As Hank Williams Jr. once asked, “Are you ready for some volleyball?” Wait, that’s not right.
Volleyball was released by Nintendo in Japan in 1986, with a U.S. release the following year. It is one of Nintendo’s first-party “black box” titles, a series of early first-party NES games that had uniform and totally excellent box art (photo credit to Arcade Sushi on this one):
As you’d expect, Volleyball is pretty straight forward – you have a team of six players, and have to set up the traditional bump/set/spike to try and score points, while also trying to block your opponent from doing the same. That’s really all there is to it – there are very few extra bells and whistles to speak of. One nice touch is that you can play with either male or female teams (though there doesn’t seem to be a real difference in gameplay between them).
I think my favorite thing about Volleyball is that when you pause the game, the players assemble at the bottom of the screen and look directly at you, as if to say “okay, we’re ready when you are,” or perhaps “come play with us, forever and ever”:
Overall, though, the experience isn’t particularly fun – while the semblance of volleyball is there, the controls feel imprecise, and the opposing AI is brutal. I’d imagine this is more enjoyable with two human players, but as a solo game it’s really not enjoyable. Here’s me getting crushed by Cuba:
Among the other teams you can play against is Tunisia, a country that has never finished above second-to-last in Olympic competition. I got crushed by them, too.
This game is also a good opportunity to talk about one of the more esoteric facets of collecting NES games. A short time into the NES’s run, Nintendo decided to change the way its cartridges were sealed, going from using 5 screws on the back to 3 proprietary screws on the back and two locking tabs on the top. There’s never been an official explanation for this, though overall costs and/or improved security are likely reasons. Of the 768 games in the NES library, 6 games only exist with the 5-screw layout, and another 80 (including Volleyball) have both 5-screw and 3-screw versions. As it turns out, my copy of Volleyball has 5 screws (some other 3-screw game included for comparison):
While the games themselves are otherwise identical, 5-screw cartridges can command a serious premium depending on their scarcity. The best example of this is probably the 5-screw version of Mike Tyson’s Punch Out, which is extremely rare; a copy sold for an absurd $900 last month. I love NES collecting, but this aspect of it is something I’ve never really understood.
There are a couple of other beach volleyball-based NES games, including Super Spike V’Ball, which is more enjoyable than this one. If you simply must have an NES indoor volleyball game, though, this is unfortunately your only option.
Next week’s game is, in my opinion, one of the last really good releases in a legendary series. What could it be?!