Video System, better known as developers of the Sonic Wings series, released in 1994 a sequel of their volleyball game Power Spikes. Unlike its predecessor, Power Spikes 2 was developed on the Neo Geo arcade hardware and was not released as PCB.
The game doesn't exactly enjoy a good reputation amongst the Neo Geo community. At this point I'd like to quote a reviewer from Videogamecritic.net, who obviously was far from pleased after playing Power Spikes 2:
Videogamecritic.net:
Wow, I never imagined a Neo Geo game could be as monumentally bad as this is! Power Spikes II is practically an insult to this system. If this is the sequel, the first Power Spikes must have been an absolute abomination!
However, give Power Spikes 2 a go by yourself and discover if it does justice to its reputation. Our High Score Challenge is a perfect opportunity to find out!
Power Spikes 2
Genre: Sports Players: 2 Size: 82 Released on: MVS, AES (Conversion), NGCD
Brief Description:
Power Spikes II is the sequel to Video System's Super Volley '91 /Power Spikes volleyball video game released in 1991 as Arcade PCB. However, instead of featuring only realistic volleyball like its predecessor, Power Spikes II also includes a space-based "hyper" league. Power Spikes II has three leagues: Hyper League, World Men, and World Women. Each league is composed of eight teams from different countries.
Hm, not much of a turmoil here. I was expecting arguing members swearing about this game and sending it to hell.
Anyway, I was the one to vote "It's actually quite fun", as I think it really is if the controls are learned properly. One problem of Power Spikes 2 is that it's absolutely intolerant to button mashing and it's really punishing if one does so. You can't just get into it and start playing it, this time you really need to read the "How to play" screen with all its shit explained. To learn and master all the serves and spikes is priority #1 in Power Spikes 2 and then it is acutally fun, especially in 2 Player Versus mode (err, not that I'm a Power Spikes pro by now).
After playing it for about 1 hour, my and my fellow player's final verdict on this was "not so bad". Of course it's not a masterpiece for SNK's 16-Bit system, the music and graphics for example are as rich as a 5 five years old's artistic creation.
But overall it's not such a failure as our long time favorite "Legend of Suckass Joe". Give it a go, it won't hurt you (I suppose).
Hmm, I didn't know you could choose females; too bad they're all covered up in that silly armor. I'm the kind of gamer who will really play just about anything (retro), or at least try to, but even I have nothing nice to say about this stinker! I feel bad for the sap who dropped $200 for PS2 back in the day. I believe there is a Genesis port/remake of this title. Maybe that version is better?
Seeing as it's game of the week I decided to give Power Spikes 2 another try and see if it really is as bad as I remember. I had a session earlier on with the game and have to say yes this truly is an abomination with no redeeming features whatsoever. Even if you get to grips with the mechanics of the game it's just so incredibly dull. You could fall asleep playing this.
The problem with Power Spikes 2 is the game design. A 2D side view volleyball game with tiny sprites where you can only move backwards and forwards is a stupid idea. They should have made it more like Super Dodge Ball. Even games like Fight Fever, Legend of Success Joe and Ninja Combat are superior to this. From Kaz's review:
Murikov wrote:
Anyway, I was the one to vote "It's actually quite fun", as I think it really is if the controls are learned properly. One problem of Power Spikes 2 is that it's absolutely intolerant to button mashing and it's really punishing if one does so. You can't just get into it and start playing it, this time you really need to read the "How to play" screen with all its shit explained. To learn and master all the serves and spikes is priority #1 in Power Spikes 2 and then it is acutally fun, especially in 2 Player Versus mode (err, not that I'm a Power Spikes pro by now).
I haven't played this since the time of the arcades. Some Mame here and there but I need to get this game for my MVS very soon. So I can play it for real again. I remember this as a good game, and have always been a little confused about people hating it? It's Neo Geo sports that can't be bad..! I like games where you have to learn how to play them before you can injoy them.
Ugh... Tried this through emulation and was thoroughly appalled. There's just no excuse for such poor visuals on the Neo (I've seen better crowd animation in NES games) and sluggish control response sinks the appeal even further. The Cyborg mode just seems like a desperate attempt to add variety to the game but only variety it adds is a different kind of stench. I hate to rag so hard on this thing but it really has no place on our beloved Neo Geo- or any other system for that matter. Shame on the dev team responsible for this turd and whoever though it was worth publishing. Hate to say it, but I'd rather play Legend of Success Joe over this any day (I think I just threw up in my mouth a little).
I tried giving it some more time after reading Nero's comment, but I just couldn't warm up to it and my thoughts kept wandering to the massive number of games I'd rather be playing on system. This game, LoSJoe and Fight Fever are, IMO, the proverbial flaming bags of dog mess these dev teams left on SNK's doorstep after ringing the doorbell and running away.
Edited by Chiba3010 on 20. April 2012 19:45
Well I can only say that I actually still like this game! It feels maybe a little accured for starters but if you give it some time the game will show you the way ;-) The gameplay is deep and fun.
I havent played this one but it doesnt look very good from the video. I used to like a game called Beach Volley on the Amiga and that looks loads better than this. Having said that maybe its better than it looks and some of you guys seem to like it but still probably not a game you would have spent £100+ on back in the day.
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