TransWorld Surf

Behold TransWorld?s water, in all its infinite glory! Waves roar! Dolphins leap! Oceans churn! And, oh yeah, there?s some people surfing or something too, if you?re into that sorta thing.

Universal Solvent?Universal Mystery
Water. It covers three-fourths of the Earth. It makes up ninety percent of the human body. When it flows from our faucets, we don?t bat an eye; and we just get annoyed when it falls from the sky. Yet when it looks good in a video game?crowds gather ?round and stare as if they just caught Santa Claus consuming the Easter Bunny.

Thanks to its stunning leaps in water technology, TransWorld Surf ranks among the most instantly impressive of Infogrames? TransWorld series of games, and stands as a premier showcase of the Xbox?s techno-potential. Right off the bat, you?ll notice how drop-dead gorgeous the ocean looks?light reflects off the tiny ripples in the surface; you can almost feel the power of the awesome waves. You?ve never seen water this cool in a game before.

A few moments later, you?ll start to notice the shorelines, docks, and coastline approaching, and realize that this ocean isn?t just an infinite plane of blue-textured trick zone. It?s a complete bay and beach environment, and ten different real-world surf-zones have been recreated for the game. One of GamePro?s resident SurfPros even walked by and said, ?Oh, hey, that?s Talucalalaluahua,? only to be met by silence. ?It?s in France,? he added helpfully. A quick peek at the stage select menu proved whatever he said to be correct.

Dude, It?s Just Water?
Of course, the ?H2-WHOA!? factor doesn?t last forever, and in the end it?s gameplay that matters?which is why thousands upon thousands of gamers are still playing Ms. Pac-Man on their Game Boy Advances. While TransWorld Surf is still a stunt-based game a la Tony Hawk, it?s more rooted in reality than some of its other extreme cousins. Even when you?re rescuing 8 dolphins from tuna nets as a goal in Career Mode, the tricks seem focused more on extended rides inside (or on top of) a cresting wave, with the aerial acrobats taking a bit of a back seat. The controls in the preview build felt very organic and (pun pardon requested) extremely fluid, and the aforementioned resident SurfPro picked up the controller and almost instantly knew what do.

Of course, the preview didn?t make for entirely smooth sailing. For landlocked gamers whose only exposure to surfing is Baywatch reruns, TransWorld sports an X-tremely high learning curve. The lack of a tutorial mode (at least in the preview build) made things even tougher, though after a few hours of wiping out everything magically began to click. And?apparently because the Xbox is so unflinchingly focused on making pretty water?some other environmental elements like rocks and docks and houses looked childishly simple?at least once you were close enough to crack your skull open on them.

TransWorld Surf is shaping up to be one of the Xbox?s biggest early surprises. Unless Infogrames magically undoes what they?ve already accomplished, it looks like the only snag that could sink TransWorld is how deep its oceans run?and how long you?ll want to catch the wave.

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