The Help Force

Welcome to another post of the series CP Knowledge. This is a series where I will talk about every single minigame on Club Penguin, continuing today with Catchin’ Waves. The posts include how you play the game, its history, stamps, trivia, and a personal review of the game! Hope you enjoy it!

GAMEPLAY

Catchin’ Waves is a single-player surfing minigame located at the Cove. The goal is to not tip over and do lots of tricks so you can earn some coins. In order to steer, you simply move your cursor up and down. To do tricks, you’ll have to use the arrow keys or WASD. You can also perform flips by moving the cursor above the water and then drawing circles, either backwards or forwards. If you don’t land on your surfboard after jumping, lose balance, or can’t keep up with the wave, you will fall. But worry not, if you do go down you have two additional lives. If you have a red puffle, you can bring it to the game and it will surf with you. Although they can not be brought to the Survival mode as they are too scared. 

   There are four different game modes – Surf Lesson, Freestyle, Competition and Survival. The Surf Lesson is a short guide to get you through the basics of the game. Freestyle is a large wave in which you can do whatever you want. In the Competition mode, you go through three waves. All with three different judges whom you’ll have to satisfy by doing whatever they want to see; it can be a certain trick, perfect balance, or a mix of different things. Last but not least, we have the infamous Survival mode. Let me tell you, it is HARD. You have to survive a very long time on a dangerously fast wave, all while avoiding icebergs and sharks. It takes over ten minutes to complete and tripping on the finish line happens a lot. The wave gets quicker and quicker and is moving at an exceptionally high speed towards the end. 

SURFBOARDS

Game Upgrades are a series of catalogues featured in several rooms that (as the name explicitly said) had upgrades for various games. Catchin’ Waves is one of the three games that had Game Upgrades upon the catalogue’s release. To browse the list you can either click the bottom right corner at the Cove or the catalogue next to the Surf Shack.  There are three boards available; the Flame Surfboard, the Daisy Surfboard and the secret Silver Surfboard. The secret item is seen by clicking on the “A” in “WAVES” in the catalogue. The flips  is more sensitive than the other ones and allows you to jump higher. If none of the surfboards are brought to the game, you’ll get the default Yellow Surfboard. During the Teen Beach Movie Summer Jam in 2013, you were able to buy three other surfboards; the Magic Surfboard, Brady’s Surfboard, and McKenzie’s Surfboard.

   On CPRewritten during the Music Jam 2020, there was a Surfboard obtainable in the Music Jam catalogue. For some reason, the Twilight Surfboard is unusable in-game. 

HISTORY

Despite the Cove’s opening on May 24, 2007, the game was not playable until June 4. This was done to coincide with the movie Surf’s Up which premiered the same week. The game featured all game modes except the Survival mode which was released on June 29 the same year. All of the game’s stamps came upon the release of stamps, on July 26, 2010. At first, it was not possible to use a surfboard while surfing with your red puffle; this was due to the puffle taking up the hand item slot. This was changed in an update in November 2013. The surfboards used to be bought in the Snow and Sports catalogue in the Sport Shop. 

STAMPS 

There are currently twenty-two stamps in Catchin’ Waves, the second-highest number of stamps seen in a minigame. Only Puffle Rescue beats the score as it has twenty-seven stamps. There are seven easy stamps, seven medium ones, six that are considered hard, and two of the difficulty extreme. 

COINS

There are fifteen different tricks that award you points, they are done by pressing arrow keys or WASD. if one key is pressed down, 10 points will be yours, if two keys are pressed down, it will give you 20 points. Different types of tricks such as grinds, flips, spins, and shooting the tube are performed using the cursor, and mouse button. The number of points you get from them varies depending on how long you do them.

   What is the maximum number of coins and how do you get that? Good questions, I’ve been wondering that myself for a bit of time. It is possible to earn up to 3000 coins using the Silver Surfboard, although achieving such a score is difficult. Competition mode won’t get you that much since you have to think about doing whatever the judges want you to. If you complete the Survival mode you will earn 2000 coins for the distance and 500 as a prize bonus. Of course, you also get coins for the tricks you might perform, but please don’t do that. Doing tricks slows you down and is extremely dangerous in Survival mode. If you’re aiming for completing it, focus on solely surviving. 

TRIVIA

• There was a surfboard pin in June 2007 to celebrate the game’s release.
• Penguins in Club Penguin are roughly 1.2 meters (about 4 feet), so the height of eight penguins would be a little under 10 meters (around 32 feet). The height of twenty penguins would be about 24 meters (near 80 feet). 
• On the original Club Penguin, if a non-member performed ten flips it would say the Max Flips stamp was earned. However, it wouldn’t be added to the stamp book. 
• The High Jump stamp can only be earned while using the Silver Surfboard. 
• The red puffle’s attitude if you try and take it to Survival is not suitable to them as they are described as adventurous in the Puffle Handbook. 
• There is a medium stamp called Easy Jump, just why?
• Catchin’ Waves was the first game in which penguins can bring their puffle. 
• The Silver Surfboard is the only hidden item in a Game Upgrades catalogue. 
• There was once a rumour that the Silver Surfboard attracts sharks. This was proven false when Aunt Arctic was asked in The Penguin Times. 

PERSONAL REVIEW

Catchin’ waves is an immensely grindy game compared to most games in Club Penguin. The different game modes also make it easier to not get tired of the game. They are quite unlike each other in terms of what to do and think about. I’ve enjoyed Catchin’ Waves for as long as I can remember, and I still do. You can earn moderate amounts of coins, not hugely much, but enough to make it okay to play for a long time. I thoroughly love the Competition game mode, and I think it makes the game a lot more enjoyable. Now, to the rating, I will give this game a 9/10, making it tie for second place together with Aqua Grabber. 

Did I miss anything? What do you think of Catchin’ Waves? Comment below!

That’s all for me today, hope you enjoyed this post! See ya next time!

PinguMaliz

HF Senior Blogger, Commodore

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