DEAD OR ALIVE EXTREME BEACH VOLLEYBALL

FOREWORD

There is quite a lot of snobbery in the way people look at this game as there is with real beach volleyball,there seems to be the attitude that because its sexy this somehow devalues the game.

Western attitudes to sex in video games is also biased because its not reality.

But most guys will never meet the likes of Brittney Spears or Cindy Crawford much less "get with them" so in truth there isn`t much more reality in lusting after the likes of Ms spears and Ms Crawford than lusting after computer babes such as the "Ladies" from Dead or Alive or the original computer super babe Ms Laura Croft .

Its all about appreciation of the female form and the fantasy isn`t it?

Thats what I like about Japanese culture dispite how uptight it is about certain things they have never had the snobbish attitude towards blurring the lines between reality and fantasy and liking sex appeal in their computer games.

I for one have no problem with admitting a real sexy computer babe can have just as much appeal as these plastic actresses and models so popular with western males.

Still unlike certain actresses ,singers and even female tennis players a video game can rarely achieve popularity on looks and sex appeal alone.

So lets get to reviewing the game shall we?

GRAPHICALLY SPEAKING.
---------------------
In terms of graphics although the original Dead or Alive incarnation on the PS one was reasonable it was always bettered and outshone by the likes of Teken and Soul Blade.

But ever since the title beacame availiable on the sadly now defunct Dreamcast Dead or Alive has equalled and bettered all of its rivals and this title does not let the team down in this area.

HOT BABES
The hot babes in the game are lovingly created and would grace any magazine famed for its swimsuit editions.

BACKDROPS are also very good if somewhat limited in scope ,
then again like with most sports sims once emersed in the action one has little time for noticing every intricate detail in surrounding scenery.

What scenery there is though is faultless in its details .

WEIRD MOVIES
One element that some might find wierd are the Gravure movies.

These are basically FMV sequence that play at the poolside venue when choosing the rest option and if you go to an unoccupied beach.

In these movies you can become a fanatasy swimsuit edition camera man and pan in out and around the character as she takes up various poses.

While these are something that video game snobs would call pointless and the taste and decency groups would call "shocking and gratutious " they do show up how well rendered and detailed the character models are.

Well thats my excuse for liking them anyway:)

GAMEPLAY ITSELF
--------------
It is in this area that DOA xtreme beach volleyball becomes something of a let down.

During the actual volleyball the gamer only gets control of one team member.

Although having control over both team members would go against the plotline in the core game it would have been a big plus in exibition mode .

For some reason few if any sport sims that involves only two team members allow the gamer to control both palyers in the team squad it`s the same deal with tennis games when playing a doubles match.

This is annoying since sports sims involving ice hockey,football,soccer etc do allow you control all players on a squad dispite there being far more of them.

It isn`t as though its not technically possible, one of the first and the few Beach volleyball games on any format ( temcos V-BALL beach volleyball hereos ) did allow the gamer to control the shots and serves of both team members.

It was simply a case of allowing the gamer to control the player nearest the ball.

Although you do get some control of over your "partners" actions and court positioning this control is somewhat hit and miss with the amount of control you have over her actions seeming to vary greatly.

Also since positioning her is done by using the right thumb stick its fairly hard to control this during a rally.

And at times it seems you do have to press a button to get her to respond to the oppositions shots, serve`s and returns even when the ball is closest to her.

Its another time were being able to switch player control in the sytle of EA sports sims or an auto control switching to the player closest to the ball would be a great plus.

NO MALES ALLOWED
Although I am all for sexy video game Babes in little or no clothing the fact that none of the male Dead or alive characters are incuded in the game at least as playable charcters does suggest the makers were a little overly commited to the sexy babe concept.

At least if the male characters had been included as winnable playable charcters to use even if in exibition mode only it would have been a big plus to the game since it would have added to the amount of limited team combinations avaiable to chose from.

CLONNING ILLEGAL
The other minus point is that dispite the fact that even in tag team sections of DOA games one could pick the same character to fill both slots on a team or to paly on opposing sides as well this option is not allowed on Xtreme beach volleyball.

Its a minus because the lack of this "clonning" option again restricts an already severely restricted team choice .

And can of course lead to many arguments between pals who want to use the same character on their team:)

Its another option were its exclusion weakens the game and is difficult to understand why its lacking at least in exibition mode.

SIM LIKE STRANGNESS

Anyone buying a game with a sport in the title will expect a sports sim.
For some perverse reason though the makers have decided to to make getting a partner for your beach volleyball games (in the core ZACKS ISLAND part of the game ) dependent on buying pleasing presents for the other girls on the island.

