Volleyball!

Volleyball!

Odyssey 2 - USA - 1st edition.

Developer Unknown Publisher Philips, Magnavox Published 1979-??-?? Platforms Odyssey 2 Genres Action, Sports Themes Sports Distribution {{{Distributions}}}

Volleyball! is a sports video game published by Philips for the Odyssey 2 in 1979 which, despite being marketed it as a realistic volleyball simulator, is only loosely based on the sport. As with most Odyssey 2 games, the developers are unknown.

Personal

Curious to play an Odyssey 2 game, I chose this one at random. After seeing that the game was winnable and had a competent AI, I decided to try and beat it. I defeated the AI on my fourth attempt on 2023-10-22, with a score of 10-to-6. This was the very first Odyssey 2 game I won.

Review

2	3	2	1	3

Best Version: Odyssey 2

— This section contains spoilers! —

Good

• For 1979, the game has a pretty good AI. Not only does it provide a challenge for beginners, it also uses dynamic difficulty to become more aggressive when it's losing. It even auto-detects when there isn't a human playing on either side and takes over as needed.

Bad

• I found the controls to be quite frustrating. Tandem player control takes a lot of getting used to, and I found myself accidentally hitting the ball to the floor on my side far too frequently.
• I discovered that, when you're losing, you can ace the AI simply by serving and not touching the controller. The ball will fall between your opponent's players and hit the floor well-over 50% of the time. This makes it pretty easy to catch up.
• Having to wait for the ball to bounce down to nothing after a point is scored is annoying. I kept wanting to get right back to the action.
• The perspective is a strange mashup of side view and top-down. That would be fine for an abstract game, but it doesn't work when trying to represent something in reality.

Ugly

• The graphics are quite weak, the sound is pretty grating, and the animation is practically non-existent.
• Although the game advertises a realistic volleyball simulation, almost nothing about it fits with the actual sport. It's much closer to Rebound.
• There just isn't much going on. There is a single play mode,

Media

Box Art

All regions used the same art, they just translated the text on the box. Although the men's faces and hands are a bit wonky, the simulation of motion looks nice, and the neon colors and glittery lights help make it clear this is a video game.

• 

  USA.

Videos

Longplay.

Representation

Strong female character?	Fail	There are no women.
Bechdel test?	Fail	There are no women.
Strong person of color character?	Fail	Characters don't have a clear race.
Queer character?	Fail	There are no queer characters.

Titles

Language	Native	Transliteration	Translation
English (Canada)	Volley-Ball!
English (Europe)	Electronic Volleyball
English (USA)	Volleyball!
Portuguese	Voleibol!	Volleyball!	Volleyball!

Links