Surf Shogun

Local multiplayer is a great way to have fun with your friends when they are coming over, but the games in question need to feature great replayability in order to keep you entertained for longer than a few minutes. There are many great examples of this, such as Mario Kart, Rocket League or similar games, but it’s definitely not easy to design something like that.

Surf Shogun is a fast-paced arcade game in which you control a samurai on a boat and you try to survive for as long as possible. More and more enemies start to appear the longer you manage to survive, which makes it a lot tougher to avoid their swords. On the other hand, there are plenty of power-ups to lend you a helping hand as well, although it’s risky to hunt them.

In essence, the action takes place underwater, but it’s more like you’re surfing on top of the waves. You can actually perform jumps and simple acrobatics if you wish to, but it’s a lot more important to deal with the enemies trying to capture you. As such, the main idea is to jab them with your sword before they get a chance to do the same to you.

In order to make it easier to survive, you can invite your friends and share the adventure with up to three other people. Obviously, controllers are necessary for this to work, but one of the players can use the keyboard as well. The experience is much more challenging in multiplayer, but it’s also a lot more fun, because the game gets repetitive in single player.

Not much can be said about the game’s graphics, except for the fact that they are designed to look retro and colorful. It’s not a bad choice for the genre, especially since the simple gameplay mechanics wouldn’t function with realistic graphics, but the barren environments can be a tad too monotone sometimes. The music gets repetitive after a while, too, although it depends on whether you’re paying attention to it or not.

In the end, Surf Shogun is certainly not a revolutionary game, but it features enough fun to keep you entertained for a while. On top of that, it’s that much more exciting in co-op with your friends.