More Articles on Dead Or Alive Xtreme Beach VolleyBall
Tecmo Take Hackers To CourtMagical Vanishing Bra's!!!Dead Or Alive Xtreme Beach VolleyBallAll You Need Is Women...Bouncing Beauties!!!Latest Reviews
Too HumanHellboy: The Science of EvilSoulcalibur IVGuitar Hero: On TourSecret Agent ClankUser Reviews
There are currently 0 User Reviews for Dead Or Alive Xtreme Beach VolleyBallWrite your own review for this game today and you will receive 100 Gamer Points.
Click here to register
Dead Or Alive Xtreme Beach VolleyBall Review
Richard Amos
14/02/2003
We check out the ‘highly anticipated’ bikini-sim from the makers of Dead Or Alive.
Dead Or Alive wasnât the best fighting game ever, but it was still a damn good fun game to play â“ from what weâve worked out, the âsceneryâ was just there to lure in any people hesitant about fighting games. As far as we know⦠it worked⦠very well. Women in skimpy clothing with bouncy breasts seems to still be a rather good niche market, so why not exploit them even more?! Dead Or Alive Xtreme Volleyball answers the question âwhy not?â.
Based on âZack Islandâ, unimaginatively named after Zack, who fans will know as a fighter from the DoA games; the game sets you down on to it as one of a range of beach babe characters, each with different attributes. Well, by âattributesâ, we mean breast size, hair colour, etc â“ itâs by no means profound, but itâll ensure no one gets a lady thatâs not their type. Ahem. The attributes for the other characters are expanded more once you get onto the island, and various characters also staying on the island (evidently, theyâre all rather attractive and perfectly shaped women) have different hobbies and things they enjoy. âWhyâ, you may ask?
Well, you are given the opportunity to team up with other characters so you can play volleyball with them, or for the sexually challenged, imagine theyâre your lover, but that isnât obligatory, obviously. However, it isnât as easy as it sounds to find a so-called partner (see, thereâs a deep meaning in this game somewhere), and due to the *immense depth* of the game, you must âpleaseâ these characters by buying them things that they like. Itâs pretty damn impossible in any way, shape or form to find out what they like apart from looking at the character select screen at the start, so we found ourselves scrambling for cheat sites to find out their preferences; as you may appreciate, the âtrial-and-errorâ approach is not the best way to progress through a game and we believe that it may have been better to be able to ask the characters questions to find out their personality.
Once you find the right niche in their interests, you can fill it with all sorts of items, all of which can be bought in various shops on the island. These presents vary from frying pans to hair clips to sun tan lotion (they must have to be P.C. and not encourage over exposure to the sun) to âusefulâ things such as sneakers, bikinis and sunglasses. Get the choice wrong and the character will chuck them away⦠get it right and theyâll be wearing your kinky leather (well, come on, we all want to buy that for the ladies donât we?) the next day on the beach. Whoopee, tight bums.
But hey, weâre getting side tracked here â“ what about the volleyball? Exactly the question we asked; for a game entitled âDead Or Alive Xtreme Volleyballâ, there isnât much volleyball to be played. Enter a game and youâll be welcomed with a blank user interface and a volleyball court along with a few beach babes in skimpy bikinis. The basic aim is to run around the court chasing the ball, bashing âAâ till your character stops picking up sand and actually hits the ball. You then repeat this about 5 times until your character decides standing around is much more enjoyable than actually responding to a controller and fails to hit the ball, or alternatively decides ânow is about the timeâ to go for a dunk. Weâre convinced there is NO control system to this game and that itâs got a mind of its own. Clever, for a bunch of beach bimbos eh? Scoring is also totally messed up and seems to be designed for 5 year olds with absolutely no rules whatsoever; we appreciate the fact that the developers must have wanted to make this âfunâ, but we can assure people that there is NO fun in an unresponsive game with no depth; Segaâs AM2 showed how great a volleyball game can be with the criminally overlooked Beach Spikers.
As well as volleyball, there are other things to do, which are equally as complex and deep. At the poolside, you have the ability to play a great (noâ¦seriously, it is) game where you have to hop across floats in the swimming pool. By applying a different amount of pressure to the âAâ button, your lovely lady jumps a different distance (thereâs 2 variations â“ long or short jump â“ wow). Fall in the water and New York is nuked⦠oh sorry, correction â“ you character gets wet; succeed and cross the pool and you get lots of cash to ...err⦠buy your next hair clip (or swimming costume, or conch, etc). Hooray! We shamefully admit that this is the best part of the game and is by far one of the simplest, most addictive games weâve played in a long time; itâs a bit like one of those flash games you find on the net, except a bit lamer. Having said that⦠the water looks lovely.
As you do more and more things throughout the day, the time elapses, until eventually you meet nighttime, and alas (we shed a tear), you have to go back to the hotel. Here you have the opportunity to give other characters gifts you have bought earlier in the day at the shop, check out your gifts you might have been sent, or maybe just go to bed⦠thatâs unless youâre âposhâ and want to go to the casino. Here you are given a choice of various casino games to play and bet some hard earned cash (you know, the cash you earned from button bashing?). Included in the casino are Blackjack, Poker, Slot Machines and Roulette (sadly not Russian Roulette as weâd actually quite like to play that right now). As far as the two card games go, Blackjack is damn good; using standard rules itâs heavily addictive, however, Poker is the most awful adaptation weâve ever seen in our life, stripping out the crucial elements of the game. The slot machines are about as exciting as slot machines get, and the roulette is fatally flawed by the fact that you canât withdraw a bet. Bummer.
Sadly, thereâs so much more that could have been done with this casino if the developers really wanted a true vacation game; it could have featured a full 3D engine, combined with the ability to meet others in the casino, build relationships â“ and, crucially, to fit in with the current game slant, you should be able to buy evening gowns â“ is that too much to ask? The same applies to the entire game â“ it would have been so brilliant if you could, as a character, just walked around the island, exploring it; on the overview map you get at the initial menu, thereâs so much detail â“ fairground rides, waterfalls, etc â“ but theyâre not featured in the game at all. Thereâs a gaping hole in the game thatâs begging to be filled and itâs a real shame.
Depressingly, the look of this game is where it excels the most. The characters are perfectly modelled and every curve - yes EVERY curve⦠yes even THOSE curves â“ is perfectly smooth, and apart from the rather âperfectâ skin complexion, these characters look true to life. The scenery (hills⦠not breasts) is also stunning â“ every last thing on the island is modelled in an absolutely wonderful amount of detail â“ from convincing rippling water in the pool, to the sand in the volleyball matches that gets pushed around and kicked up amongst their feet, it all looks rather lovely. As for the lighting effects from the sun⦠well theyâre just lovely⦠just lovely.
And here lies the fault; this game is little more than a tech demo combined with a kids website with some volleyball thrown in for good measure; thereâs absolutely no depth here â“ no character development, no feeling that youâre on holiday, nothing â“ you just feel cheated out of any game whatsoever. The truth be told, this game is entirely based around perving on the women; hell, you can even go to the beach and rotate and zoom a camera around them whilst theyâre relaxingâ¦crutch shots included! Itâs all very nice watching women crease realistically when they move and admiring nice figures, but, can we have a game in there too please⦠even if itâs just Pong?!
