gameplay:2/10
there is essentially two tricks the surfer can perform on the wave, slash (x), and air (o). insult to injury neither one of them is animated good. there is no freedom to grab the rail at any time, and there is very little freedom with any of the turns the surfer does. the barrels are unrealistic (physics not graphics), and at times when you wipe out you have to watch out for sharks eating you. not to mention dodging obstacles while riding the wave. the gameplay in no way resembles or recreates the sport of surfing or the feeling of riding a wave
graphics: 6/10
the waves are one of the high points of the game. the spray from the surfboard looks amazing, and inside the barrel the water almost looks photogenic as lip falls. but the surfer models are terrible. not only do they look awkward in movement, but they are far too skinny and long. the surfer's foot placement on the board are too narrow, and the turn animations are just plain bad.
presentation: 6/10
the screens and title shots seem uninspired, but atarti did include enough video footage of each surfer and location to make the average surfer and gamer happy. the pro surfer's video bio is an added plus, and also included are tons of trailers for surfing movies.
surfers: 9/10
the second high point of the game. while not very diverse, transworld's pro surfers includes some of the world's who's who of the top young pro surfers today. at least you can give atarti credit for putting their money where their month is in terms of surfer licenses. with a line up consisting of taj burrow, andy irons, taylor knox, cory lopez, chris ward, shane dorian, tim curran, dan malloy, christian fletcher, jason collins, shawn barron, fred patacchia, and rochelle ballard, it's hard for any future surf game to compete. while there are alot of pros to choose from, a little more diversity would have been nice. maybe some younger pros, or an older veteran.
locations: 7/10
first surfing game to include real world surfing locations, and great locations to boot; teahupoo, pipeline, kirra, g land, huntington, tavarau, hossegor, todos santos, witches rock, and fort point. to me, this is the single most important innovation infogames and atarti has added to the surfing genre. before transworld, surfing gamers were stuck in the dark ages with fantasy breaks.
music: 3/10
similar to the presentation, uninspiring. it's as if infogames and atarti put little to no thought into their selection of songs and went with the lowest bidder of record companies egger to get exposure for their up and comers.
lasting appeal: 1/10
gameplay really does make or break a videogame, and in the case of transworld it breaks. while having everything going for them; great looking water, real world locations, and a great line up of pros, infogames forgets about gameplay. you will play this once to open up all the breaks and get a feel for the title, and then you may never pick it up again.
overall: 3/10
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