Super Spike Volleyball review - Nintendo Entertainment System

The world's favourite beach sport comes home with the advent of this spanking new Nintendo cart! Volleyball is best described as a sort of Tennis without the racquets, where the object is to keep the ball in the air for as long as possible. If it touches the ground in your half of the pitch you lose a point. If it reaches terra firma in the opponent's half then you gain a point. The first team to possess 15 points is deemed the winner.

Super Spike Volleyball contains all the bumps, sets and spikes a volleyball fan could hope for, along with the masses and masses of options with which to tweak the game. In keeping with the spirit of the game, Super Spike Volleyball even supplies a beach bimbo to act as referee!

What the Mean Machines staff thought

Super Spike Volleyball is a very simple game to get into, but it takes quite a while to fully master the control method. All sorts of shots and dives can be attempted and the athleticism of some of the characters is unbelievable. It reminds me of Blades of Steel in that the game itself is very simple, but there are loads of options plastered on top of the game to make it that much longer. The idea of having four different teams to choose from is a good one and helps suit you style of play. The graphics are fine, although the backdrops don't significantly change between each level. The sprites are large and well-animated and the sound consists of a few decent tunes and some nice sound effects (the crowd noise is pretty good). With two, three or four players participating, Super Spike Volleyball is a whole different ball game. I'd recommend this to anyone after an all-round good game.

I'm not really a volleyball fan, and I didn't think that this would make for a particularly interesting game. How wrong I was. Super Spike Volleyball offers plenty of thrills and spills! The presentation is superb, with a huge variety of options that let you tailor the game to suit your requirements, and loads of computer teams to challenge you. The graphics and sound are also great, but where this scores highest is in the playability. The control method is fairly easy to master and there are a huge variety of moves available, meaning that novices can easily get into the game, but there's plenty of opportunity for experts to develop wicked playing strategies! Although it's a challenging and enjoyable game with one player, like all sports simulations, the game is best appreciated when two players (or even three or four if you have a Four Score adaptor) are participating simultaneously! A must for sports fans.