Playman Beach Volleyball

Beach volleyball an Olympic sport? Whatever your opinion on the so-called ‘sports’ now contested for gold medals every four years, you’ve got to admit that this particular activity does seem to capture the essence of a sunny shoreline with buff, bronzed athletic-types strutting their stuff. And, with a soundtrack mixing boardwalk reggae and cool Latino vibes, Playman Beach Volleyball manages to bottle this essence of summer, giving you a burst of sunshine all year round.

While your adrenalin may rise as you score that superb smash and force your opponent to eat the dirt, on the whole this is a pretty chilled out game. All the major beach communities are included, starting in the USA with Miami Beach then moving from East to West to Venice Beach and onwards to rainy Bell’s Beach, Australia, before returning to the good old US of A and Waikiki Beach. Aloha! Tournaments take place in each location and once you’ve gotten those under your belt you’re confronted with a series of cup championships. Each cup remains locked until you’ve proven your worth by completing the previous level, with your scores taunting you or boosting your ego, depending upon your performance, in the high scores table. Should you fail to win all four matches in one cup round, you will be forced to start over again and work your way back through rankings in order to complete the cup – more than a little frustrating at times.

As always there’s a tutorial session to teach you the basic moves and it’s led by a bottle-blonde, bikini-clad beach babe (if that’s the kind of thing to float your boat, bro’). The moves are pretty basic and the actual skill in playing comes down to moving the right player at the right time and, with a little luck, predicting the moves of the opposing team so you can smash the ball into the ground on the other side of the net. Basic beach volleyball rules apply; you can only hit the ball three times before you have to send it across the net and the first team to score 5 points wins the match.

The opposition is composed of your usual line up of body-beautiful sun-God types (with names like Iceman, Turbo, Shades, etc., you know the sort) which lends the game a big beach atmosphere. Each has their own strengths and weaknesses and you can check out their skills to see if their defense is sloppy, their speed surprising, or even if their power is wimpy!

Points are awarded every time you hit an ace, smash and defensive smash-save to give you a match score. The four match scores combine for the Cup total (which you just HAVE to beat over and over again!). With four matches in each cup round and a total of six cups there’s a decent amount of action to be had, and with the high scores table constantly forcing you to improve your abilities, there’s reason enough to keep playing over and over again.