Beach Volley

Copyright : Ocean Software | Reviewed by : Malc Jennings

Most of us have at least watched or taken part in the beach/water game "Volleyball" while we?ve been on holiday, well courtesy of Ocean Software (and about 10 other software houses) you can now play the beach game at home, no funky shorts or sand required. Compete against tough computer opponents or play against your friends in this fun simulation, perfect for a rainy day.

Graphics

As seems to be the norm in most Ocean Software titles, the graphics have been very well prepared and look very nice on any colour Amstrad CPC model, not so nice on those who have the older GT65 green screen monitor though. The characters are very well drawn and animated, though they do slow down from time to time but this is more likely to be lazy programming than a limitation on our beloved hardware. Colours are spot-on, giving you the kind of colour scheme seen in other classic sporting games such as Daley Thompsons Decathlon while maintaining the quality of larger sprites and the obvious difference in sporting events, the only problem here is that while the game is perfect on colour monitors or CPC machines equipped with the modulator it doesn?t look quite as healthy on the green screen models.

Sound

Sound is nice but again it?s limited to just a funky theme tune, I?m sure I?ve heard that music before somewere, but the game itself has hardly even a thud or whack. Considering the detail spent on most of the other Ocean Software sports games it would have been nice for them to push the boat out and create a great looking and sounding Volleyball game your the Amstrad CPC, sadly this isn?t the case and I don?t suppose moaning about it now is going to make any difference.

Gameplay

Gameplay is pretty good though you can?t really expect a game like this to be ported across to any home computer from this era without some kind of problem. The control system is very off-putting and it?s very easy to accidentaly enable the keyboard controls while switching off your joystick at the same time, we strongly recommend the joystick controls because at least you?ll know it?s not you who is going wrong when your team decide they would rather stand still and not hit the ball over the net.
Because of the control problems it makes it kind of hard to complete the match and have a good score, if you?re playing against a human opponent then the chances of one of you winning are obviously higher than if you decided to play against the CPC. Sadly this problem also managed to make it to the much more advanced 16-bit versions of the game, the Amiga is just one of those machines with a similar problem.
Volleyball is one of those sports that is best left on the beach or in a swimming pool, there aren?t many of these games on the market and Oceans answer isn?t overly bad but don?t expect perfection from any game in this genre. Worth checking out if you like Volleyball and you have the patience to get to grips with the controls.