Beach Spikers Preview
Hit the sand with AM2's first game for the Nintendo GameCube. Details and new shots inside.
Though it might've fallen under the radar because its Japanese release was close to Super Mario Sunshine's release, Beach Spikers is quite a noteworthy GameCube game, as it marks AM2's (the creator of Virtua Fighter 4) debut on Nintendo's tiny purple console. And it should come as no surprise to those who played the arcade version that it's quite an entertaining game. At its core, Beach Spikers is quite similar to Virtua Tennis in that its gameplay has been designed with simplicity in mind, allowing players of all skill levels to jump right in and have a relatively enjoyable experience. However, if you take time to learn the game, you'll find that there's quite a bit of depth and strategy involved as well.
AM2 has added extra features to the home release--which fans of the arcade version will be pleasantly surprised to see--including a training mode, a group of minigames, and a world tour mode. The training mode helps familiarize you with the basics of the game by taking you through each of the different skills. For example, if you want to learn how to serve, you'll first be taught how to perform a basic slap serve, followed by a moon shot (an underhand serve), and then jump serve training. When you have all the basics down, Beach Spikers then teaches you how to control the serve, so you have a higher chance of capitalizing on a defender out of position. You'll go through a similar training process for bumps, sets, and spikes--each giving a general rundown of the basic moves and control. The training mode is really helpful, especially if you've never played the arcade version or if you're somewhat new to sports arcade games, but the game is so easy to pick up and play that the training mode isn't entirely necessary.
In fact, the arcade mode in Beach Spikers also serves as a good training option, because the AI isn't incredibly difficult to deal with, but you'll get a much better feel for the fast-paced gameplay. The arcade mode basically offers a four-game tournament, and in three of those games, you'll play against one of the other selectable teams. When you reach the real championship game, you'll have to play against a special team that has a much higher skill level than any of the other teams in the tournament. If you beat that particular team, then you can unlock an additional uniform in the game's world tour mode, which is essentially the heart of the home version of Beach Spikers.
Though it shares the same name, the world tour mode in Beach Spikers is actually quite different from the one found in Virtua Tennis. Instead of just playing through a series of matches for the purpose of accumulating more money to buy goods and such, you'll actually have to build up a partner from scratch, which is actually more difficult to do than it initially sounds, because your partner almost entirely lacks any sort of skill. She'll miss passes, mishit on spikes repeatedly, perform weak serves, and just generally be a pain to deal with. You can't even really compensate for your partner's inability to play well either since volleyball isn't structured as that kind of a sport. Fortunately, you'll have an opportunity to improve your partner's skills as you play through each match.
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- GameSpot Score8.1great
Check Prices: $2.99 – 38.08
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- Sega
- Sega-AM2
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- Release: Aug 12, 2002 »
- ESRB: Everyone
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