Surf's Up is one of two movie tie-in games appearing during what I like to call, "The Summer of Shia," a time when it seems like every other movie features Shia LaBeouf. The movie (and game) feature a penguin named Cody whose life goal is to be a surf legend like his idol, Big Z, and could have easily been a generic platformer. Thankfully, the developers decided to take a completely different route. Rather than following the plot of the movie, the game features only characters and locations from the film and incorporates them into a game that attempts to combine SSX with the rarely-used genre of surfing. Although it does result in a different type of game, there are still a few noticeable first time kinks that need to be worked out.

Surf's Up brings a nice visual package to the 360, though there isn't much here that couldn't be done on other systems. There is nothing here that is of particular note, though it does capture the feel of the movie really well. All of the characters from the movie show up as riders and look like they do in the movie. A few of the movie's actors, including Shia LaBeouf and Jeff Bridges, reprise their movie roles, though dialogue is limited to cheers and jeers during and after races. Locations from the movie serve as courses, including the volcano - which serves as the location for a bonus Leaf Sliding mini-game.

UbiSoft could have easily crammed in a generic "surf" themed soundtrack, but instead went for something that fits the game's fast pacing. A few of the songs are licensed and feature groups like the Plain White Tees, while others are up tempo... well, I guess you could call them surf songs, but without the flair of Frankie Avalon or any beach blanket movie.

Surf's Up only loosely follows the plot of the movie, instead taking the surfing premise and building around that. Playing as one of the movie's characters, you travel around the frosty coast of Shiverpool and sunny Pen Gu Island competing in the Penguin World Surfing Championship. Yes, a few non-Penguins do compete, but we will look past that...

The overall presentation, which is a take on ESPN, is fun and ties into the game's premise really well. I would be lying if I said I did not find some of these segments entertaining and kind of funny. Older gamers may skip through them, but a younger audience should enjoy them. Besides, sometimes you just have to turn your brain off and just have fun.

The goal of each course is to earn a set number of points before reaching the end. Along the way, you can also complete side goals to earn shells or collect Surf Idols, which unlocks bonus content such as the Legendary Wave course.

A number of Surf's Up's problems could be easily resolved if the game could only decide whether it wants to be a competent surfing game or an SSX clone, because the two don't mix nearly as well as you would think. On the SSX side, you have a number of intricately planned course moments involving rail grinds, barriers to steer around and rings to pass through. At the same time, you have a massive wave that you trick off of, earning major points. Knowing when to run the course and when to ride a wave is a big part of gameplay, though the bigger problem is when the two literally run into each other.

The timing of wave crashes and appearance of course obstacles is out of sync, so you can end up in a situation where the only thing you can do is crash and lose out on any points you may have earned. Some areas leave little room for error and feel like they are unfairly punishing players, especially some of the more congested ones where there is too much happening.

Single-player races can also be played in four player split-screen, though the loss of screen space makes congested areas feel downright claustrophobic. But hey, your opponents are dealing with the same thing, so it isn't so bad.

Two neat aspects are the surfer and board edit tools. By completing goals in levels, you can unlock accessories to dress your characters up. You can also choose the style and color of your board. Nothing about the changes make any difference in-game (though board types affect character stats), but it does lend a little personalization to everything.

By completing the main game, you can unlock a Leaf Sliding mini-game where you ride a leaf through a slippery, and dangerous, volcano course. There is not much to the game other than knowing when to brake, but it does provide a few shells and Surf Idols to collect.

If gameplay balance is a major factor setting good games apart from bad ones, then knowing how to find that balance is something that should also separate developers. Surf's Up manages to find a playable balance; nothing about the game is broken to the point that you feel cheated out of anything. At the same time, the game's basic design feels off, mostly due to the game's indecisiveness about its genre. By its very nature, trying to find a good wave and successfully land tricks is difficult, especially when you are trying to meet certain point totals. The inclusion of obstacles only adds frustration to an already challenging mechanic; as a result the game isn't nearly as fun as it could be.

If you can manage to stick to just the course, you can probably earn enough points to earn most gold trophies, though the fun of Surf's Up is earning shells by completing side goals since they allow you to unlock new content like characters and boards. Everything in the game is doable, it just depends on how much time you want to sink into replaying courses and learning the layout of each.

Learning the various controls is easy, though just knowing what everything does is not enough. In order to get the most out of each course, you need to know how to time things; when to hit the course, when to ride a wave, when to do certain trick types... those sorts of things. This is just something that comes with playing the game, though if you have a hard time with games like SSX or Tony Hawk, you may have a problem with Surf's Up. Then, of course, there are the previously mentioned in-game timing issues that are really just something you learn to deal with.

Overall, the controls are responsive and usually involve tapping or holding different face buttons. You can also work the right analog stick to pull off freestyle moves, though you really have to get decent airtime to land them successfully. As you pull off tricks, a meter fills up. The saved energy can be used at any time to gain speed and burst through obstacles (or escape crashing waves), or if you fill up the entire meter, to enter Stoke Mode, doubling scores for normal moves or letting you pull off special Stoke moves. If you time things right, you can enter Stoke Mode after hitting a multiplier object, resulting in big point gains (provided, of course, you land the moves).

Surf's Up is not a game that I would recommend to the general public. It has its fun moments, but at times, it still feels like an experiment. Because of that, I would not mind seeing some sort of follow-up that tweaks the problems since there is definitely potential here. If you are the type of gamer who likes to try new things and are not put off by the game's kid-friendly license, Surf's Up is a decent weekend diversion.