My first thought, when I received the announcement for Surf World Series, is that surfing is an awfully strange choice of subject matter for a videogame. It's certainly been a long time since Kelly Slater was catching tubes on PC. Then it occurred to me that surfing is basically just SSX or Steep, but without the crappy weather, and that actually sounds quite nice. So let's have a look.
Surf World Series promises "the thrill of pure arcade-style surfing," on "monster waves from around the world at five legendary surfing destinations" including Hawaii and Portugal. You'll learn an array of tricks, from simple kickflips to massive aerials, and then put them to use through 45 single-player challenges and online play against up to 15 other surfer digi-dudes. Ranking up will unlock customization options that will let you "stamp your own style" on the way to becoming a Surfer Legend.
“Surfing is an amazing sport that’s been pretty underrepresented in games for some time, so we wanted to bring surfing fans a fun, arcade-style experience that’s all about mastering waves and racking up huge high scores.” said Simon Gardner, CEO of developer Climax Studios. “Surf World Series is a celebration of those moments when board and wave work together in perfect harmony.”
Climax isn't a big-name studio by any stretch, but it's been around for awhile. It's probably best known, in PC circles at least, as the developer of the Assassin's Creed Chronicles games, at least one of which was actually quite good.
The website at surfworldseries.com says a little bit more about what's coming: The game will offer six playable characters, three different multiplayer modes, and even night surfing—probably not something you should try in real life. Surf World Series is scheduled to come out sometime in 2017.
