Surf World Series
Grab your board and take on legendary waves in Surf World Series, the arcade surfing game that brings you to 5 of the world’s most infamous surfing destinations, including Bell’s Beach (Australia), Waimea Bay (Hawaii), Supertubos (Portugal), Cacimba do Padre (Brazil), and Jeffreys Bay (South Africa). Enjoy afternoon, evening, night, and bad weather variations with different waves and visual aesthetics. Perform surfing’s most intense tricks, including the Superman and Sushi Roll, against 15 different surfers. Design your own signature surfer with 6 playable characters and thousands of customizations to have the freedom to design your own unique slick style. Compete in 3 multiplayer online modes: Big Heat Battle, Championship and Survival.
Steam User 31
I am a fan of surfing games and the last one I remember playing is Kelly Slater Pro Surfer, a long time ago. After a very long time without a surfing game, this game came out. I played it for a while and here are some things that you should know before buying this game. First of all this is not a "realistic" game like skate 3, If you are looking for a surfing game like that you should look at the Quantum Engine Surfing Simulator. But if you are looking for an old arcade style feel game like a tony hawk game or kelly slater pro surf game, you have come to the right place. Ill be going over some pros, cons, and suggestions for the Developers.
Pros:
Arcade Syle Gameplay,
Tons of customizable options
No DLC or In game purchaces (yet)
OK Graphics
Cons:
Feels kinda like you arn't playing, I know its arcady but gameplay could use some work
Feels pointless, not really any progression system, besides unlocking patterns, especially on the online mode, could use a level system where you unlock different tricks as you progress instead of just handing the player everything on launch.
Controls are pretty bad and hard to learn, (you dont even need a mouse to play, its all keyboard) but once you get used to them its fine.
Overall, this is a good game and if you are a fan of surfing games and the arcade style feel I think that you would like it. I think that everyone should play the demo and see what they think before buying to though. Thanks Climax Studios for ressurecting surfing games. I just think that yours could use some improvements. Which leads me to reccomending this game.
Steam User 6
its ok, for the price.... controls are not intuitive, but once you get the hang of it, it flows ok... looks nice... not much character customisation... cant change hair or face etc... just not enough content for more than a couple hrs of play... kinda wish there was more to it.... because its fun and pretty... but... gets boring after 2 hrs.... would love to have some giant waves.... some variety in waves (each wave is exactly the same during the rounds (variety would make getting onto the wave more interesting.... cant place rider in postion to get the right drop in..... too arcady.... as the only surf game i have played since california games, its very good.... but hope theres more updates and possibly a more sim like experience in the future. i dont care for tricks, more wave variety and carving timing etc, postioning, that would be better... camera behind the rider? ...... free roam, open world surfing possibly? surfing is a chilled experience.... capture that without the "comps" would be nice, aimless and freedom.... variety and challenge. this game is not that..... its pretty and arcady^^ instead..... oh well ^^ fun while it lasted :D
Steam User 5
I used to play Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer and Transworld Surf and loved those games. I also am a surfer myself, so I can relate to the gameplay. I was particularly excited about this game, as there hasn't been a surfing game in almost 15 years or so.
When I first played this game, I was awestruck with the amazing graphics. The water texture and wave visuals are excellent. Far better than any surfing game in the past. I'm not sure if they are completely up to what technology can do in these days, but they are fantastic and look really amazing.
The gameplay is fun and very much focused on the "trick" system. What this game is about is to do trick moves, and many of them, in all sorts and shapes. Some look impossible, but still not quite over the top. It took my a while to figure it out, but after 20 minutes I had almost everything down and this was the time when I was really sucked into the gameplay. It's great that you can do amazing tricks right out of the gate and not have to wait until you unlock them step by step. BTW, the camera angles when doing a trick really make it look awesome.
I think the tricks overall are super fun (Barrels, Aerials, Face-Tricks) and it keeps me coming back for more.
The surfing locations are great, I can definitly feel the level of difficulty and the nuances and characteristics of each wave - nicely done! However, I couldn't really notice or feel a difference between the size of the waves. The different times a day (night/day/sunset/dawn) bring a lot of visual variety and it looks absolutely stunning.
