User Reviews (1 - 11 of 25)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

Allow me to be perfectly frank.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 14
Date: August 01, 2002
Author: Amazon User

That said, anyone who thinks this game is about the babes is an idiot. Beach Spikers is an excellent, addictive, and startlingly simple volleyball game developed by Sega's talented AM2 design team -- make no mistake, it's all about the gameplay. Beach Spikers is to volleyball what Virtua Tennis and Mario Golf were to their respective sports. It's easy to pick up and play, but very tough to master, with deceptively deep gameplay mechanics. Above all, however, Beach Spikers is exceedingly fun.

Beach Spikers features numerous modes of play, including standard arcade play, up to four player simultaneous multiplayer (including several minigames in addition to the core volleyball action), and an impressive World Tour mode in which you create your own character, and her intelligent CPU-controller partner, from over one hundred hairstyles, suits, faces, and an enormous range of hair and skin tones. The most impressive part of World Tour is that your computer-controlled partner actually learns -- you assign her different attribute points at the outset, and her skills grow as your team plays through the different tournaments. With the right coaching, her skills may even surpass your own!

The game features a stunning array of unlockable goodies in true AM2 fashion, including bonus swimsuits, faces, and hairstyles from numerous Sega titles. Remember pink-haired Ulala from Space Channel 5? She's in there. The variety is amazing. Beach Spikers is an amazing game, with incredible graphics, extremely enjoyable gameplay, and enough depth and variety to keep any player interested for a very long time.

4 and a Half Stars...

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 10
Date: August 26, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I got Beach Spikers after hearing mixed reviews about it, not sure if I'd love it or hate it. But anyways, I got it, and it's a very nice game. Here's my ratings for each major thing:

Graphics- The graphics are very detailed. The player models are very well done, and the minute details, like footprints in the sand, are nice effects. 8.6/10
Play Control- There are four buttons on the GameCube for a reason, and Beach Spikers doesn't take advantage of that, but the control is still fairly easy to pick up and understand. 7.9/10
Game Design- How many volleyball games are out there? Not many, and this one's chock full of stuff, like a Career Mode and a handful of minigames. 8.2/10
Satisfaction- When you're playing the game, you're usually having fun, even when you're losing. That alone is worth a rent. 8.1/10
Sound- The sound effects are kinda nice, but an announcer could've added something. 7/10
Overall- Overall, the pros outweigh the cons, making this a noteworthy game to at least rent.

Do Not Ogle: Professional Athletes At Work

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: May 31, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Like some of the other reviewers, I had to try every Beach Volleyball game on every format before declaring Spikers as my favorite. What surprises me about some of the other reviewers is that many of them are not into sports games, yet Spikers is the most professional sports title of this genre with simpler play features.
Anyone can play using the A/B buttons and basic punt/set/spike rules, just like many old arcade games. Sounds like that can get boring, but the game gets harder and faster as it progresses and it does have some alluring features that go beyong rubbing suntan oil on your digital partner.

Character design is basic, unlike the other VB games. You have only one athletic body design but can create players with over 70 faces and 100 outfits and skin tone. The mini games may not be as fun as the minis in the other VB games, but at least Capture The Flag and Beach Bomb are authentic beach games. Maybe the developers could include Dodgeball and Combat Kiting in the next version(...). Sure the music and the announcer are lame, but who says you have to listen to anything more than replay spike knocking down your opponent (...) with full bass THX.

Franchising is where Spikers really shines as a professional sports game. The world tour is based on the actual Swatch-FIVB tour and has real organizations like Holiday Inn and Coke. Even the green/blue volleyball that you see in the other video games has the Mikasa logo in this version. And about that Nissan ZX prize, well what does a girl have to do but win if she can't race the Gran Tourismo, right?
The only thing lacking is beer commercials, because this is as close as you can get to professional volleyball without watching it at 3am on ESPN. So stop watching and start playing.

