Outlaw Volleyball

The outlaws move from the golf course to the volleyball court. The sexy verdict inside.

Outlaw Golf is easily one of the most underrated sports games on the Xbox, and anyone smart enough to have picked it up is surely very curious about how developer Hypnotix followed up with Outlaw Volleyball. The good news is that the same style of wacky humor and solid gameplay have been successfully translated into another sport. The bad news is that said gameplay isn?t quite as deep this time?but that?s OK. These are two vastly different sports, so it?s not quite the downer it appears to be.

Outlaw Volleyball?s play mechanics are relatively simple, but unlike competing volleyball games, it requires the use of a good multitude of buttons. The logistics of playing a team game is handled well with assistance from computer A.I. or just by yourself. There?s a momentum meter that gets filled up based on how well you play that you can use to power up moves or as a turbo boost. If you?re playing awfully, you can try to build some momentum by using a fight token to beat up one of your opponents. This feature worked to great effect in Outlaw Golf, even though it was a mere rhythmic button tapping mini-game. Outlaw Volleyball ups the ante with a more hands-on fighting system?but it?s quite awkward and not very much fun.

Outlaw Volleyball?s biggest feature is its Xbox Live support. Playing online matches is great fun, and as of this writing, there is continued work in tweaking game modes and rankings.

Presentation wise, the wide range of characters and vast courts look great and feature a high level of detail. Animation can be a bit stiff looking, but this is still one of the best-looking volleyball games ever. The colorful commentary courtesy of Steve Carell of ?The Daily Show? fame is great fun, but will definitely get repetitive after the very long hours of getting through the Tour mode.

Outlaw Volleyball offers a deep volleyball experience that will keep you busy both offline and online. Four-player simultaneous support is just icing on the cake.

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