Kings of the Beach
System: NES
Release Date: January 1990
Developer: Konami
Publisher: Ultra Games
Genre: Sports
Konami comes back to the sports world with Kings of the Beach. Do you like beach volleyball? Well, then head to the sand as the greatest beach volleyball players of all time, Sinjin Smith and Randy Stoklos. These California natives are going to travel around the world bumping, setting, and spiking their opponents into oblivion! This is a port of an Electronic Arts personal computer game, which I now realize Skate or Die was, as well. Did Konami do this a lot?
When you start up the game you can go to some practice courts to work on your bump, set, and spike. Then you can play an exhibition match, or take it to the Tournament. The tournament mode puts you in five stages with three matches each. Opponent difficulty increases as you move through the games. You begin with a serve, which can be hit underhand, overhand, or if your timing is great, jumping.
Then the game falls into the typical bump (the A Button), set (the B Button), spike (the A and B Buttons) rhythm. You don’t have full control over your character, as he sometimes automatically walks to where the ball will land. Your timing has to be on, though, or else you’ll miss your hit. This happens more than you’d like it to. Your partner demands to be on defense most of the time, and you don’t want to double up, because then you don’t have anyone back, so hope he blocks the shots.
If you don’t like the official’s call on a point, you can press the Start Button to argue with him. Just don’t do it too much, or you risk getting a red card and losing a point. I found it funny to hit the bump button at my teammate when he made a bad play. It didn’t do anything, but make an awkward looking animation.
Graphics: 2.0
The graphics aren’t anything great, but they get the job done. Flickering is rare, but happens.
Sound: 1.0
The music is a bad rendition of Konami style music. You can hear flourishes from other games.
Gameplay: 2.0
The controls take too long to get used to. They don’t feel right. The number of serves I missed because I hit the wrong button was infuriating.
Difficulty: 2.5
Both the opposing team and your partner go through hot and cold streaks. It’s unpredictable.
Fun Factor: 1.5
I really didn’t like this style of beach volleyball that much. I lost on the third match and felt that was more than enough.
Overall Grade: 1.8
Kings of the Beach earns a C. This is a low average game. It works as advertised, but isn’t deep enough for more than a diversion.