sharing the same controller. For both modes, the game is over if the Clear Points of a given level are not reached. There is a maximum of 5 Continues for each player but extra continues can be obtained by collecting special items during your ride.

Control of the game is a very mixed bag. Surfing H30 is the only game to support the patented X-Board controller peripheral, which attempts to provide an unparalleled sense of control and responsiveness. The X-Board which comes with the game sits atop of your Dual Shock 2 controller and allows you to "finger surf" and perform over a dozen aerial tricks that can be linked for unlimited combinations. The problem is trying to pull of these tricks in any kind of order. Getting used to the X-Board took us some time and some felt they could control the game better without it. Nevertheless it is awkward until you are very familiar with it and for many by that time you will have left the game in frustration. If you can get by the control and master it then you can pull of such tricks as Indy, mute, chicken salad, Iguana, Taipen Air and more. Although the game is difficult to control,the developers did a good job of utilizing all of the buttons on the Dual Shock 2.

From a visual standpoint, Surfing H30 does not impress. With past benchmarks such as Wave Race for N64 and water stages in Sonic Adventure, we have come to expect something extraordinary from the promise of the PS2. This promise is not evident in Surfing H30. The graphic animations and wave physics tend to be very basic and bland at best. It would appear that the developers rushed this product to market and could have used a few more months to fine tune the visuals. Throughout most of the game it is difficult to determine which way the wave is going and the camera angles do nothing to bring the excitement of surfing to the gaming experience.

In the end we have another PS2 game that has many "could have beens". Surfing H30 is not the ultrarealistic surfing game we have dreamed of for years. Hopefully somewhere down the development cycle of the PS2 someone will manage to fulfill our wishes. In the meantime do not waste your hard earned money on this title when Rockstar has much superior product in Smuggler's Run and Midnight Club Street Racing.