My favorite part of this game is the controls. I think it's awesome to be able to press the trick button combination without time pressure, ahead of hitting the lip/jump. For a Kick Flip you press X, Y, A. But you don't have to press them at once at the right time, but rather press them one after another before you're doing the actual trick. This gives you plenty of time to get the button combination right, before you're hitting the lip of the wave to do the actual trick. This is such a welcome improvement compared to most trick based gameslike tony hawk pro skater, skate 3, etc. It helps with the flow of the gameplay, instead of having to focus on one moment in time and hit all the buttons in that very moment. Also, it requires a bit practice to find the right "path" to steer through the waves in order to gain speed. If you are a surfer in real life, you might be at an advantage. This part has been realistically implemented. You can feel the spots on the wave where you gain speed or lose momentum. You could even "fall out" of the wave, just like in real life. This is very well executed and keeps this game fresh! Tip for non-surfers: Watch some surf videos and look at how the surfers move on the wave, e.g. before taking off on an aerial or a big move.
I hope there will be more DLC or something like that in the future. A two player split-screen would be great as well, e.g. surfing a real heat against someone and being in the same surf spot. Maybe bring in paddling, duck-diving, or even jetski pickup? It would also be nice to have more tricks in the barrel on on the face, e.g. the coffin, roof grab, etc. or nice face tricks like rail to rail carve, roundhouse cutback, etc. or even a layback bottom turn.
Bottom line, this game is a lot of fun. I'm so glad there is another surfing game taking advantage of newer graphics hardware and physics engines, it simply looks amazing. The trick system is probably the best part of this game, and the comprehensive customizations for surfer and gear keeps you coming back. My expectations were kind of high after such long time without a surfing game, and I can say that I'm very pleased with the result. Can't put this game down! Thank you Climax Studios!
I would recommend this game to anyone interested in trick-based Skateboard, Snowboard, etc. games. This is a must buy for any surfer.
Steam User 4
Was so excited to give this game a go. Looks great. Well, better than the competition.
Anyway, what's going on with these controls? Fired it up on the PC, grabbed the Xbone controller, and...... nope.
Doesn't recognize it or give me an option to change it. So as far as I can tell, I am stuck trying to use the keyboard which feels really really uncomfortable. I am used to playing on a keyboard and mouse >90% of the time, but it feels wrong here. Would love to give it a spin once I either figure out how to enable the controller, or support is added. Until then I can barely stomach it.
Hopefully I am just dense and haven't figured out how to enable the Xbone controller. Will write another review when that happens.
EDIT: The error was completely on me because as I said above, I am thick. Game is great fun for $15. Easily the most enjoyable surf game I have played since KSPS.
Steam User 2
So so hard to control (
But the music and atmosphere is awesome!
Need to know track list!
Steam User 2
best surfing game since kelly slater pro surfer
Steam User 7
Surf World Series is the best surfing game I've ever played...
...which isn't saying much, but if a surfing game interests you, you can do a lot worse than this for $15.
It's simple, arcadey gameplay with a host of different challenges to do.
Customization is incredible right from the start and by playing you only unlock more stuff.
Controls take a bit to get used to, but are pretty intuitive once you do, and becomes second nature carving into the wave.
Soundtrack is varied and perfectly fitting.
You can put neon LED's onto your surfboard. Frankly it's worth a buy just for this.
On the other hand, though;
The game has a tendency to crash pretty often, at least for me and a friend I played with. Usually a crash every hour or two.
Multiplayer is bare-bones as it gets. You never get to actually surf *with* other players, nor is there any sort of interaction. You basically just play a challenge at the same time and at the end the game informs you who won. It works, but it would have been cool to see neon trails crossing each other on a single wave...
Controls aren't nearly as workable if you don't have a controller. Most games I vastly prefer keyboard, but for this one I just had to cave and use a gamepad.
There really isn't any variety in the gameplay other than 'ride a single wave towards the camera'. It does that very well, but if you're hoping for a ton of different modes and styles you'd expect from a $80 release, you're not going to be thrilled.
Bottom line is, well, if you want to surf in a video game I couldn't suggest anything better than this. For the $15 price-point, you'd certainly be getting your money's worth. It won't rob hundreds of hours of your life, and there's really no way to mellow out and surf about with your friends, but if you just want to surf, I heartily reccommend it.