IMP: Surf the Music is a slightly bizarre and rather groovy music game. Contrary to most rhythm games, you'll be surfing down a track, collecting bits of funk on the way. As well as these, which trigger a single beat or clap, there are various instrument symbols you can hit, which subsequently start a musical loop. As you progress these beats and musical sounds will form a song and missing and hitting different instruments can alter this mix quite significantly. This helps to give the sense that you are actually playing the song, instead of just tapping along to it and therefore feels more involving.

There are eight different tracks to surf in the game, each of which has two mixes. When you first start all of the second (and more difficult) mixes are locked and in order to unlock them you need to gain 95% on the first mix. This gives the game a good progression element, and if you play the tracks in order you will see a gradual rise in difficulty. Each of the tracks are set in a different environment with specific background sounds and images to go with the theme. This helps to keep the game reasonably fresh, even if the gameplay itself can become repetitive.

The graphics are nice, bright and colourful in IMP: Surf the Music, with many funky objects in the background. The surfing imp which you control dances to the music which is definitely a good touch and is far from distracting. The most important part of the game presentation wise is the music, and thankfully all of the sound samples and backing tracks are of a decent quality. However, the tracks just seem a little detached and, while they go with the game's theme, they just don't pull you in.

To mix things up a little in IMP: Surf the Music there are barriers set out across the tracks which will block your way. If you hit one of these you lose a little health and lower your multiplier. In the harder tracks you'll find these often move about, giving the game a little more depth, since you have to focus on avoiding these at the same time as listening to the beat. The tracks themselves can also be quite interesting; they'll frequently twist and turn in many directions and sometimes fork out, giving you a choice of path.

The tilt controls work very well in IMP: Surf the Music and we have no problems with them but we do feel the game is a little empty. There are definitely enough tracks (although more would be appreciated), it's just they don't give you that urge to play them again. There are no global highscores, although you can post your score onto Twitter. All in all there is just no incentive to replay the levels, even though you'll play through all of them and enjoy them.

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