Volleyball
by Simbsoft, Price:
$14.95
Reviewed January 2004 by Tony Peak
Volleyball is now the second sports title
to be published by Simbsoft, coming less than a month after Simbsoft
Basketball. They seem to have learned from the experience
as Volleyball seems like a much more polished product all
around.
To imagine the gameplay of Volleyball,
picture something like Pong with gravity, a net, and jumping
paddles. As strange as that sounds, you wouldn't be very
far off. The game loosely follows Volleyball rules: each
rally continues until the ball is grounded on the playing
court or the player has more than 3 contacts with the ball.
The direction and force of the ball depends largely on how
you hit it. The ball reacts to the curve of the blob and
motion direction very well. With proper timing you can easily
lob high setup shots, tap it over the net, or even spike
the ball.
The computer opponent puts up a good fight
without being overly artificial or predictable. Its 3 skill
levels feels both well programmed and balanced, which is
much trickier than it sounds. The game even allows for human
vs. human matches. If I had one complaint about gameplay
however, it's that each match seems to take too long to complete.
On both classic and official rules the game can tend to last
quite awhile, so a customizable score limit would have been
nice.
The controls get the job done quite well,
allowing for both button and stylus control. The button control
flips seamlessly with the graphics between landscape and
portrait modes, a nice touch that saves the hassle of reconfiguring.
Stylus control feels just a little loose, but overall it's
quite solid. Your blob is controlled by dragging the stylus
left, right, and up to jump. You must move the stylish a
good measure upward to jump, as to avoid accidental moves.
It takes getting used to, but in the end it's quite efficient.
The graphics of Volleyball are actually
quite impressive. Everything is well rendered, well animated,
and perfectly suited to the Pocket PC. The sprites are all
of extremely high quality; they look sharp and blend seamlessly
with the great backdrop. The ball rotates smoothly and everything
moves smooth as silk. The shadows are especially impressive,
a small visual finesse that makes a world of difference in
fooling the eye into believing its looking at one complete
scene.
Perhaps the most impressive graphical feature
is the ability to completely rotate the display from portrait
to landscape, in all four orientations, even any time during
gameplay. The background comes in two shapes to fit either
portrait or landscape and the sprites all scale very smoothly.
As mentioned, the button controls even seamlessly reconfigure
themselves to the correct orientation. It really shows effort
was put into making this both work and look great on the
Pocket PC.
Obviously Volleyball isn't a very deep
game, but it never claims to be. If what you're looking for
is solid arcade fun, it's really hard to go wrong with this.
The gameplay is fun, the AI solid, and the graphics impressive.
The only thing lacking may be the rather scarce sound. If
Simbsoft plans to publish more of these sports titles, I
honestly hope they have the quality of Volleyball and perhaps
a great soundtrack to complete the package.
Playing Hints and
Tips
- I recommend using stylus control if possible,
personally I found it gave me greater accuracy and control.
There's something nice to be said for the arcade feel of
the buttons as well, however.
- Don't be afraid to jump early to be ready
to counter the opponents strike. Instead of simply reacting,
anticipate and counter.
- Use the shape of the blob and the motion
of the jump to your advantage. Hitting lower on the curve
of the blob will send the ball forward with good force. Hitting
the ball while falling from the jump will send the ball downward.
Combine these two techniques while close to the net for a
powerful spike. |
