Features
- Nine surfers
- Twelve locations
- Challenge and Championship modes
- Cartridge save
- Link cable support for two players
- Only for Game Boy Advance
Like Activision's and VV's Tony Hawk series, Kelly Slater on the GBA employs a combination of 2D and 3D effects to offer a similar gameplay experience on the handheld. The engine that HotGen created for the GBA is downright stunning, not just in techniques, but in how it all looks on screen. The surfer and board are obviously 3D models using low-resolution texture-mapped polygons, with the wave formed by a clever combination of backgrounds and sprites. Each of the different locations in the game features a different environment coloring, and the artists performed an admirable job creating and animating the wave to give the illusion of a sun-reflected water surface, continuously flowing out in the ocean. Oh, it's a far cry from the truly 3D wave effects that TreyArch pull off on the GameCube, Xbox and PlayStation, but it's hard to watch the flowing wave on the GBA's LCD screen and not be impressed by the way it looks.
Kelly Slater's shortcoming is, obviously, its overall theme. There's not a whole lot you can do on a wave...it's essentially a game of Tony Hawk that's on a more forgiving, endless halfpipe. The different environments only offer different sizes of the same wave, some that break towards the right, others that break to the left. As deep as the water is out there, surfing just doesn't make for a deep game design. Skateboarding games like Tony Hawk have the benefit of taking the action to pretty much anywhere in the world, whereas surfing games are generally grounded -- pardon the pun -- in water.
But for what it's worth, HotGen pulled off as much as it could for the GBA design, letting players surf around with the same line-up of real-world professionals on a game creation that flows as smooth as water. There are two general modes of play, Championship and Challenge, and both must be explored in order to unlock everything in the game. Championship is the standard three-run competition against the opposing surfers, and by pulling off more moves for a high score you'll be rated a point rating...the best two runs are calculated and averaged, and you can only move on if you finish in the top three. In Challenge mode, you surf the same waves that you've unlocked in Championship mode, but here you have to complete a checklist of tasks, be they set scores or moves. By completing the list, you can earn surfboards with enhanced abilities: balance, speed, turning, and air. These boards can then be taken back to the Championship mode so you can compete with the tougher opponents.
There's a whopping amount of aerial and face tricks to pull off in Kelly Slater, but some moves are actually clumsy to pull off on the GBA's cramped control layout...and in some cases, specific moves just aren't activated even when you think you've pushed the proper Left/Right + L + A commands. The elusive Superman aerial moves, for example, were a downright chore to perform when the game requires it...but it's one of those things that just accidentally happens when you mash down the buttons. But at least the basic moves are pretty intuitive, and it's not difficult to pull off multi-move combos for high scores.
HotGen also worked a series of fun two-player modes in Kelly Slater through the use of the link cable, and obviously the modes require players to have their own copy of the cartridge to take advantage of them. The competition happens on the same wave, where players try to pull off a series of move before the other person can do it. Unfortunately in these modes, you can't really screw up the other player...the collision between surfers is turned off.
As great as the game looks and plays, the music and sounds are extremely disappointing. The lousy music compositions do not fit the on-screen action at all...they're a far-cry from the licensed music offered to the console gamers. And the homeboy calling out as you pull off your wave tricks is just downright irritating...luckily you can turn that obnoxious dude off.
Verdict
The one game that probably got me into this whole world of handheld games was the Atari Lynx version of California Games, and more specifically the amazing rendition of the surfing game on the handheld. I had hours of fun with that game, and to this day I've been somewhat surprised that nobody ever attempted to recreate that design on current handheld hardware. Until now. The similarities may be coincidental, though...but I'm convinced that HotGen used that Lynx minigame as a blueprint for its first GBA surfing title. The game's not very deep...but then, what the heck can you do on a constantly flowing wall of water? Kelly Slater is an excellent, intuitive surfing game that's a whole lot of fun to just kick around on the varying sizes of waves. And it looks just beautiful on the GBA system.