Hands-on: Sunny Garcia Championship Surfing PS2

Ubi Soft's Sunny Garcia Championship Surfing went underwater following its initial showing at this year's E3. However, on the first day of its ongoing Gamers Week, the title made its second public appearance, and Sunny Garcia himself was on hand to show off the latest build to the gaming press. According to Ubi Soft, Sunny Garcia Championship Surfing will bring a sense of realism and a deep gameplay system to the embryonic surfing subgenre, all the while retaining an intuitive control system that will make the game easy to pick up and play for the novice game player. One of the ways Ubi Soft plans to achieve this is through the implementation of three distinct difficulty levels. The game's beginner level, which was the only one available in the demo show, is clearly designed with the novice game player in mind. In a matter of minutes, we found ourselves adeptly riding the waves, moving in and out of the barrel and riding the crest. We even found time to perform a variety of amusing taunts, four of which were available in the demo. Simply by pressing the triangle button on the PlayStation 2 controller, we were able to make Sunny Garcia, or any of the other 10 available surfers in the game, perform taunts such as pointing at the beach, raising our arms, and striking various poses.

The control scheme in Sunny Garcia Championship Surfing is relatively intuitive. The square button on the PS2 Dual Shock controller is used to paddle, and the triangle button is used to stand up on the board. The player must paddle in rhythm with the wave and stand up as the crest creeps up from behind. A variety of moves can be performed simply by rotating the left analog stick while riding the wave. During the demo by Ubi Soft's development team, they were able to perform a limited number of aerial moves, but we found it rather difficult to catch air. Of course, this plays into the company's desire to create a surfing game that stays true to the sport. As Sunny Garcia said, in real life, it is quite difficult for even the most adept pros to perform seemingly simple tricks such as lengthy barrel runs, so aerial moves are extremely difficult and require a lot of skill.

Sunny Garcia Championship Surfing has three primary modes of play. They are free run, championship, and multiplayer. Free run is rather self-explanatory. This is where players can take to the various fictional beaches in the game and surf to their hearts' content. The championship mode essentially duplicates the pro surfing tour. Players must enter a variety of competitions and earn the most points, by performing the sickest tricks, in order to win. The multiplayer mode has two primary gameplay options. The game features a split-screen surf-off, where two players can compete for the most points. The second multiplayer mode has more of an arcade feel. Here two players compete on one screen, and they must avoid such obstacles as mines, buoys, and other assorted obstacles--they can even try to knock each other off their boards.

Sunny Garcia Championship Surfing is currently on schedule to be released in November. At this point, it is clearly evident that the game takes an understated approach to the subgenre. Those seeking big aerial moves and wild tricks may not find it in Ubi Soft's surfing game, but as Garcia himself put it, the game is probably the most realistic replication of the sport of surfing to date. GameSpot will continue to follow the game's development and will have more in the coming months.