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Billabong Surf Trip
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Graphics & Sound:
Billabong Surf Trip marks one of the first pure action games we've played for iPad, and it trades off fast, surfing gameplay for slick graphics. The future of action games for iPad may be bright, but we're off to a rough start here. Character customization and board selection is the best of it, which is not surprising considering the tie-in with Billabong. Had more attention been paid to the rest of the game, we'd have better things to say. After selecting a male or female surfer, you'll immediately hit the beach. We actually liked the look of the interface, with two small circles at the bottom left and right which act like Analog Sticks. This is definitely a cool way to achieve a traditional control-scheme through nothing more than touch controls, but the weight of the iPad makes it a bit impractical at times. On the plus side, there's a simplicity to the interface that we appreciated. The sound effects are minimal, but crowd noise and clapping when you pull off a sweet trick is a nice touch. There is one great tune that accompanies the main titles, but then nothing during the action sequences that make up 80% of the game. Glitches in the graphics are typical of what we saw years ago, in the early days of 3D. Wave models are rough, like blocky walls rising out of the sea rather than the smooth, organic contours you'd expect. Depending on the angle of your view, entire sections of ocean will occasionally disappear, the result of gaps in the graphics that severely break the illusion of being in the water on a board. Billabong Surf Trip may get more visual polish through updates, but right now it definitely feels not ready for prime time.
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Gameplay:
Surfing games aren't all that common, but we've played them before on other consoles. Apart from the board selection, it's not like Billabong Surf Trip is just a big advertisement for Billabong, so it appears they were really interested in making a fun action/sports game. The graphics detract from immersing yourself in the surfing action, but the more relevant issue is that the action just isn't very good. When you begin the game, you're instructed on the basics. Either navigate out to the waves or tap the screen to take a shortcut, and then move along the cresting wave to build up some energy and pull some tricks. A multi-part energy bar at the bottom will fill gradually as you catch a wave, and the timer will also pause as long as you're standing up on the board. Once you stop moving, the timer starts up again. The energy bar remains full unless you fall, and this is important because you'll need energy to pull off tricks. You progress in the game by performing specific tricks, not in any particular order. Each new beach will present different sets of waves that inspire you to perform new tricks, but you can technically pull off all the tricks from the outset. Points are awarded for trick flair, so the secret to scoring big is to perform lots of tricks in the time allotted, or to pull off some really complicated tricks. Once you wrap up successfully at one beach, it's on to the next. You can improve your look along the way by purchasing custom boards or looks from the pro shop, of course. It sounds great in theory, but the surfing action doesn't hold up, due in part to the strangeness of the controls and the iPad form factor, and also due to the rather steep level of difficulty in order to master more than the basic tricks. Because the timer is always counting down, there's no real concept of surfing for pleasure, which might have improved replay value.
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Difficulty:
A "tutorial" at the beginning of each level is really just a surfer dude explaining to you how the waves break, or giving you some basic tips on how to ride. Finding the explanations for how to perform each trick requires a trip back to the Main Menu, and this alone dooms us to constant frustration. Rather than make it easy for players to see the moves they'll need to fill their trick quota, we have to pause and navigate through menus? Especially when there are new moves introduced in each level, memorizing the controls is tedious. We prefer the model used in numerous trick-sports games for years, where you needed points to move forward. Requiring specific tricks makes Billabong Surf Trip too hard for any casual gamer, and unintuitive for all gamers. Perhaps the thought was that making the tricks harder to learn would extend the life of the game, but it would have been a million times better to just add more beach, or extend the timer to achieve this purpose. The other aspect of Billabong Surf Trip that feels poorly planned is emptying the energy bar when the surfer falls off his or her board. Depleting a bit would have been fine, to represent the energy needed to get back on the board. Emptying the bar means that at some point you literally have no way of finishing the round with your required tricks, since some tricks require a minimum amount of accumulated energy. Disappointments like this stack up and conspire to make Billabong Surf Trip a frustrating and repetitive experience. It's a shame, because with a little tweaking, things could have been much better.
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Game Mechanics:
As you might surmise by this point in the review, we weren't in love with the controls... It does make for a nice introduction to the game as you begin to play, especially for gamers that are accustomed to using Analog Sticks and the classic control scheme of motion on one side with action on the other. After the honeymoon period, you begin to notice the heft of the iPad, and you'll also find that your thumbs naturally stray from the circles that define how the game reads your input. With something more like the gestural controls we've seen on the Wii or DS, where you can make a motion on any part of the screen and still count on it being read, this would be a better experience. Inconsistent response to your input also creates frustration, as you try to follow the game's directions on how to execute tricks. Mostly things work as expected, but the timer is your nemesis and unless you get the trick perfect, you'll find yourself tossed from the wave and drained of energy. Tricks with perspective also make things overcomplicated, as the camera shifts when you catch a wave, forcing you to rethink how you move your surfer. We were never 100% sure we were doing it all correctly, and that's not a good thing for a game that's probably intended to be light and fun. If the graphics and options were presented differently, we might chalk up the difficulty and awkward controls to attempts at simulation, but our guess is that actual surfing is easier than mastering a wave in Billabong Surf Trip for iPad.
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-Fridtjof, GameVortex Communications AKA Matt Paddock |
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