Realsports Volleyball

"Not exactly "real" - Not exactly "sporty" - But It is Volleyball"

Atari 2600 - Realsports Volleyball

Atari 2600 is known for many things - being the first popular video game system, addictive gameplay, simplistic controls, and games that are basic, sometimes too basic. Sports games for Atari always are lacking something major, in most cases it is difficulty and options. Realsports Volleyball is sadly, one of the games where there just is not very much to.

Gameplay
Let me start out by saying Volleyball is an extremely fun game. Whenever I am in the mood for a solid basic game to play and not really think too much - this is a game that would fit the occasion perfectly. However, the biggest fault of Volleyball is that there just is not much replay value. Anyone will be able to enjoy the game the first few times around, but soon thereafter the game just gets tired and old. While you are able to play it for a small period of time, you will have fun, but don't expect to find yourself glued to the controller for too long.

Controls
Volleyball's controls are as simple as simple can be. To play the game, all you really need is the joystick. The joystick will control your volleyball players (you will have two) and the action button will hit the ball over the net, which the game will do anyways if you complete the classic ''bump, set, spike'' series. They are very easy to learn. However, there is one minute difficult thing that may take getting used to... The players have limitations as to how far they are able to cover on the screen, so you will need to learn about the half-way mark of the game.

Graphics
To say the graphics are the best I have ever seen would be a gross over exageration, to say they are the worse would be a semi-arguable point, but would ultimately be an over exageration as well. While not performing up to the standard Atari 2600 style of graphics, Realsports Volleyball still does an antiquate job at portraying an actual volleyball court.

There are two teams, each team has two blocky looking people, that are not exactly human looking, but do look like they belong somewhere in the Homo class evolutionary chain. Each ''man'' will be hitting a ball that is surprisingly not as square as most games of the era over a net that is not too much more than a line towards the other team. Everything visually gets the job done, but by no means makes the game look good.

Difficulty
Volleyball has two different difficulty settings. The first setting (easy) is quite easy. Your players can hit the ball with just about any part of the their body and still maintain a high level of control. The computer AI in this mode will not be one of much challenge to beat. They will often get confused as to whom will hit the ball and will often let the ball simply fall down giving you easy points.

However, the more difficult of the two settings is much, much more challenging. You will have to aim your team to hit the ball with the top of their head if you would like to control where the ball is going to go. The computer has gotten much better at just about every aspect of the game, especially serving. If you are looking for the challenge, switch over to this mode.

Options
Sadly, there are not too many options in the game. You have your basic choice of modes of play and that is about it.

Overall
Overall, Realsports Volleyball is a good game if you can get a hold of it. There are a few things that were not done up to potential, but as for presentation - the game is good. You will have fun for a while, but it certainly will not put your life on hold for hours while you try to beat it.

6/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 02/05/04