Rising Board
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3DS
| Rising Board

Games from ODenis Studio are like the hallucinations a child would have if you let him drink undiluted Ribena.

You really can't find another game like the multiplayer penguin-skiing blitz that is Pop Island, or the incredibly innovative war game Glory Days 2. ODenis has bizarre and quirky down to a tee.

Rising Board, the latest release in the Pop Island series and ODenis's first Nintendo 3DS game, stays true to form, providing fast-paced surfing action that you'd be mad to pass up.

Rising star

Surfing from left to right through a randomly-generated water world, the aim is to dodge the land, collect the stars, and generally stay on your board.

As you collect stars, do flips, and spin in mid-air, your multiplier will rise - but the level will also get far tougher, with islands popping up all over the place. Touch down on any land and it's Game Over.

You will die a lot. Rising Board is all about getting a certain amount of the way, bailing, upgrading your boards with the stars you've earnt, then restarting and getting that little but farther next time.

The controls only take a few short minutes to get into, and once you start pulling off tricks while moving at ridiculous speeds and merely skimming islands here and there you'll start to feel like a pro.

There are optional random challenges that will earn you double stars, while arrows along the way will simultaneously offer you extra points while coaxing you to your doom.

Never board

Rising Board feels like some sort of wonderful surfing dream most of the time, thanks to its incredibly off-the-wall nature and huge sense of randomness.

You're a penguin flipping through the air on huge waves, and every time you crash a giant, square, fish-like creature eats the screen. It's insane, and we whole-heartedly approve.

It has to be said, however, that the game can feel rather harsh at times. Once you're in the air, there's no way to change course, so if you're moving really fast and suddenly land comes into view there's simply no way to dodge it, forcing you to bail.

The game becomes especially mean as you start to survive into it's crueller extremes. We're all up for the going getting tough if we're doing too well, but throwing huge plots of land at us that are pretty much impossible to dodge is taking things a little too far.

But even when this happens you'll brush yourself off, hit the A button, and try, try again. There's always a sense that you could have made that jump if you'd been a little more careful, and that there must be more to see if you can survive just that little longer.

Rising Board is another ODenis must-have for your Nintendo handheld. It's great to see the studio on the 3DS - now let's just hope for Glory Days 3.

Rising Board

You should play Rising Board. How else are you going to witness a penguin on a surfboard flipping tricks like there's no tomorrow?
Score
Mike Rose
Mike Rose
An expert in the indie games scene, Mike comes to Pocket Gamer as our handheld gaming correspondent. He is the author of 250 Indie Games You Must Play.