''Beach Spikers'' is a

beach volleyball Beach volleyball is a team sport played by two teams of two or more players on a sand court divided by a net. Similar to indoor volleyball, the objective of the game is to send the ball over the net and to ground it on the opponent's side of the ...

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

released in Japanese arcades in 2001. The game was developed in-house by

Sega AM2 previously known as is a video game development team within the Japanese multinational video game developer Sega. Yu Suzuki, who had previously developed arcade games for Sega including ''Hang-On'' and ''Out Run'', was the first manager of th ...

and published by

Sega is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...

. A

GameCube The is a home video game console developed and released by Nintendo in Japan on September 14, 2001, in North America on November 18, 2001, and in PAL territories in 2002. It is the successor to the Nintendo 64 (1996), and predecessor of the Wii ...

port, renamed ''Beach Spikers: Virtua Beach Volleyball'', was released in 2002 for all regions.

Gameplay

Based on the sport of

, the game revolves around two-on-two matches where a volleyball is hit back and forth over a net until one side allows the ball to touch the ground. Similar to

's ''Virtua'' sports games, most of the gameplay in ''Beach Spikers'' is based around the concept of "charging" the strength of moves, judged by how long the button is held prior to release at the point of which the move is executed. There is a button for setting (passing) and a button for rallying (sending the ball over the net) which, combined with how long the button is held to determine strength, is the basis for the way the entire game is played. There are two modes to choose from: Arcade Mode and World Tour mode. Arcade mode is a basic progression through a series of AI opponents, and in the multiplayer portion of Arcade Mode, it is head-to-head matches for up to four human players. In World Tour mode, the player takes a user-created team through a tournament, earning points as they go that allow them to increase the stats of their players and unlock player customization items, including some based on other Sega titles like ''

Fighting Vipers ''Fighting Vipers'' (ファイティングバイパーズ'' Faitingu Vaipāzu'') is a 3D fighting video game developed by Sega AM2. It uses the same game engine as AM2's ''Virtua Fighter 2'' but features enclosed arenas and an armor mechanic, and ...

'' and ''

Space Channel 5 ''Space Channel 5'' is a music video game developed by Sega AM9 and published by parent company Sega. Originally released for the Dreamcast (1999 in Japan, 2000 worldwide), it was later ported to the PlayStation 2 (2002 in Europe, 2003 in Japan ...

''. The player has the option to customize their own characters or choose a team from a specific country, such as the United States, Jamaica, Italy, and France, to name a few.

Reception

The GameCube version received "generally favorable reviews" according to the

review aggregation A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

. In Japan, ''

Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the fo ...

'' gave it a score of 30 out of 40. Also in Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed the arcade version in their September 1, 2001 issue as the fifth most-successful arcade game of the year. The same GameCube version was nominated for "Best Game No One Played on GameCube" and "Best Alternative Sports Game on GameCube" at ''

GameSpot ''GameSpot'' is an American video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information on video games. The site was launched on May 1, 1996, created by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. In addition ...

''s Best and Worst of 2002 Awards, both of which went to ''

Sega Soccer Slam ''Sega Soccer Slam'', also known as simply ''Soccer Slam'', is a sports game released for GameCube, Xbox, and PlayStation 2 in 2002. Gameplay ''Sega Soccer Slam'' is different from traditional sports games in its exaggerated interpretation of ...

'' and ''

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4 ''Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4'' is a skateboarding video game and the fourth entry in the '' Tony Hawk's'' series. It was developed by Neversoft and published by Activision under the Activision O2 label in 2002 for the GameCube, PlayStation, Xbox, ...

'', respectively.

References

External links

* (arcade) * (GameCube) * *{{moby game, id=/beach-spikers-virtua-beach-volleyball, name=''Beach Spikers: Virtua Beach Volleyball'' 2001 video games Arcade video games Beach volleyball video games GameCube games Sega-AM2 games Sega arcade games Multiplayer and single-player video games Video games developed in Japan Video games featuring female protagonists

Gameplay

Reception

See also

References

External links