This being my first surfing game, I must say that the graphics of Surf Riders weren't the most impressive. The animation of the water and waves was ok, but nothing spectacular. And your little surfer guy was just that... little. The difference between the look of each surfer seemed to be just a different color shirt and hair. I was hoping to have a little definition to detail with the different characters, but I guess not. The only good in the graphics were in the animation of the surfer's moves. Those seemed to look realistic, although since I'm from the Midwest, I don't get a chance to really watch a realistic surfing move. But it did look real, and that's what matters.

The sounds and music are both there, although I found nothing impressive about either. The ocean sounds like you're on the beach, and the music fits with a Hawaiian feel. I did find the crowd noise to lack a little, however. When you got your score after a "heat," you would sometimes get cheers, other times you would get boos. Sometimes, I think I got a mix of both.

The game is surfing, but I found Surf Riders to be a mixture of the Coolboarders series and Skate or Die. You have two different options of play: free surf or a season. The Free Surf allows you to perfect your moves on different beaches with different waves without the worry of competing against others. In the Season, you go through a series of competitions alongside all the different surfers. First, you have to qualify for the round by winning your heat, which is done by getting the highest cumulative score. Once you win the heat, you then compete some more, with your final scores going towards your points in the World Cup Standings. At the end of the season, the surfer with the highest number of points wins the World Challenge Cup. Along with winning that, you can also unlock different surf boards that can help you surf even easier.

Of course, to earn these points, you've got to pull off some gnarly moves, such as cyclones, helicopters, spins, and more. When you can pull the move off, it's pretty sweet... but remember, I said when.

You can adjust the difficulty levels in Surf Riders from Easy, Medium and Hard. The real difficulty is pulling off the different moves. I found that to be a little too difficult at times, which led to frustration, which led to me losing, which led to me turning off the game. My advice would be to practice, practice, practice in the Free Surf.

Surf Riders didn't take too much time to load, and it only takes up one block on the memory card... bonus! But I found the controls to be a bit awkward and confusing at times. It may take a little bit to get used to playing this game.

I wasn't a big fan of Surf Riders, but then again, I'm not a big fan of surfing. From what I got from playing this game, I was not completely blown away from its complete awesomeness.