Each surfer is represented by a high-res 3-D model that brings their signature style and tricks to life. Take an exhilarating thrill ride down huge wave faces and into barreling tubes, using an intuitive control system and multiple modes of play. Plus, surf exotic real-world locales in South Africa, Hawaii, Australia, Tahiti, Spain and North America.
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Pretty obviously an attempt by Activision to cash-in on the success of the Tony Hawk Pro Skater series, but Neversoft do the most they can with the concept. I quite enjoy the reverential tone of the FMV that accompanies each different level, and it's clear that the developers have tried to imbue the game with a deep appreciation and respect for surf culture.
The actual gameplay is a solid riff on the THPS formula - you're landing tricks and building longer combos with bigger point multipliers to earn higher scores within a time limit. Landing tricks fills up your special meter, which allows you to attempt more complex tricks with bigger scores attached. Each level has specific objectives to complete, such as requiring you to land specific tricks in sequence, reach a high score, or hit different objects in the level.
The game controls much the same too - launching airs, grabs, and spins off the top of a wave is achieved the same way as launching off a quarter pipe in THPS, so any muscle memory of playing those games should help here.
Neversoft have obviously had to make some tweaks to the gameplay to better fit what surfing is like in real life, and they work quite well. Carving along the face of the wave (called 'face' tricks) is essentially your way of performing a revert/manual trick to extend your combos, riding inside the tube of a wave takes the place of grinds/lip tricks (balance meter and all), and there's a much greater emphasis placed on landing 'perfect' rotations for your airs. It's a little forced, but for the most part it works, and I actually really enjoy the moment-to-moment gameplay.
However, the THPS games are so good (in my opinion) because the levels are designed to include a variety of obstacles laid out in a way that allows players to chain combos together in creative and interesting ways. Those games are essentially platformers, and the joy of traversing levels like Airport, Bull Ring, School II and Foundry comes from the creative goals, interesting backdrops, and weird secrets which provide variety to gameplay that doesn't really add too many wrinkles in terms of new late-game mechanics or challenges.
Instead, Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer has... a bunch of beaches. Iconic real-life beaches, to be sure, each with little quirks such as levels of swell, tube patterns, and a few obstacles, but nothing close to the variety of THPS maps. You're constrained to what is, essentially, a single quarter pipe for you to ride, and it gets boring very quickly.
There are other gripes - the controls aren't as precise, the camera is absolutely dreadful and actively makes some goals more difficult than necessary, and the balance in tubes definitely needed some fine-tuning. There are positives as well - the game runs at a smooth 60FPS, the game remains pretty challenging, there's some incredibly silly secret characters, and the soundtrack's few tracks eschew the expected rap/punk/metal of a THPS game in favour of drum n bass, folk, indie rock and some almost lo-fi hip hop beat type stuff. But the game cannot overcome the fundamental flaw that navigating one obstacle over and over again is just not very fun over hours of play.
It's not really the developers' fault, as it's a problem that's built into the games' premise: a wave, no matter how dynamic it may be, will never be as interesting as a skate park, factory, or school, let alone the theme park facsimiles of entire cities or countries that the THPS series would include. But that doesn't mean I have to think it's very good.
The actual gameplay is a solid riff on the THPS formula - you're landing tricks and building longer combos with bigger point multipliers to earn higher scores within a time limit. Landing tricks fills up your special meter, which allows you to attempt more complex tricks with bigger scores attached. Each level has specific objectives to complete, such as requiring you to land specific tricks in sequence, reach a high score, or hit different objects in the level.
The game controls much the same too - launching airs, grabs, and spins off the top of a wave is achieved the same way as launching off a quarter pipe in THPS, so any muscle memory of playing those games should help here.
Neversoft have obviously had to make some tweaks to the gameplay to better fit what surfing is like in real life, and they work quite well. Carving along the face of the wave (called 'face' tricks) is essentially your way of performing a revert/manual trick to extend your combos, riding inside the tube of a wave takes the place of grinds/lip tricks (balance meter and all), and there's a much greater emphasis placed on landing 'perfect' rotations for your airs. It's a little forced, but for the most part it works, and I actually really enjoy the moment-to-moment gameplay.
