Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball

"Great for a quick diversion"

Graphics 10/10
Stunning. Absolutely stunning. This seems to be the one part of the game that everyone agree upon. And it's true, the lighting, the textures, the detail to the characters, it just incredible.

Sound 8/10
Lots of songs to choose from and you can compose your own list so you only have to listen to what you want to hear. Very eclectic music to choose from as well.

There are some people who wish wish that they would have translated the voices. I actually liked the fact that they had the voices in Japanese and had English subtitles. It makes it more fun. Something more about the voices I really liked was that during a match when you setup your partner (with a hard receive) you call out her name. Though it does get repetitive after a while I thought it was a nice added touch.

Gameplay 8/10 Volleyball
For a game that says ''Volleyball'' in it's title it sure has some simple gameplay mechanics.
There are basically four ways can handle a ball:

Soft Receive
Soft Attack
Hard Receive
Hard Attack

Receives are basically digs and sets that keep the ball on your side of the net and Attacks are digs and spikes that send the ball to the other side of the net. Hard Receives seem to set more (and you call out you partners name) while soft receives are just digs. Hard Attacks are a hard spike, while soft attacks are lobs. (Note on your third hit regardless of what button you choose, even receive, you character will try to hit the ball over the net.)

When serving you can choose which way to serve it by pushing on the directional pad:

Back = Underhand Serve
Neutral = Overhand Serve
Forward = Jump Serve (needs timing)
Simple enough.

What I thought was missing from this game were distinct buttons for choosing when to go for a spike and when not to. Buttons for the player to choose when to dive for the ball, when to set it, when it give it a chicken wing. There have been situations when I wanted to just lob the ball over but she ended up jumping in the air for a spike and it throws everything off.

For the most part though the computer seems to do a pretty good job at determining what you want to do. And it's sufficiently lenient on the rules that the simple controls work for this game. As far as I can tell there are no side outs for this game.

One more thing I could speak up about was the fact that the camera angle seemed to be very weird and swings from one side of the net to the other depending on who has possession of the ball. It's not bad camera mind you (though sometimes you character can go out of view and it's a hard time positioning her when this happens) I just wish that it gave more choices for the camera. Like a full side view or an isometric view option wouldn't have been that bad. (If these are in there I haven't found it) Also the characters seem rather smallish. But overall playing the game of volleyball isn't that bad and once you get the hang of it is actually quite fun. Fun and addicting in its simplicity.

Gameplay 6/10 Overall

If one were to find a major fault in this game I would say this would be it. There simply isn't that much to do. Sure you can go gambling (and despite what everyone says the odds in the game aren't that bad. Bet smartly and you can rack up major cash in Blackjack), and play the ''Hopping Game,'' but only for so long. The other two options - lounging around and shopping don't really offer that much either. While lounging shows off plenty of eye candy there's not much else you can do except move the camera around and zoom in and out. Shopping is basically just selecting items from a menu.

I just wish there was more interaction in the game. When not playing Volleyball or another mini-game it's just basically going through menu options. With such a beautiful island and seemingly so much to see I was kind of hoping you could explore it a bit. Perhaps walk around in the shops, the jungle and beaches just for the hell of it. Or even when going from the hotel to the pool to the beach you could actually walk there instead of just choosing to do so from an option menu. A little more interactivity would have been nice. Even when playing Blackjack if it actually showed your character and the dealer playing cards instead of just having cards appear on screen (with more menu options), that would have been nice. But it's just choose from a menu and do stuff.

Like I said perhaps if there were more mini-game this would be okay, but aside from Volleyball and gambling there really isn't much else.

I mean sure there's item collecting ( and I can see how this could keep a person occupied for quite some time) which kind of goes hand in hand with partner finding and I suppose that is the purpose of the game, to find a partner and play volleyball, but extras would have been nice.

Replayability 9/10
I know I seemingly contradict myself when I say there is not much to do and then give replayability a 9/10. But yeah there aren't really many things to do, but what you can do is REALLY addicting and a lot of fun. I mean the premise is your character taking a two week vacation. This game actually makes it feel like the player is taking a two hour vacation. It's very escapist and just fun to go shopping and play and spend days idly by in the sun. Even if it is only doing so virtually. And the two weeks take about 1-2 hours to play through. So that's just about the perfect amount of time when you have a couple of hours to waste and want something fun to do. Collecting the items, playing a little Roulette and Blackjack, winning over a partner, playing some volleyball, it's a lot of fun. There's not too much in this game, but what there is is a lot of fun.

I'm still keeping my fingers crossed that perhaps as time goes on more options and secret can be opened in this game. I'm not counting on it, but still......

Overall 8/10
Actually I would probably say 8.2 out of 10 but you can use fractions in the main score right? Skimpy on the diversity and interaction, but what there is is fun to play through.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/24/03, Updated 01/29/03