[Review] Kings of the Beach

REVIEW # 00000000 00100010

My heart says…

Along with California Games II, Kings of the Beach was the game that form me alwas meant summer. And also meant West Coast. I had it on my computer for years but at first I played just a few times for a few minutes because I never had the will to find the keys to use (that you cannot set). Then one day I started to push all the keys, I found the three I needed and finally start to play. And it was good!

Splash screen

Graphics

The graphics are very similar to the cited California Games II along with Ski and Die and Skate or Die with which this game shares also the gameplay and the serious atmosphere halfway between sport event and comedy. I cannot give this game more than 6/10 and I cannot give it less since I’m in love with this kind of visuals…

Narrative

Gameplay

Kings of the Beach, once you know which key you have to press to do spikes and block it’s an easy andd funny game. Yhere are no combos to manage, no tricks, just simple beach volley. The players you can control are the only real ones in the game (Smith and Stoklos), while the opponents have fantasy names that sometimes recalls famous movie characters (like Mr. Crocodile Dundee…)

There’s the possibility to train, to make a single match and a tournament with six different opponent teams, obviusly in ascending order of difficulty: we go from the first team than never do ana attack to the last one that will make you sweat eben in the easy mode (imagine what it would be to do it in hard mode, tried once ans it’ was enough…)

The funny thing is that the players can get mad sometimes and protest with the referee who (in 99% of the cases) will show them a yellow and/or red card (in the second case meaning the loss of one point at advantage of the opponent team). It’s bad the human player cannot choose to shout to the referee (it would have been awesome!).

When you start to manage the controls the game with the 3rd and 4th team become funny because it’ hard but not impossible and if you’re good enought you can have wonderful actions.

When you win the tournament you get your reward: a beautiful bikini babe 90’s-style. Not bad.

Sound

KoB has one of the best music ever heard in a sport game. the melody you can hear when you register to the tent before starting the game is crazy, is wonderful and makes you want to throw your clothes away and fly to the beach.

Longevity

After 5-6 times you play the game you’ll be skilled enough to beat it in less than 1 hour. Fortunately there’s the hard mode that allows you to spend more time on the game. By the way in a game like that longevity is not an important factor, being KotB an intermezzo game.

Final Score 65/100

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Year: 1988

Developer: Electronic Arts

Publisher: Electronic Arts

Genre: Sports

Games Mode: Single Player, Double Player

Original Platform: C64, MS-DOS

From same developers/publishers:

• Boulder Dash (1984)
• The Seven Cities of Gold (1984)
• Skate or Die! (1988)
• Indianapolis 500: The Simulation (1989)
• James Pond (1990) e seguiti
• Car & Driver (1992)
• Syndicate (1993)
• FIFA International Soccer (1993) and sequels
• Magic Carpet (1994)
• The Need For Speed (1994) e seguiti
• Simcity 2000 (1994)
• Crusader: No Remorse (1995)
• Extreme Pinball (1995)
• FIFA ’98 – Road to World Cup (1997)

Inspired to:

• Volleyball (1986)

If you liked you can also try:

• Skate or Die (1987)
• California Games (1987)
• California Games II (1990)
• Ski or Die (1990)

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