Beach Volleyball has Never Been Hotter!
- JP release: 18th July 2002
- NA release: 12th August 2002
- EU release: 27th September 2002
- Developer: Sega AM2
- Publisher: Sega
- NGC Magazine Score: 89%
- Mods Used: Widescreen Code
Beach volleyball video games are made to appeal to men who want to see women bounce around in bikinis. Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball even has that as its main plotline, with a sleazy guy inviting just the girls over for a tournament, only for it to be volleyball and not fighting. The advertising and tagline of Beach Spikers certainly seems like it’s going for that approach, but ends up coming across as simply a fun version of the sport once you get into the game, with more focus on gameplay and no focus on things like “jiggle physics”.
And, in doing so, Sega have made volleyball into an enjoyable videogame, with lots of different shots you can make based on where you aim, a power bar that requires precision for strong shots and just being a very strong sports game. The biggest issue is working with the CPU player, as sometimes they aren’t quite where you’d wish them to be.
On top of the standard arcade mode, there’s a fun training mode that lets you practice every part of the game alongside learning the controls, and a career mode where you get to design your team, with a surprising amount of options to customise them. It provided a decent amount to do as you learn the mechanics of the game – a great example of an arcade conversion. Sega could have easily made a game that was a slightly different version of Virtua Tennis (which, sadly, did not get a GameCube version), but decided on doing a proper job instead.
Fun
Beach Spikers, by its very nature, is truly refreshing. A typical game requires a number of wildly different skills depending on whether you’re hitting or receiving – despite being quite overwhelming at first, it soon becomes very intuitive.
Geraint Evans, NGC Magazine #72
Remake or remaster?
A collection of Sega’s arcade sports games would be great.
Official Ways to get the game
There is no official way to get Beach Spikers: Virtua Beach Volleyball.
Europe
Japan
North America
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Good game, and an excellent port of the Naomi 2 arcade original; essentially 100% spot on. Really highlights how much of a shame it is that Virtua Fighter 4 never came to the GCN; it would’ve ended up being a far more faithful port than the heavily downgraded version that the PS2 gave us.
For a while Beach Spikers earned a place as a popular staple of our multiplayer evenings. Like you say, not for any sleaziness, but for turning out to be a surprisingly enjoyable videogame.