Product Description

Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball takes place on Zack Island, a tropical island, which he purchased and named after himself after winning big at a casino. Zack declares the island the official location of the fourth Dead or Alive tournament.

Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball stars all the ladies from the Dead or Alive fighting games and a new character named Lisa. In addition to the standard beach volleyball tournament, players will have a wealth of other recreational activities to choose from on the island. Gamers can spend time in the arcade, where they can play a mini game of Dead or Alive 3; a cinema, where they can view a trailer of Ninja Gaiden or other Dead or Alive games; or a casino, where they can try their hand at special Dead or Alive versions of slots, poker, blackjack, roulette and more. Other mini-games include a lifeguard drill, a dance competition and a beauty contest.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9883 in Computer & Video Games
• Brand: Microsoft
• Released on: 2003-03-28
• Platform: Xbox

Amazon.co.uk Review
The successful Dead or Alive fighting game franchise is known as much for its female combatants as for its innovative and consistently fun three dimensional gameplay. Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball is a spin-off game that entirely drops the fighting game elements in favour of focusing on DoA's other claim to fame.

DoA: XBV finds Zach, the flamboyant winner of the DoA3 tournament, buying a tropical island after hitting it big in Vegas. He sends out invitations claiming that the next DoA tournament is to be held on his island. Surprise, surprise: there is no fighting tournament, Zach only invited the female fighters, and the stage is set for... well, for a bunch of scantily clad girls frolicking on a beach.

You begin the game by choosing a girl to play as. Each game is broken up into a two week vacation, and each day is divided into morning, daytime and evening. You spend each segment of the day playing volleyball, gambling in the casino, shopping for swimsuits and accessories, lounging around the island, or trying to befriend the other girls on the island.

It's probably not fair to classify DoA:XBV as a volleyball game. Sure, you'll spend a bit of time playing volleyball, but the gameplay is so basic that there are literally only two buttons: one to pass to your teammate and another to send the ball to the opposing side of the net. It's probably more accurate to label DoA:XBV as an unusual "relationship" game, with volleyball just one of several ways to earn money to spend on gifts for girls. Well-wooed girls will partner up with you for volleyball matches, or allow themselves to be convinced to try on slinkier and more exotic swimwear.

What the game lacks in depth, volleyball gameplay or features it makes up for in eye candy. If nothing else, Xtreme Beach Volleyball is a great display of the raw graphical power of the Xbox. It is not a volleyball game. It is an incredibly pretty collection of small but moderately amusing mini-games, played by buxom cartoon babes. Fans of Lara Croft, rejoice: the next generation is here. --Jon Grover

Manufacturer's Description
Are you ready for some Xtreme Action? Then, your wait is over because the girls of Dead or Alive are back and better than ever in the first "Fantasy Sports Simulation", Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball for the Xbox video game console. It's sure to have your heart racing, with beautifully rendered graphics and action-packed game play.The extreme action is transported from the fighting ring of Dead or Alive 3 to the beach. But, this time around, the girls are throwing on their bikinis to go head to head in the most outrageous beach volleyball game you have ever seen! The game lets you compete in two different modes, the Main Mode or the Versus Mode, which accommodates up to four players at one time. It's time to get physical with the ladies as they set, spike, and kill their way to the championship title on the tropical beach resort, Zack Island.

Customer Reviews

A beautiful, addictive but shallow game.
This is one of the most gorgeous games, graphics wise, available for Xbox. A lot of effort has been put into making this game look good, it's a shame more effort wasn't put into realising it's full gameplay potential. Despite what the product description says there is No lifeguard drill, dance competition or beauty contest, and there is not a cinema or an arcade, you can see trailers of the Dead or Alive games but these come in the forms of videos sent to your hotel room by Zack. I was dissaponted that these minigames along with other water based ones couldn't have been included, I feel if they had it would be an excellent game.
Of what there is though it can be quite addictive. It takes a while to master the volleyball but once you do it's fairly easy to win a few matches. The hopping game is a nescessity which you need to do to earn money to buy swimsuits and gifts.You need to buy gifts for the other girls to encourage them to partner with you, you have to make sure you buy something that they will like otherwise they won't partner with you.
If you haven't got a volleyball partner or if you aren't the best at volleyball then you have to do the hopping game to progress.
That's pretty much all there is to it and can be nice break from more serious and difficult games.
I reccommend this game to anyone who just wants to relax and play a no pressure game.

