I'm porting thsi review from my old arts website, DanielThomas.org. I think I was playing around with Visualboy Advance here and there, and remembered how much I loved Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer on Gameboy Advance. It was just about my favorite game for the handheld, and the only title in the "extreme sports" genre to really succeed on the Advance.
Isn't it strange how this genre just upped and died? I'm not surprised to see the Tony Hawk series run into the ground (only the first two Pro Skaters were classic). But why no other games in 2009? What's the deal on that? In any case, here is one of the greatest examples of the genre. The animation of the surfers is impeccably smooth, and the rolling waves remain a dazzling visual feast. This water on this Advance version is better than the Playstation 2 and XBox! The console versions used smooth polygon graphics that felt wholly out of place, just flat and awful. I suspect that's why Kelly Slater was overlooked as a game.
Meanwhile, Hot Gen Studios created a modern masterpiece on the Gameboy Advance, and I daresay barely anybody ever noticed. It's a shame, a real shame. This is one of the finest sports video games ever made. Oh, how I wish a sequel could have been made, but the studio, like so many small studios at the time, went under for good.
Anyway, enjoy these screenshots that I snapped back in 2003. I was so proud of myself for capturing such great action shots. Feel free to steal whatever you want.
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