Review: International Volleyball 2009

Some fun in volleyball games

Before International Volleyball i had my doubts again. The third time testing a sports game for a sport that doesn’t had many games. One failed (Handball Simulator 2010), one was surprisingly good (Rugby Challenge 2011). This one? It’s in the middle of those two.

Serve's up!: You can serve in three different ways in IV2009.

Again, I thought this would be a game with a lot of controller trouble, but it really isn’t. If you enter training mode as soon as you start the game, you will learn that volleyball on the computer is really easy. It’s basically four or five buttons you use a lot. Then you have your own choice what kind of shot or serve you are going to use and it really doesn’t matter if you hit the right buttons, as long as you hit one of them. The game is surprisingly fun and good for some time, but gets boring when playing long matches. Volleyball isn’t the ultimate sport to make a PC game from.

Not again: I didn't even know Luxembourg had a volleyball team.

Got this one: I got all the time in the world, piece of cake to catch this one.

That being said it simulates volleyball the way it should be done. You sometimes feel that you play volleyball for real and even if the graphics doesn’t match on the pitch, the game got some cool animations. The replay feature where you see the point ball from the net is also brilliant. The audio isn’t really so good, but I heard the crowd shouting for their national teams several times. Credits for bringing that in the game. This game surprised me a lot and is a lot of fun, but not for too long.

Failed blocking: If you don't stand right in front of the shot, you're not going to block it!

Gamescore

International Volleyball 2009 (2009)

Graphics: The graphics hasn’t been in the creators mind for one second and everything looks pretty boring. Some fine animations now and then, but it isn’t enough to bring the score upstairs. 2/10

Audio: There isn’t really much sound present, but you’ll have the basic volleyball sounds you’re problaby so familiar with. The audience was unusually loud sometimes and this made this game a lot better. Nothing is worse than playing in front of an audience that just sits there and shuts up. 4/10

Gameplay: A very fun game indeed. Full of surprises these “not so famous” sport games. Well, it’s fun for one or two matches, but then things start to get to familiar to what you just watched. No licenses of real volleyball players and every player are named from “Number One” and further. Would have been funnier if they at least used real fake names. 5/10

Controls: As mentioned, the controllers looks tricky at first eye, just like Rugby Challenge. After some practice and the gaining of skills, you will manage to get some points. Maybe not win some matches, because the game is pretty hard, even on easy. You steer all the players on your team as if they were just one and this works very well! 8/10

Overall Score: International Volleyball 2009 isn’t a big game and maybe I’m giving it some sympathy votes, but the game was actually pretty fun for a while. As this one being the only volleyball game I know of (except for blubby volley), it’s get the first place on volleyball games list hall of fame! 5/10

Review: Worms Crazy Golf

Not so Crazy Golf

The Latest installment for Worms is Warms Crazy Golf. It looked actually pretty fun on the videos and on the preview pictures, but the reality is a different one.

Do you have to stand there?: This happen's more than one time.

You learn the basics in this game pretty fast and you can easily become a top golfer, in worm a edition of course. The game’s career mode is pretty big actually and you’ll have 18 holes to play on, in four different worlds. You start with a basic golfer and play your way up the rank, so you can buy new balls, golf clubs and so on. In between holes, you something get the opportunity to take part in something that is called skill shot challenge. The point here is for example to kill as many sheep as possible (yes the weapons from original Worms walk around on the boards) It works well to get a break from the other maps, but it isn’t too much to brag about.

Ooops: If not timed correctly, this it what happens!

The game’s modes are many, but so boring if you play it more than fifteen minutes. It’s fun to have the animals from past Worms in the game, but they shouldn’t make as many frustrating situations as they make. If standing right by a sheep, you actually have to use three shots to kill the sheep, before you can proceed on through the map. Then you most likely would have used up your chances to make a par, so you will not go through to the next map. Par is needed to proceed further in the game. The graphics and sound is classic Worms and was good one time. It sometimes feel like time have stood still and i personally would have liked to see an upgrade here.

At least: If not interrupted by any crazy animals, a possible scenario is under par.

Gamescore

Worms Crazy Golf (2011)

Graphics: The typical Worms graphics in good old 2D style. It really isn’t that bad, but far from good. Looks older than it really is. 5/10

Audio: You can still hear a kamikaze here and there and that’s fun. Also good background music and clearly on the Britannia level, where you certainly are in England. 8/10

Gameplay: Starts good when you have a lot to stumble through. After a while you understand that the game only got one lane and that lane is basic golfing. Would have been a lot more fun if the maps was more unlike each other. More stuff could also been added, the things you get for victories and coins feels just like game adds. 3/10

Controls: It’s easy to golf in Worms Crazy Golf, that’s one thing for sure. Something’s are pretty difficult to manage though, for example spinning the ball with the mouse. In addition are the shots sometimes hard to place and you will end up shooting a total different place, when you tried to hit another spot. 6/10

Overall Score: Worms Crazy Golf is fun for a while and it’s good to see that the worms still got it. They only got it for sometime though. You will be ripping your hair out of your head when you hit a sheep the third time you try to shoot past it. This happened to me a lot! So it was pretty frustrating. It’s worth a try for the multiplayer fun maybe, but clearly not for the single player. It would be a short fun before you get bored. 5/10