Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball

"Beauty is Skin Deep."

The Dead or Alive series is famous not because of its played out and boring fighting engine, but rather for its gorgeous women. If you've played any of their fighting games you'll notice the very large breasts these women showoff with their tight shirts and how beautiful they are as they give you a glimpse of their panties as they rumble and wrestle each other in short and revealing skirts. This time around though rather than flashing their panties and hiding their racks they've decided to take it all off and trade them in for some skimpy swimsuits in Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball. It's a completely different game compared to the rest of the series and the only characters you'll see are the very sexy DOA girls which is every fan's dream.

For the next two weeks these girls are stuck on an island paradise with nothing to do other than play dress up, gamble, and compete in a friendly game of volleyball. You the player are given the choice of which girl you want to use to experience the next two relaxing weeks these girls have ever had. Each day is separated into four sections. You have your mornings, and then it hits high noon which then turns into the afternoon, and finally the evenings. Each day you spend you have a variety of things to do at your disposal from relaxing at the poolside, finding a volleyball partner, buying items, and etc.

Getting into the groove of the game takes a few days off your two weeks, but once you find out which lucky lady you want to spend the days playing volleyball with it's all a matter of pleasing the materialistic babe with her favorite items. For the most part it'll take a few days because you must buy the gift, give her the gift, hope she likes it, and finally ask her to be your partner. After going through all that it's all a matter of her eventually accepting your proposal to be her partner for a couple of games. If all else fails then you must go through the lengthy process all over again.

The volleyball game itself is very simple as you have only buttons when hitting the ball. Even though it's very basic, it's a combination that works and suits the game well considering the fact that a game of volleyball in real life basically leaves you limited to just serving the ball, bumping it, spiking it and hoping you score in which you repeat the process until victory or defeat has been achieved. You might be thinking to yourselves that it's not much of a game then is it? Well there's something surprising though. Choosing your partner carefully either rewards you or stings you during games. If you choose a partner that's most compatible with your girl then she'll be more enthusiastic about the game and actually take more part in each game thus ensuring you have a competent partner, choose a very incompatible partner and they'll remain passive throughout the game and making mistakes that make you want to rip your hair off. Giving gifts affects relationship standings and also is a way of dressing up your partner. If you lose enough games then traditionally you're left single leaving you to look for another partner, but winning is a better thing to do since it wields loads more money and you don't have to go through the entire process of obtaining an entirely new girl which will take at least two game days thus decreasing vacation and volleyball time.

By the time it hits evening it's pretty much certain that playing volleyball is impossible so girls must go to their hotel rooms. Each night Zack will give the girls a present. From that point you can either give gifts to girls or you can gamble all your life savings away. Choosing the later option is always going to be the most entertaining part of the evening. Going to the casino will allow the girls to play some more games, but instead of volleyball they'll be playing some Roulette, Blackjack, Poker, and some slots. Playing any of these games at least once or twice will allow you to figure out why gambling is a very serious addiction. Luckily for all of us our money is virtual and all we have to do is hop on a few floating boxes to get some cash back. In all honesty, you'll probably spend more hours going nuts in the casino with its addictive tune looping over and over as you always hope to hit 21 on the next deal than playing volleyball.

A bit disappointing is the fact that playing volleyball is almost pointless if not for the fact that you win extra cash after each battle. Other than that there's nothing else there…no tournaments, no championships, no real prizes for having perfect scores, and a very small cast of characters make it almost impossible to even have any of these things come true. It is very disheartening considering the fact that Beach Spikers, a competing volleyball game on the Gamecube, has a deeper play engine and several tournaments flopped while this game is a huge success mainly for the breasts bouncing around in this game.

Money is not only used for gambling, but also for dressing up your girl in a nice skimpy bikini or giving her naturally beautiful and curvaceous body the tan she so sorely desires. Bikinis also carry over to characters you've given bikinis to and each girl has their own set of bikinis. There are also accessories such as suntan lotion, visors, nail polish, and etc. to accessorize your girl or her partner, but for the most part the more money you have will yield you the more revealing bikinis that you'd love to see on your girl.

Graphics in this game are anything less than beautiful from the realistic water to the curves the girls show off. The sands on the beach even contour the girls' feet as they move around leaving a trail of where they stepped off last. There's even some special ways of viewing those beautiful graphical curves. By using the triggers you can zoom in and change camera views to take a better look at the polygon count of the ladies. Of course you were just appreciating the graphics the whole time and not enjoying the up close view of these lovely ladies. Most of the time one of the strong points of any Xbox game is going to be its visuals and this game does an excellent job of doing so not just because the environments look pretty, but hey let's face it, the polygons on those girls make you drool.

The soundtrack does an excellent job of giving you the summer fun in the sun feel with such tracks from the Spice Girls, Bob Marley, B*witched, and Meja. From the first moments you hear “How crazy are you?” to “Do It” performed by the Spice Girls you'll fall in love with the game's upbeat and lighthearted soundtrack. Although the music isn't for everyone you're given the choice to customize the track listing and even adding your very own songs allowing full customization in the soundtrack.

For the most part the only thing worth playing over is the fact that there are different sets of bikinis for all the girls and everyone wants to see all of them wearing the infamous Venus Suit. It's worth playing over at least twice and multiplayer will at least add some replay value to the game since it is a bit on the short side. It's a vacation worth taking because there's very gorgeous girls running almost naked, a very addictive casino attached to the game, there's an excellent soundtrack, and there's a decent volleyball game to boot.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/09/04