Home > Reviews > PS2 > #169

Summer Heat Beach Volleyball Review - PS2

There seems to be a beach volleyball renaissance of some kind at the present. Over the last year we have seen Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball, Outlaw Volleyball and Beach Spikers released. All have tended to focus more on getting their target audience drooling than delivering an enjoyable gaming experience. Can Summer Heat buck the trend and finally do justice to the fast paced sport of Volleyball?

GAMEPLAY

Surprise, surprise, Summer Heat is a volleyball game! Your aim is for you and your partner to win various volleyball tournaments across the globe. Your first objective is to choose your team, and surprisingly, some sort of thought will have to go into your choices. Each player has a ranking for power, control and speed. Choose two players with plenty of power and you'll be able to have a strong offensive game, but you'll leave yourself wide open against a team that will run you around the court.
Playing the game is rather simple and easy to pick up- due to a solid control set up. The majority of your shots will be executed using the same button, with other buttons providing alternative shots like a more controlled bump shot and a feint. The power of your shot is determined by the amount of time you hold onto the button, naturally the more powerful the shot, the less accurate it becomes. Determining where the ball is going to land is made quite easy by the use of an arrow system- which initially gives a wide area as to where the ball is going to land- getting smaller as the ball gets closer.

Unlike most volleyball games, you can only control one character, and this wouldn't be such a big issue if the computer control player weren't such a twit in the backfield. Unfortunately, this means that if you want to progress in the game- you will be left to patrol the back court- setting up the cool moves for your computer team mate!
Summer Heat does a decent job in trying to bring some variety in the game with some interesting gaming modes. There's the stock standard tour mode, as well as arcade and exhibition modes, each varying in terms of games played. Winning tournaments and going though complete modes unlocks a stack load of stuff from new players, outfits, mini games, music videos and trailers for upcoming Acclaim games. The mini games are quite cool- with the majority focusing on a set skill you need to use to advance through.

Summer Heat is slightly lacking in the challenge department. Once you have a fairly good idea with the game mechanics you'll be sailing through the game in no time. There are plenty of game modes to satisfy everyone, but in the end, this is a game you'll play briefly and more than likely forget about it.
Sports games are always better when played with or against friends and Summer Heat is no ... (continued next page)