Great game that anyone can just pick up and play for a few minutes, or a few hours.
Gameplay isn't terrible deep, but it's really easy to learn after a couple hours. The volleyball is good, but older games on NES like Super Spike V-Ball had just as good or better gameplay - especially the power spikes you could do. This game really needed something extra to make the volleyball more intense and less boring. Having automatic spiking was easy, but took out the opportunity to add extra gameplay. I never felt I had much control over where i was setting spikes up. Outlaw Volleyball had a few things that worked well, that this game could of used. Building up your characters stats would of been a nice addition to this game. As well, having more control of where you set up spikes, and the ability to switch characters while playing.
There's lots of stuff to collect in DOAX, tons of items, and swimsuits unique to each character. They are even transferable to different characters if you can get the person your giving them to accept them as a gift. There's nothing much to do at night but go to a casino, where you can just gamble and can't move around anywhere. This is a great game for people who like collecting items, and does add to the replay of the game. If this isn't your thing, you won't like this game too much probably. Also, it was too much work to get a partner to join you, and it was stupid how at the end of your vacation, your partner wouldn't remember you as a friend and you'd have to start over the whole present thing again.
Music is good enough that it fits the volleyball atmosphere, but the voice is all in japanese (except the few words said in the endgame cut scene). They could of added english in the game, but I wasn't too surprised it didn't have it since most DOA games other than DOA hardcore lacked english. Any character in the game that isn't japanese should speak their language. Lisa, Hitomi, Christie, Tina, Helena, why are they speaking japanese?
Hopefully DOAX2, you can do more and be able to move around more freely. If not than, maybe in DOAX3. There weren't many other things to do but play volleyball in this game, DOAX2 looks like it has added a nice amount for the sequel. I prefer DOAX to any DOA game. I definately had more fun than playing the regular DOA games.