I used to work for a guy who just didnāt understand why there werenāt any great surfing video games. I couldnāt explain it. Does the world need one?
Weāve had some surfing games. In the early 90s, for example, I played a lot of the surfing mode in California Games on my Atari Lynx.
I think thatās the only surfing game Iāve ever played. There wasnāt much to it. You kept the surfer on the wave, lowered him to gain some momentum and then shot to the crest of the wave for some spins. It was as fun as hackey-sack in California Games, which is to say it kept my busy as a child but isnāt something I miss.
I never tried Kelly Slaterās Pro Surfer, the surfing answer to Tony Hawkās Pro Skater from the PlayStation era.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc08xxo_CcI
And I didnāt know until today that Rockstar Games even put out a surfing game, H3O surfing, which, for some reason, theyāve never bragged to me about.
But it looks kind of fun, doesnāt it?
At E3 this year I saw someone playing a Wii surfing game, using the Wii Fit Balance Board as a surfboard. That seemed perfect. I shot this really bad video of it while it dawned on me that this was not the ultimate Wii surfing game I was looking for.
See? Bad videoā¦
The game is called Vacation Isle: Beach Party. It was the Warner Bros. booth at E3 and, in the 10 years Iāve attended the show, itās the only game Iāve ever been shooed away from by a person working at the booth. Itās just a kids game, they told me, with a tone that suggested the game wasnāt worth my time.
I didnāt shoot any more of it, but I did watch it a little longer. The surfing part of the game keeps the player inside the wave, zigging and zagging for points.
You can see some of it in action here, about 20 seconds or so in:
Iām obviously no surfing games expert, but I dare say that Vacation Isle: Beach Party may be at the apex of modern surfing games, because, well, it seems almost no one makes surfing games.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GNUASajh_I
They didnāt even put plain surfing in this game!
Earlier this year we ran an item about how an associate editor of Surfer magazine wants a surfing game. Sadly, I see no sign of one. Consider that pro snowboarder Shaun White recently expanded his boarding game franchise toā¦ skateboarding.
https://lastchance.cc/surfer-mag-we-need-a-new-surf-game-for-fun-for-traini-5464099%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
If you are making a surfing gameā¦ if you want a surfing gameā¦ you best speak up because the sorry history of surfing games could use a happy chapter.