Not what you may be expecting
This is a quirky title that has more in common with the very Japanese style of dating sims rather than a sports game. If you are expecting a serious sports simulation then don't bother. Also if you are looking for titilation then you might get a few hours play out of it if that. Get beneath the glossy surface, and the heart of the game is actually about trying to establish friendship's between your girl, and the other DOA girls. This is essential, as if you are going to win volleyball matches and earn money to buy more bikinis, you are going to have to treat your friends well by buying them the right presents. This is really the main part of the single player game, as a badly chosen present can result in your partner performing poorly, or even abandoning you to a search for another partner. But what abour the volleyball? The mechnanics are deceptively simple, using the analog sticks and a couple of buttons for set and spike. Different strengths of button presses (hard/soft) result in different types of shots and can be used to issue rudimentary commands to your partner, for example, to get them to set you up for a spike. This is a great design touch, which means that anyone can pick up the game and bash buttons, but with practice you can start to put together more subtle presses for combinations of moves. This is going to be one of those games that you will love or hate. My girlfriend and I have spent hours playing the single player mode, there is something bizarelly addictive about the gift buying phase of the game, waiting to see if your presents are appreciated and if you will receive any in return. There is also something hypnotic about the simple controls in the volleyball sections. The non confrontational nature of the game also means you will never find yourself "dying" and worrying about restarting the game. Add to that the fact that you can also rip your own tracks from CD for maximum listening pleasure, and you have a unique and relaxing gaming experience. Like I said though, not for everyone, so try before you buy.

DoA Vollyball
Gameplay

DoA Vollyball is a weird mix of game themes. Part Vollyball, part shopping, part Gambling sim. The game starts with your first meeting with Lisa, the new Dead or Alive girl She gives you a tour of the island, which is simple enough to navigate via a pretty map/menu system. Certain parts of the island are inaccessible during certain parts of the day or fortnight, and during the night you can only visit the hotel. Here's where the 'game' starts. The basic idea is to just have fun for 2 weeks. Do what you want. Play card games, spend all you money in the shops or play volleyball. The only real aim there is trying to get the bikini's you want for certain girls, thats it. This is where the main problem lies, the lack of an actual goal. If you were working for somthing it wouldnt be so bad, but apart from getting your girl into some skimpy bikini, which is hardly rewarding considering they arent even real women :| The actual Vollyball is the highlight of the game. Control is simple with the left stick moving your girl, the right stick positioning your partner and the A and B buttons used for attack and 'set-up'. The Xbox controller's analogue buttons come into play, with two levels of input allowing a range of serves, spikes, passes, feints and blocks when combined with different analogue stick inputs. Its simple enough to get into, but not too simple that it doesnt remain fun. In 2 player it definatly shines alot more. Why there isnt 4 player ill never know as it would have been PERFECT. A nice little addition is the the 'Hopping Game!' It's basically designed to teach you how to use the analogue buttons for the main volleyball segment, your character carefully hops across a series of swimming floats to cross the pool. Some are close together, some are far apart and a quick, rhythmic crossing is rewarded with bonus money. Once each day is done, you return to the hotel for the night where you will receive a gift from Zack, which will be a random gift from one of the stores, or a video featuring clips, commercials, tech demos and the like from other Team Ninja games, such as the forthcoming Ninja Gaiden. You also get the opportunity to send gifts to the girls you like and also to manage your items in the collection before going to bed to sleep in preparation for tomorrow. You can also spend your hard-earned monies in the casino. Here, 4 games are available; Roulette, Poker, Blackjack and Slot Machines.

Graphics

Those expecting Dead or Alive 3-quality graphics will be a little disappointed by XVB on the whole. Characters have a little less detail than they were in DoA3. Not that Xtreme isn't a good looking game - it's MUCH better than a large number of the games released on Xbox in the last year - but comparing the areas in Xtreme to those found in DoA3 shows a distinct lack of care, with the jungle stage featuring some of the most blatant use of scrappy, rotating sprites for background plants since the N64 days. Adding to these problems are the very visible jaggies, which is not something you'd expect to be seeing in a second-generation Xbox title and certainly not something you'd expect from the follow-up to possibly the most beautiful game on the system. Though when you get to around sunset, everything does look a fair bit better, especially the water around the poolside .

Sound

Many players will certainly choose to visit the Radio Station immediately to apply their personal soundtrack from the hard drive as although the music is deliberatly cheery (featuring the likes of B*Witched, Spice Girls, Bob Marley and Christina Aguilera) and fits the game perfectly, they will get on your nerves after a while, even if you like that kind of music (god help anyone who likes B*Witched!)

Lifespan

It'll last as long as you want it to last. There is no end, so you can play it until you're sick of it. Its really hard to put a time on it, but id say after a couple of weeks you probabily wont play it much again.

Overall Summary

Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball is a hard game to recommend. If you aren't interested in getting off over polygon breasts, you'll be bored quickly. If you're after a decent arcade sports game, you'll be seriously disappointed. For every gaming element available here there is at least one game that does it better. For collecting things we have Pokemon and Shenmue, for volleyball we have Beach Spikers, for maintaining relationships we have Smackdown! Shut Your Mouth and for gambling we have the countless Caesars Palace titles that have been released over the last three generations of hardware, not to mention the free versions you have already installed on a Windows PC. Although that's missing the point of it, it all remains true. If you're looking for somthing a bit laid back or a bit original, you're bound to enjoy this. Just dont go expecting anything deep.

[b]
Gameplay = 7
Graphics = 8
Sound = 4
Lifespan = 5

Overall Score - 6/10