Publisher: Sega, www.sega.com
Ages: seven and up.
Parental
Advisory: Great volleyball
action with very sexy female players.
In Beach Spikers, Sega says that it's "serving up sexy summer fun." But despite the game's emphasis on shapely female athletes, at its core, Beach Spikers is a compelling volleyball game that doesn't need the sexist gimmick. Beach Spikers has the chops of a solid sports game.
An Arcade mode lets you play fast matches against the computer or friends and here, you can play as one of 16 international teams and compete in an 8-team tournament. There's a versus mode that lets you play a conventional match or one of several minigames.
In the World Tour mode, the main event, you get to put together a "dream team." And like dressing virtual Barbie dolls, customize your athletes with hair, sunglasses, skin tone, accessories and bikinis (uh, I mean, athletic wear). Beach Spikers lets you play with one of 32 female athletes from 16 countries.
When you play on a two-player team, the computer controls your teammate. At first, you'll find that your teammate isn't very good. But as you gain experience points, you get to increase your partner's skill until she becomes a competent player. It's an unusual approach that works just fine.
The game's controls are intuitive and well done. I like the fact that novices can immediately learn the controls and play, but more experienced players can use the same controls to perform advanced moves. As a result, the game successfully walks that fine line of appealing to both novices and advanced players.
The game looks great with nicely rendered athletes that move in realistic ways, and I like the way that the sand depresses when players hit it. The game's camera does a commendable job of tracking and displaying the fast action. There's an occasional glitch here and there, but overall, the camera work is quite good. Audio is adequate, but the commentator is obnoxious after a short time. I wish there were a way to turn him off, perhaps with a strip of virtual duct tape.
I have to admit. In Beach Spikers, I was expecting a pseudo sports game that was going to be more gorgeous ladies than fast volleyball action-something on the order of a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition. But Sega has managed to create a compelling volleyball game that's fun to play.
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