(Played on NSO on Switch) I played Atari 2600 Real Sports Volleyball a little bit ago and it took me like 5 minutes to feel like I was done with it and could move on. So when I switched to playing this game, the jump is enormous. Simply having music and 6 players on each team feels enormous, not to mention the graphical jump. Obviously, this is just a black box NES sports title, and not a very well regarded one at that. But from my perspective, this is a night and day improvement over what I was playing. The game is actually pretty deep to give it some credit. I got beat into the ground by Tunisia when i first played the game. The next day at work, I was looking through the manual online to try to understand the mechanics. Its got a lot going on for such a simple game, with different types of spikes, blocking, 4 different types of serves, etc. I didn't really get to play this game in multiplayer yet, but my main goal going into this was to beat Japan, as they are basically the middle ranked team. I eventually overcame Tunisia and moved onto Japan. I spent a while just kinda passing possessions back and forth between them, but ultimately ended up giving up because I feel like I still don't have as good as grips as I need to beat them over things like blocking and low set ups. I was pretty satisfied with myself being able to basically wipe the floor with Tunisia for now, maybe my skills will improve one day. I spent a little over 3 hours with this game which is more than I thought I’d get out of it. Another big thing to note is I LOVE the illustrations in the games manual for the volleyball players. Its such a unique 80s drawing style, and I’m very curious who at Nintendo made them. Overall not a bad time for my first REAL time playing a Black Box Nintendo developed sports game.

It’s 1987 and your best friend invites you over to his place to play video games, he says he got a new game and loves it and thinks you’ll like it too. Expecting Alex Kidd in Miracle World on the Sega Master System you excitedly agree! Then after school you two head over to his place to play, then he pulls out an NES and a game called Volleyball, you’re disappointed but hope for the best. You two start playing and you quickly discover how bad this game is, controlling the players is difficult and the feel of the game is awful with annoying sound effects. A sinking feeling sets in before you look around and realize your best friend is a huge Nintendo fan and thinks the NES is a good console! With good games??? Insanity!!! Finally your mom comes to pick you and release you from your torment. You leave and when you get in the car, your mom asks you how it was. You tell her that you no longer have a best friend.

Another Sports game to the list. This time it's volleyball. To be honest, I had no fun playing this game.

The controls were kind of instinctive. Yet, it was so hard to execute them. The reason for it is that you really needed to be at the right spot to hit the ball. Because of that, it was a frustrating experience.

The only thing that was charming about this game is the intro song before picking your team. Other than that, the game was pretty plain. A crowd, a ref, two team and a net. That's about it. the only thing that was funny to look at is that the players sprites always move their butt back and forth and when getting smashed in your face, the player was doing the turtle move on their back.

If you like volleyball, maybe you would have a chance to have fun for 15 minutes. Other than that, I would simply avoid this game.

Game #38 of my challenge

I mean... it's volleyball. Do you like volleyball? Volleyball seems pretty cool. She was the first person that Soccer decided that we should interrogate, as she had been rumored to be at the scene of the crime when my dad was murdered. So Soccer, Tennis and I decided to head over to where she was, while Baseball and Motorcross decided to try to find out who else could be the murderer just in case this lead turned up cold.

Once we arrived, we had found that Volleyball was in the middle of an intense basketball match, which only made too much sense, so we decided to watch the match, waiting for after the game to finally speak with her. At this point, we managed to get her away from her team so that no further questions or accusations were thrown around.

After questioning her, we found out that she had no idea that my dad had died in the first place, and was too busy training that night for the intense match that had taken place prior to the interrogation. We at first didn't believe her, but then Soccer figured out that, since people have always said that Volleyball looked very similar to others, it was possible she could've just been mistaken for someone else. Therefore, this trail ended up being a dead end.

Nevertheless, the lineup of suspects has decreased, and we are one step closer to finding out who did indeed murder my father. The investigations will continue shortly.

Game #87

Eu gosto muito de vôlei, foi um dos meus esportes mais jogado durante o colégio e sempre achei a gama de jogos muito fraca, e de fato é.

Volleyball é uma rudimentar, porém robusta simulação do esporte com curva de aprendizado bem íngreme e dificuldade cavalar. E não é preciso um oponente muito forte, já que o próprio domínio do controle de bola já é o maior inimigo.

O design aqui é simples, temos uma recriação das regras oficiais vigentes à época do jogo, o que serve incrivelmente como registro histórico desse momento do esporte, com as mecânicas orientadas a executar as ações mais básicas: saque, recepção, levantamento, ataque e bloqueio.

Tudo é sobre dois pontos chave: timing e posicionamento de quadra. No controle dos jogadores e de forma surpreendentemente livre, o jogador precisar ser rápido nos reflexos e preciso nos movimentos. E aqui que mora a dificuldade.

O tempo da bola é ridiculamente apertado, com pesada tolerância ao erro. E são muitas etapas passíveis de erro de execução. O saque envolve dois movimentos, arremesso (toss) e saque, feito com o mesmo botão. A recepção precisa ser realizada com um dos botões, com pouquíssimo tempo de ajuste da posição do jogador, a ser seguida pelo levantamento, feito com outro botão e o jogador precisa ser movimentado até o local onde a bola vai estar.

Aqui falta clareza de qual/quais bonecos estão sendo movimentados, além do movimento ser "duro" e o posicionamento exigente. Após levantar a bola, outro jogador passa a ser controlado, novamente sem indicação de qual está selecionado, e é necessário se movimentar até a bola, aperta um botão pra saltar, e outro botão para atacar. UFA!

Soa complexo, porque é. E em cada um desses pressionar de botões, um mísero erro de tempo faz com que o jogador "fure" a jogada, fazendo com que ela caia no chão sem continuidade. E dependendo do tempo de acerto da bola ela ainda pode ir na rede, se for atrasada, ou pra fora, se for muito adiantada. Eu falei e reitero o quão baixo é o nível de tolerância ao erro nesse jogo.

Se eu não fosse um conhecedor do esporte, talvez eu não saberia metade das nuances desse jogo, e ainda assim surpreende o quão complexo ele consegue ser para um hardware tão antigo.

Mesmo assim, ele é praguejado de limitações e um design mais claro e funcional. No bloqueio, um botão alinha 3 jogadores para realizar o salto, mas ao pressionar o botão apenas um dos 3 pula pra bloquear. Isso não faz muito sentido, e sequer é possível identificar de antemão (sem saltar precipitadamente) qual dos jogadores irá saltar para o bloqueio.

No fim das contas, a experiência é bem ruim, especialmente porque mudar do modo feminino para o masculino muda radicalmente o timing e a própria gravidade, alterando a velocidade de trajetória da bola e de posicionamento dos jogadores. O que era difícil, se torna absurdo de difícil, e sinceramente, pouco divertido.