Original Release: Technos, 1988, Arcade
Other Releases: Sharp X68000 / NES (1989)
One of the first beach volleyball games for any platform, the NES form of the game nevertheless remains one of the better-regarded titles of the genre many years later
US Championship V’Ball (Arcade, Technos, 1988)
Where to Buy: eBay
How to Emulate: Arcade Emulation Guide
Review by: C. M0use
Technos would eventually get heavily into sports games as a spinoff of its Kunio-kun (River City Ransom in the West) series, but US Championship V’Ball comes before all of that got underway. It’s more from the preceding Double Dragon era, with similar-looking sprites, animations and background bits.
The action is simple and not overly realistic two-on-two, as Duke Nukem and Boomhauer take on all comers in a variety of sunny US beach locales. The game’s central gimmick is that hard spikes can knock a dude over with sufficient force, and/or ricochet off him into the crowd. This is done by charging with the button before you spike, otherwise you just deliver a more standard spike that is almost always returned.
Though simple, the game is tough for a few reasons. There’s no automated “guidance” in spiking, so to speak, you just move completely freely and have to line yourself up with the ball with little tolerance for being out of position. It’s particularly hard to do when the computer gives you a short setup. And it’s pretty much mandatory to do charged spikes to win, but that mechanic takes a LOT of practice to position and time successfully. You’ll be getting destroyed right out of the gate as the computer always targets your player with its serves and spikes, so spiking and scoring is always your responsibility.
The game was more refined in its NES follow-up, Super Spike V’Ball, which ended up being one of the most beloved titles in the limited pantheon of video game volleyball.
Links
Videos