The more popular open-world games become, the more diverse their traversal methods become. It started simply with walking from place to place, which was then assisted by horses and eventually by vehicles like cars and motorcycles. One of the coolest innovations was being able to fly, or glide, in games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, which also brought in the idea of climbing.
The one mechanic that hasn’t been as widespread is surfing. Some open-world games have hoverboards or other things that players can use to surf around environments like they are on the ocean. It’s something that should get picked up more, but for now, players should check these examples out if they’re looking to surf across an expansive open-world map.
The Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild
More Than A Shield
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild brought a lot of new things to open-world games. Link’s Paraglider made it fun to dive off tall mountains and glide around Hyrule, while the ability to climb nearly everything made adventuring more fun.
One often forgotten mechanic allowed players to use their shield as a surfboard. This damaged them in the process, and they only worked on slopes, but the idea later became a bit more usable in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom if players tinkered with machinery.
Donkey Kong Bananza
Turf Surfing
Donkey Kong Bananza is another Nintendo game with surfing gameplay, but it makes it a lot easier to get off the ground, literally. Players can use almost any materials gathered from the ground, from a rock to the earth itself, and ride them like a surfboard.
Players can upgrade this ability in Donkey Kong Bananza’s skill tree to allow DK to surf on water, too. It’s a great way to get around all the diverse biomes within the game, or to avoid hazards like spiked terrain.
Death Stranding 2: On The Beach
Coffin Flop
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach introduced surfing in the latter half of the game. Players will meet a survivalist named The Mechanic during the story, who will give them a retrofitted coffin with thrusters once they complete a delivery for him.
This Coffin Board can be used to surf around on land, water, and most importantly, tar. It’s an easy way to speed through difficult terrain that is hard to navigate on foot or with a truck or other vehicle, plus it makes Sam, the protagonist, look cool while delivering packages.
Forspoken
Parkour Like The Wind
Forspoken doesn’t have a world teeming with life and objectives like a lot of other open-world games. However, it undeniably has one of the most fun traversal systems in recent memory. The heroine, Frey, can leap across her fantasy world like a parkour athlete showing off tricks on YouTube.
The further players get into the game, the more abilities and spells Frey will acquire, like a water-based surfboard. The surfing, in particular, is a lot of fun to control, much like the spell-based combat in the game.
Genshin Impact
Behold, The Water Champion
Genshin Impact is one of the many games seemingly inspired by The Legend of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild, as it also features climbing abilities and gliding. It’s still one of the most supported games from 2020, receiving a constant stream of updates and characters. In 2024, the game added Mualani, a talented surfer whose abilities were also aquatic in combat.
Mualani comes equipped with a surfboard, which is how the surfing mechanic was introduced in the game. Lapsed fans of Genshin Impact may not even know surfing was added to the game, but it’s here to stay, and there is no better way to get around the lush, cel-shaded environments.
Star Overdrive
Space Race
Star Overdrive is a smaller game, but surfing is still a core mechanic. Players will explore a huge, sandy planet in search of resources with which to improve their hoverboard. Players can customize it to their liking by adding things like speed thrusters or defensive maneuvers that allow them to stop on a dime.
It’s one of the few surfing-based open-world games to include customization options for surfboards, which makes Star Overdrive more unique than some other entries on this list. There is some combat in the game, too, but the true thrill is building up inertia and then doing cool tricks on an alien planet.
Sword Of The Sea
More Than A Weapon
Sword of the Sea is more like a sandbox game rather than a true open-world experience, but the environments players can explore are vast, gorgeous, and a lot of fun to surf around in.
Players will wake up from a stoned slumber and receive a hovering sword that can then be used as the game’s core traversal method. The goal is to solve puzzles in the sandy dunes to then reawaken sea life. Every time a new aquatic biome is unlocked, it’s a vision of beauty. There are even literal half pipes to do tricks in, which is bizarre in a chill world like this, but cool all the same.
The Knightling
A Utility Shield
The Knightling is sort of like a small-scale Zelda adventure, one that took the shield surfing ideas from Breath of the Wild, specifically, and expanded upon them. As a budding knight, players can explore their kingdom, taking on quests and fighting evil with their shield.
The shield can be upgraded for combat purposes, and new traversal abilities will unlock as well. For example, it can be blown up to become a parachute or used as a surfboard, so it’s like the utility knife of shields.
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