This is the best beach volleyball game in the history!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 6
Date: June 19, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I'd played this game at E3 show L.A. This game is amazing!! easy to control, and get fun!! Even thought these are not many volleyball games in video game history, but this one is the best!!...

mildly fun single player, good multiplayer

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: March 14, 2003
Author: Amazon User

BEACH SPIKERS is fun. It looks really good, the girls are cute and varied in a non-chauvanist fashion, and the gameplay is easy to pick up. But for a single player, the gameplay is also limited.

In my opinion, the World Tour Mode, where you pick a non-skilled partner and compete around the world against other nations, is the only real playable element to this game for a single player. Your partner is terrible at first, but after a series of matches and proper encouragement, you get points to improve her skills. By the time I completed the first go-round, my partner was better than I was.

Unforunately, when you're playing a one player game and the other three players are handled by the CPU, you're only playing about 25% of the game. The rest is spent watching the court spin around and the CPU girls do their thing. It gets boring.

The mini-games are pure filler and not worth visiting more than once. They're a real disappointment. The tutorial, too, has some elements of filler in them.

I can see BEACH SPIKERS being a really fun 4 player game, however, just as long as everyone is relatively close together in skill level. It would be really easy for one skilled player to dominate the court. I would recommend it as a potential party game, but if you're a solo-player, I couldn't see you getting more than a week's worth of playtime out of BEACH SPIKERS. Definitely worth renting or picking up used.

Real Volleyball

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: April 05, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I'll take this one over DOA:X any day. It's a REAL VOLLEYBALL game. A damn good one too.

Toss it around

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 16, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I'm not too fond of extreme sports games, but Beach Spikers offers a refreshing taste of fast-paced, arcade-style volleyball. ... That I liked. Of course, the single player mode is short-lived and, as you progress, somewhat frustrating because your partner is AI-controlled. But multiplayer is good, quality fun (2 vs 2). The games setup may seem a bit intimidating at first, and it requires good response / reflex, but the fluidity and quickness of the match makes this a good game to play with friends when shooters and racers have worn their welcome.

Great Multiplayer

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: April 15, 2004
Author: Amazon User

If your looking for some eclectic multiplayer action than beach spikers is the game for you. It is an overall pretty good game but the single player mode is too easy and it's hard to play it for a long time in a row. The gameplay is exactly like that of Mario Tennis for the N64. There are limited controlls and short games which can either be a downfall or a thrill. In this case they're a thrill. Because it is easy to get the feel of the game it is okay to play with a rookie. There are also mini games available in multiplayer. Beach spikers is wicked fun but please don't buy it expecting to play for 12 hours straight. I say it is worth a try.

Rattings out of 10
Fun 9
Graphics 10 (Beautiful characters)
Sound 5

Best beach sim, period

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: October 31, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I play on the MPVA, as do my roommates. This game totally rocks, hands down. It's not perfect volleyball, no, but it's as close as anyone is going to get. Building up your girl, bleh, fine, take every pass, anyone who plays knows you can put the ball away off of anything. The real fun is in arcade mode. Beat your score each time. You hve to kick it up to very hard to even get a slight challenge, and only the latter teams give it, but damn, working torwards perfection can get strenuous and fun!
Multiplayer is where it's at tho, no doubt about it. We have the girls college team over and everyone just sits and plays for hours, it's that damngood, and intuitive.
You don't have toi be a player to play the game, but as an outsider, realize that this is the best sim available

Initial Thoughts

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: August 18, 2002
Author: Amazon User

My first impression is that Sega has again put out a very solid sports title. The art on the characters and environments are excellent. Terrain Deformation on the sand is nice, but can look weird from certain camera angles... Menus are boring, but fairly simple. Gameplay is a lot of fun - esp. in multiplayer, and 2 of the 3 minigames are kinda cool. The game is similar to virtua tennis, where it's critical to get into position quickly and try to anticipate the computer's move. Downsides are the tutorial (ridiculously hard on the first try), the camera (can be tough to line up blocks until it's almost too late), and the audio (music is bad but can be turned off - announcer is worse and can't be turned off). I'd recommend this to anyone looking for a different and fun sports or multiplayer title. If you have any reservations, then rent it first!

Review Page: 1 2 3 Next 

Actions