Beach Spikers
Gibson Guitars Sega is well known for its great sports sims like the NBA 2k and NFL 2k series. Sega has been applauded for these serious and very enjoyable titles. Now they have released a quick-paced, arcade-style beach volleyball game exclusively for the GameCube. The game features lovely ladies playing volleyball, but it also serves up quick and addictive gameplay.
The control setup is similar to Mario Tennis' and Virtua Tennis'. People both familiar with those games and new players alike, should have no problem learning the simple control scheme of Beach Spikers. You'll be using only the control stick, the A button and the B button. For people who don't know volleyball, here are the basics: The game is played with two people per team. A player cannot hit (contact) the ball twice in a row (but there is an exception when it comes to blocking.) A team can only hit the ball three times and must get it over the net, to the other side of the court. Simple enough. You'll learn the scoring system of Beach Spikers and the terms used when you play.
Serving is done by selecting the position of your player, then pressing A for an overhand serve, B for an underhand serve or A+B for a jump serve. Generally speaking, A is for strong shots, B for weak shots and A+B for special shots. For both serving and attacking, it is a good idea to watch the power gauge and press a button when the power gauge hits its highest point. When the ball is going to your side of the court, you'll see a spot on the ground marking where the ball will land. Head over to that spot and press A, B or A+B to receive, to toss, to call for a two-attack or to two-return (it depends on the number of contacts.) To block, you must line your player up with the attacking opponent and jump at the same time she does.
In gameplay terms, the controls are very quick and while it is also simple, it's very fun. You know how playing pong can get addictive at times. That satisfying feeling of trying to keep the ball alive is similar here in Beach Spikers. If you have friends with you, it feels even better. The game requires serious teamwork and this truly gives out a great multiplayer experience.
Arcade Mode: This is an eight-team tournament. Choose your team and go hit the beach! There are sixteen regular teams to choose from. You can also load your created team from World Tour Mode if you wish. In the options menu, you can change the difficulty level of the Arcade game to Easy, Normal, Hard, or Very Hard. You can also set the start points and how you want the style of the game to be - Original or Arcade.
World Tour Mode: Here you can create your own team and participate in several tournaments. Choose which country you want to represent, and then create your character and your computer-controlled partner. Name them, edit their faces, apply skin color, change their hairstyles, give them sunglasses and choose their uniforms. The great thing is that as you play the game more and more, you'll unlock more faces, hairstyles, sunglasses and uniforms to choose from. Just note that in the beginning of World Tour mode, your partner will be really bad at the game. It'll be hard to win your first matches because your partner is so unskilled, but as you get through matches, you'll get experience points, which you can give to your partner to boost her skills. Give her points in attributes such as Response, Power, Serve, Attack, etc. During breaks and timeouts, you'll have a chance to talk to your teammate. Based on the team's performance, you can choose not talk to her or to praise, encourage, or reprimand her. Be careful on what you choose, because if she doesn't like your input, your teamwork percentage will go down. In this mode it's very important to build up your partner's skills and to raise your teamwork percentage.
VS. Mode: 1-4 players can participate here. You can choose to play a regular game, or three mini-games. In these mini-games you'll have the chance to change a few settings like the difficulty and other things. One game is Beach Flags, where players start lying on the ground with their heads down. With the signal "Go!" players get up and race for the flag. Beach Countdown is like mixing Hot Potato with volleyball. Instead of a volleyball, you have yourself a time bomb. Beach PK is like playing shoot-out. Players take turns attacking their opponent's court while they try to defend it. Single player in VS. Mode is pretty decent. Along with tutorial mode, you can use Beach PK to practice attacking your opponents. But multiplayer in VS. Mode is the real deal. It's great fun.
Tutorial Mode: Learn the basics on Beach Spikers. Learn how to serve, receive, toss, attack, and block. Great tips too.
The character models are great. You have many different faces and skin colors. The animations are fluid, strong and convincing. If your character has a ponytail, it will flutter about as she jumps and runs around the court. The characters' serves, dives, jumps, celebrations, basically all their moves are either decent or pretty realistic. The game also uses lighting techniques very well. In one of the levels, it's almost sun set and you'll notice the great lighting and real-time shadows. Speaking of the levels, the sponsored courts are absolutely beautiful. The 3D environments are extremely detailed and have animated crowds and objects, like the giant Sonic the Hedgehog float. Also, the sand changes as players move around. If a girl dives for a ball, you'll notice the small differences in the sand because of it. Even better, the game runs at a smooth 60 frames per second, without any noticeable problems. Graphically, Beach Spikers looks very good.
The sounds in Beach Spikers are pretty good. You'll hear the crowds cheering and booing your plays. You'll hear the shouts of the girls. You'll hear the loud thuds of spikes and blocks. All these in-game sounds are great, but there are other parts of the sound that just don't measure up. Several times in a game, your characters will have the chance to talk to each other, but the short dialogue is somewhat stifled and could have been a lot better. Also, the announcer can get quite annoying when you're going through the game's menus, especially when he says "Thank you, Enjoy the game!" While playing your volleyball matches, he'll be calling your shots and plays, but with only a few words at his disposal, you'll be hearing "fantastic" and "great" a little too often. While this isn't a major flaw, it can get dull at times.
The music in the game is rather weak. It's made up of mostly mild rock tunes with focuses on short rhythms and electric guitar riffs. Overall, Beach Spikers may not be the biggest audio experience, but it fits the game well enough.
In the end, Beach Spikers has lovely ladies, great stages, quick and fast-paced action, fun single player and a highly enjoyable multiplayer experience. You can't go wrong here. If you're looking for a great party game for the Cube, Beach Spikers is definitely worth a try.
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