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Review:

28th July 2003:
Summer Heat Beach Volleyball
Playing volleyball on a beach. What could be better on a long, hot summer?
Posted by Peter Cavan - PlayStation 2 - UK and Europe

Summer Heat Beach Volleyball is a volleyball game (duh). But the difference between it and a certain other Xbox volleyball game is this - people that like volleyball will like SHBV. Why? This is a title that people will buy to play a popular sport, not to look at the competitors. I am not saying that DoA:X was particularly a bad game, I'm just noticing that the focus in SHBV is far more towards actually playing volleyball.

Now that the 1% of readers that thought DoA:X was the best game ever have turned off in disgust, we can get on to the game itself. Summer Heat Beach Volleyball, or Summer Heat for short, wants you to play volleyball, and have fun doing it. It allows you to control one person with a CPU-controlled teammate, against an opposition team of two competitors. If you've ever played doubles in a tennis game, you'll know what it's like.

For those who have never played volleyball, the rules are relatively simple; there is a court a bit like a tennis court on the beach, and you have to get the ball to touch the ground on the opposition team's side of the net. The ball, by the way, is a smaller-sized football (soccer). In real-life you can play anything from 1v1 to 4v4, but this game sticks to the most popular 2v2. To start off with you can chose from a couple of women, and men, to play with. As you progress through the game you will unlock characters that are better in the three main areas; power, speed and control. If you go far enough you can even unlock a mannequin and a dummy!

In this game there are actually quite a few things that can be unlocked. Sunglasses and shorts or bikinis for the characters, extra characters, music videos, volleyball courts, and even previews of up and coming Acclaim games. These unlockables certainly make the game longer, players will keep coming back to get a couple more characters or their favourite character's outfit.

There is a Beach House in this game, which opens up a few features. It allows you to watch the new music videos and previews of Acclaim games that you have unlocked. You can see what trophies you have acquired and listen to any of the game's music. Not all that useful, but a nice addition nonetheless.

Most people will start in Training, which teaches you how to play the game properly. Most of what you do can be split into three areas; sets, throws, and blocks. A throw is simple; you throw the ball at the other team, trying to get it onto their side of the court. You can throw under-arm, over-arm, or do a special feint throw. Actually throwing is controlled by an arrow that goes towards where the ball will go. The longer you hold down the button, the darker the arrow becomes, and therefore the harder and more precise your throw will be. You can move this arrow to where you want the ball to go but you don't get much time, and can accidentally throw the ball out if you're aiming near the edge. A set is when you throw the ball at your team-mate instead of at the other team. This is useful when you dived for the ball, and are in no position to place and execute a good throw. You perform a block when you go up to the net and stop the other team's throw getting to your side. This can be very effective if your opponents are all away from the net, and a good block can score points. Completing training unlocks small things like sunglasses and shorts for the characters.

But there is more to this title than just training. Most of the tournaments can be played in multiple difficulty modes, and you can pick to play as any of the characters that you have unlocked. The most basic mode is called 'Arcade'. In Arcade you play 6 matches in a row and each match unlocks things, with the last match being the hardest and therefore unlocking the most. In Arcade you choose your own character and a team-mate. Each match is played against different opposition and in a different court. The courts can be quite different; most are on the beach but a couple are more innovative, like a court set in a college campus. The courts are all set in America, by the way, no volleyball in Blackpool.

For those of you who just want to play a match and have more control over what happens, there is the Exhibition mode. This allows you to play 1 match that is a lot like an Arcade match, but you get to choose all of the players, even the opposition. Good if you want a certain type of match; all-men, all-women etc.

The Summer Heat US Tour is the main, long mode of this game. The Tour is where you will probably spend most of your time, and is also the hardest area of this title. The Tour is split into 8 Tournaments and each tournament has either 3 or 5 matches, depending on whether it is a knockout or a league system. Each Tournament is set in a different court. Winning a Tournament unlocks a harder one, and completing the entire Tour means you have beaten this game.

For simpler delights in single or multi-player, there are Mini Games. There are 3 of these and can be played by 1 to 4 people. Nerd Smash throws balls at your character and asks you to throw the ball to the other side of the net. On the other side you can hit things that give you points, but also things that take points away. You win if you have more points than your opposition by the end of the game. Ice Court puts you on a court made of ice in the mountains (would it not be chilly in a bikini?) and you play a normal match, except for one thing. When you score a crack appears in the opposition's court and vice-versa. You win if you can get your opponent's side to crack and break before they do the same to you. Beach Bowls has very little to do with volleyball. If you have ever played outdoor bowls then this is similar. Your character throws a small target ball and everybody gets a couple of volleyballs to throw at the target. The person that gets their volleyballs closest to the target wins.

The audio in this title is good; the umpire has the right tone and when the ball is hit it sounds very realistic. There are a few big tracks from people like Kylie Minogue, but the music can get very repetitive. The graphics are certainly bright and arcadey like you'd expect from such a title, but underneath the game looks surprisingly good. Players rub sand off after a dive, and there is no clipping or glitches that could ruin the flow of the game play. The characters look nice, and the backgrounds are reasonably detailed, but the cardboard crowd does look out of place.

Overall, this is a fun volleyball game. It's easy to get to grips with, but not always easy to win. It probably won't amaze you in any way, but is enjoyable to play and has enough replay value to be worth buying for people who like this type of title. If you like tennis, or really any arcade-like sport games, then this is for you.

Peter Cavan

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Review Summary:

This is a fun game that will captivate many people with its bright style and enjoyable gameplay. Not for everybody, but very few will regret a rent, if not a buy.

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Summer Heat Beach Volleyball
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