Sonic Spike

~ SONIC SPIKE ~

IGS

HuCard

1990

This game seemed awful at first. The players, with overboard "beefcake" physiques and caricaturish facial features, looked absolutely ridiculous. The animation fared no better, while the music was NES-type garbage. There was too much "downtime," as I felt like I was constantly waiting around while the crowd cheered or the players switched sides or prepared to serve. And the gameplay sucked.

Well, it's not like my views on any of that stuff changed as I spent more time with the chip--except for the gameplay sucking part. Elements of offense, at least, are actually handled pretty well: bumping, spiking, and serving all feel good once you get the hang of the controls, and it can be pretty exciting to nail a super-fast winner or serve up a crucial ace.

Defense, on the other hand, never feels all that great because the action is so random. You can try to anticipate where an opponent's spike will end up, but blocking/returning said spike will ultimately prove to be a matter of luck. Instead of being able to rely on skill, I was relegated to "hoping for the best," which is bullcrap.

So after elements of offense redeemed the game to a degree, aspects of defense killed it all over again. Shame, but in truth, Sonic Spike doesn't have enough appealing ingredients to come off as a strong effort anyway. If you really must play an old volleyball video game, go with the much better Kings of the Beach for the NES.

Pick your players (I like to go with Cindy for her "SLNM Spike," whatever the hell that means), and then face off against other "global superstars." My evil counterpart is apparently a "boss blocker."

Everyone is all smiles before the match begins.

The backgrounds change depending on where you're playing. One or two of them actually look pretty nice, while others are just, uh, odd.

Serving and other elements of offense feel fine. It's too bad that defense didn't follow suit.