However, the THPS games are so good (in my opinion) because the levels are designed to include a variety of obstacles laid out in a way that allows players to chain combos together in creative and interesting ways. Those games are essentially platformers, and the joy of traversing levels like Airport, Bull Ring, School II and Foundry comes from the creative goals, interesting backdrops, and weird secrets which provide variety to gameplay that doesn't really add too many wrinkles in terms of new late-game mechanics or challenges.
Instead, Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer has... a bunch of beaches. Iconic real-life beaches, to be sure, each with little quirks such as levels of swell, tube patterns, and a few obstacles, but nothing close to the variety of THPS maps. You're constrained to what is, essentially, a single quarter pipe for you to ride, and it gets boring very quickly.
There are other gripes - the controls aren't as precise, the camera is absolutely dreadful and actively makes some goals more difficult than necessary, and the balance in tubes definitely needed some fine-tuning. There are positives as well - the game runs at a smooth 60FPS, the game remains pretty challenging, there's some incredibly silly secret characters, and the soundtrack's few tracks eschew the expected rap/punk/metal of a THPS game in favour of drum n bass, folk, indie rock and some almost lo-fi hip hop beat type stuff. But the game cannot overcome the fundamental flaw that navigating one obstacle over and over again is just not very fun over hours of play.
It's not really the developers' fault, as it's a problem that's built into the games' premise: a wave, no matter how dynamic it may be, will never be as interesting as a skate park, factory, or school, let alone the theme park facsimiles of entire cities or countries that the THPS series would include. But that doesn't mean I have to think it's very good.
Incredibly underrated game, the activision O2 was a great series of extreme sports hits back then and this is no different, probably the only fun videogame about surfing you will ever find, some goals are pretty challenging but I have 100% this without ever getting bored.
Not rating this one because I don't have the patience for the learning curve. It certainly stands out from all the other Activision O2 games as its own thing. Even aside from the mechanics which are obviously gonna be different from skateboarding and BMX, the presentation is going in a pretty different direction as well ... but I'm not sure how much I like it. It's kind of documentary-style and very in-depth regarding Slater and the sport itself, but also pretty self-serious. Certainly seems authentic! ... but humorless. This hushed, reverent tone. Wave worship. Tales of being a young beach bum. It's like, look man, I'm just trying to play a video game, here.
Camera sucks and the 'levels' are just gonna be boring by definition, but the waves and the physics are quite impressive and you really feel like you're doing something cool when you pull off a few tricks or successfully get in the barrel. Getting good at this game probably feels awesome. If I'd had it as a kid I bet I would have been really into it.
Camera sucks and the 'levels' are just gonna be boring by definition, but the waves and the physics are quite impressive and you really feel like you're doing something cool when you pull off a few tricks or successfully get in the barrel. Getting good at this game probably feels awesome. If I'd had it as a kid I bet I would have been really into it.
Just replayed this the other day. KSPS was made right after Neversoft was acquired by Activision. So it's essentially just Tony Hawk assets put into a surfing game. It feels great to play and chain combos together.
The problem is that unfortunately.. every stage is just one long quarter pipe with very little variation besides wave height and the 2 or 3 dynamic effects the waves have when you're on them. Not a lot to keep you engaged whereas Tony Hawk games have a lot you can trick off of all the time. I feel like the devs did what they could with the concept with the amount of FMVs for every surfer and every 1st visit to a new level, secret unlockable characters and cheat codes, a fully modeled main menu hub. You can feel the passion put into it but there's just not enough there fundamentally.
The end credits lists quite a long track list but I swear the in-game songs only play that one Jack Johnson remix and a small list of other songs. At least they aren't bad songs, just extremely limited.
The problem is that unfortunately.. every stage is just one long quarter pipe with very little variation besides wave height and the 2 or 3 dynamic effects the waves have when you're on them. Not a lot to keep you engaged whereas Tony Hawk games have a lot you can trick off of all the time. I feel like the devs did what they could with the concept with the amount of FMVs for every surfer and every 1st visit to a new level, secret unlockable characters and cheat codes, a fully modeled main menu hub. You can feel the passion put into it but there's just not enough there fundamentally.
The end credits lists quite a long track list but I swear the in-game songs only play that one Jack Johnson remix and a small list of other songs. At least they aren't bad songs, just extremely limited.
tony hawk
I have not played this game but it has been sitting at my local rental store long after the gamecube games were phased out. They sell the old games off normally but no one ever bought it. I feel bad for it.