Great Volleyball
System: SMS
Release Date: August 1987
Developer: Sanritsu
Publisher: Sega
Genre: Sports
We’re on to another Sega Sports game with Great Volleyball! Okay, I’m going to get this off my chest real quick… Great Volleyball and Super Tennis are straight up plagiarism of Volleyball and Tennis on NES. They made some changes to Great Volleyball, but for the worse. The first thing I’ll use to prove my point is the players humping the air. It’s not constant in this version, but it happens and I couldn’t stop being irritated afterward.
The controls are basically the same thing as the NES Volleyball. Serving, bumping, setting, and spiking all use Button 2. Jumping uses Button 1. You can reposition the server, which allows you to attempt a jumping spike serve, which I don’t think I was able to land correctly. The ball physics is terrible! The ball would be moving in a constant direction and you’d get to where the trajectory is expected to end and it would suddenly curve in. Anger swelled up in me while playing this game.
There are three modes of play. Practice mode allows you to practice your serving and spiking to get the techniques down. Goodwill Mode is the equivalent of an exhibition match. You can pick one of eight countries to represent and take it to the court in a best of three series. There is also Tournament Mode, where you play an eight team tournament. Before you start your game, you get to apply bonus points to your serving, spiking, or receiving skills. You gain two bonus points after each win in Tournament Mode.
Graphics: 1.5
The graphics are better than its NES counterpart, but not great.
Sound: 1.5
The sound design was also better and not as annoying.
Gameplay: 1.5
The stupid ball physics ruin the gameplay for me. At least there is a tournament mode.
Difficulty: 1.0
Still looking at the ball physics, it wasn’t good difficulty.
Fun Factor: 0.5
What made this even less fun that Volleyball on NES? Stupid ball physics.
Overall Grade: 1.2
Great Volleyball on SMS earns a D+. It’s a lateral movement from the NES Volleyball. Great Golf better not plagiarize Golf on NES, because I hated that game…