This element bears a strong resemblence to Maxis the sims and seems amiss in a sports title.

Some will love it but many will find it a cause of extreme annoyance since the whims of the other girls can mean that very few of your fouteen days vacation on the island are actually spent playing volleyball.

It can also be argued that if the makers were so set on the Sims style element then adding the male characters would have greatly added to this section.

MORE COMPLICATED THAN THE SIMS.
Not only does this THE SIMS like element seem amiss in a sports title but the present giving is more complicated.

In the Sims one only has to give enough gifts to please the object of your affections.
In this title giving the wrong gift can lead to a particular girl refusing to play as your partner for the whole vacation.

The Gamer would also need to know the plotlines of previous Dead or alive games since the relationship scenario set up in the previous DOA titles plays a major part in who the gamer should chose to go after as a teammate.

MISLEADING HINTS
The hints given out on various sites about present giving in this game are also misleading.

Many suggest giving all of Zacks gifts to the other players but this can be a very risky venture.

Since no option exists to unwrap and re wrap these gifts then one has to hand these gifts out blind and while doing this may be wise if you get lucky and Zacks gift contains an item that pleases the girl your giving it to more often than not it will be something she either just throws in the trash or worse still something she hates you for handing on to her.

NOTE ALSO, although on odd occasions Zacks presents may contain something useful to you such as a swimming costume or movies from previous DOA games most of the time its completly useless for anything other than adding to your "collection" and viewing.

This element of collecting things that can only be viewed maybe one of the weirder things that appeal to Japanese gamers and few others since the Dreamcasts Shenmue1 also had these collectable`s which served little gaming purpose.

So most of the time even unwrapping Zacks gifts is pointless even the food items serve little purpose there are not even aminations of the character eating them!

MINI GAMES
There are a few mini games that will add to the attraction for some such as Roulette,poker and slot machines available in casino mode.

Though Shenmue had more appeal in this way with retro arcade games and at least that had aminations of the character playing these games.

If the maker`s of this game were so for the RPG element then it would have been more of a plus if they had actually made Zacks island more explorable ,if you could have gotten your character to walk around and eplore the enviroment Shenmue sytle would have at least made the RPG elements seem more worthwhile.

RODMAN HYPE
There has also been a lot of hype about Dennis Rodmans voice over for the game .

He plays the voice of Zack in truth a job that must have taken him all of ten miniutes since Zacks appearence`s are limited to a few seconds in the opening movie and the closing movie.

He has about ten lines and never becomes a playable character.

SOUNDTRACK.
Like the Graphics the tunes in this game are a big plus for it.

And unlike other games you can accsess and play the songs available in the same way you would an actual Audio CD (just go to the radio staion on Zacks islands and put the "cursor" over whatever tracks you want to hear) you can also chose what order and how many of the available tunes are played during game play.

IN SUMMARY
The graphics are great, the babes are hot hot hot and the tunes are "kicking".

But the gameplay is at best reasonable contains too many over complications in the core game for what most buyers are expecting to be a sports sim.

There are too many restrictions on team selection to even enable a self made tournement mode or make exibition mode as fully enjoyable as it could have been.

As I stated I am all for sexy computer "Babes" and Beach volleyball is a reasonably enjoyable sport .

In fact since it is one of the few sports sims that allows for legitimate excuses for the inclusion of sexy "babes" I am suprized there are not more video games involving it.

What beach volleyball games do exist are either low on selectable "babes" like the previously mentioned V-BALL game.

Or so poor in graphical quality that the inclusion of Babes do nothing for the game such as with Infogrammers Beach Volleyball pro and to a lesser extent V-BALL which were both low on quality graphics even for PS one games.

The Makers of Outlaw golf (Hypontix) have a Beach volleyball game release planned although looking at their web site the completion and even the US let alone worldwide release of this game looks quite far of on the distant horizion.

But from looking at the available screen shots the Babes look just as sexy as the ones in DOA Xtreme beach volleyball and the fact that they are including male players suggests they are not so obbssesive about the sexy chick element that they will over look some of the elements that make a sports sim truly enjoyable.

So If like me your into sexy video game babes and can put up with the limited other options then this game is well worth the buy.

But if such things are not a great deal to you and a lack of options and choices are and beach voleyball is the sort of game that you would only want one sim off then you might be better off waiting on the distant future release of Outlaw beach volleyball.