Malibu Bikini Volleyball

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One hot little number for the Lynx
by Gregory D. George

June 4, 1996

This is another game by HandMade Software, and another winner. You just know a game is going to be good when you see a half-naked girl on the title screen.

The games graphics are very well done. The options screen is highly detailed with a palm tree and... a half-naked girl! Even the coin toss is something to behold. The in-game graphics are quite good and feature boats, planes, and skiiers in the ocean beyond the court. One interesting effect is how the net changes perspective as the camera adjusts. The animation of the characters are smooth, quick, and detailed. Go Gidget!

There's a Bikini Girl on the options screen where you can adjust the difficulty, play a tournament, set the length of the match, points to win, speed of the ball, and even the sex of your character. If you press OPTION 2 during the game, it brings up a full-fledged CD Player type thingie. You can select random songs or program the order yourself.

The songs found in that virtual CD player aren't really that great. Chances are, you'll find yourself turning off the CD player more often than arranging the order of the tunes. Don't expect too much from the sound effects either. As expected, they mainly consist of the ball getting hit, or you sliding in the sand.

The game plays pretty easily, but sometimes your partner does some pretty stupid things such as dive for an easy-to-hit ball. You may be frustrated yourself until you learn to hit the ball properly. Timing is critical and pressing the buttons too late will give your opponent easy scores. Going up for a spike may be the most difficult move to time correctly. I don't think I've hit one yet!

I was somewhat surprised that I liked this game. Other "un-biased" reviewers said it was too hard to be fun. Well, as usual, they were wrong. Malibu Bikini Volleyball is a highly enjoyable game and one I'll always enjoy watching... err... playing!