nights with your friends, and this game is right up there in my personal favorites when

it comes to playing with a roomful of people looking for bragging rights. I am totally

in love with games where you partner up with someone and ride out the night with he or

she in a gaming tournament for better or for worse. And if you’re on my team in this

game, its for the better. This is Summer Heat Beach Volleyball for the PlayStation 2.

During you journey across the country in your Summer Heat U.S. Tour, or simply against a

friend in an exhibition, you’ll find that the movements of the players are one of the

best qualities of the game. It’s not a real stiff motion, but overall your players handle

well when going for a spike on offense or for a diving save on defense. Mainly, what

I love about this volleyball game is being able to change the direction of a spike at

the last minute while airborne by hitting the triangle button, but watch it! If someone

expects your change in direction close to the net they can block it, and since your

still somewhat in the air during the block, the timing is perfect for your opponent since

you’re going to be out of position. In other words, you’re ****!

Music tracks in the game are very appropriate given the beach scene of the game. You can

sit back and just let them play through since they’re mostly all enjoyable. What I like

with the music is they allowed you to pick whatever song you want whenever you want by

hitting pause to change it. Some of the tracks, however, are really irritating to the point

where I have to change the song immediately! But if you’re having a gaming night, you

can really just hit mute and put on your own tunes. I’m not talking down the creators

playlist for the game, I’m just saying that a little Bob Marley suits this game perfectly!

So for now, I guess I have to settle for Sum 41…

The unlockable characters are a little extreme, but hey, as long as its fun I really don’t

care! My favorite hidden player is the Enigma since he looks like the matrix screen that

they watch in the real world. But if you’re going to play this with your friends I’d

establish first whether or not a person is allowed to be one of these unlockable characters

because if a player on a team plays as one of these characters and someone on the other

team doesn’t, to put it lightly, the team that simply chose characters that are given

to you at the start of the game, are going to get their asses kicked. Plain and simple.

The unlocked characters are just too good. I found that if one person plays as one, everyone

should to keep it fair. If came down to it, I think Incognito could take two people at

once. I mean, her stats are just through the roof! My friends and I have a rule, if you’re

going to be incognito or the Enigma, then your partner has to be Tia since she straight

up sucks! Sorry, Tia…

And if I haven’t mentioned it yet, I’m all about the bonus mini games. Just as long

as they’re fun obviously. I mean, if the mini game sucks they why even put it in the

game? Seriously! I’ve seen mini games that are worth less than an autograph from Corey

Feldman. But that’s not the case here. This game is a party time game to the fullest!

Not only is the volleyball gameplay sweet, but you can also play three other games as

well. From my experience, the most fun is the Beach Bowls game, which is actually Bocce

ball but played with beach balls. It’s a game of determination against your friends

to get that damn ball as close to the jack as you can.

So if you’re a fan of multiplayer games and unlockable content that allows you to

do more than just what the game was intended, then this game was made for you. So in honor

of the design of the Enigma, I’ll wrap this up in Matrix terms, when it comes to summer

heat beach volleyball, without question or hesitation, I recommend that you take the

red pill.