Kings of the Beach Download (1988 Sports Game)

Kings of the Beach is a two on two beach volleyball game. You must quickly move your team about on the sand performing serves, thumps, and spikes to not only out-perform but also out-smart the opposing team.

There are 15 levels and 20 challengers to beat, on famous beaches like Rio, Hawaii and Sydney, in order to be crowned King of the Beach. Both cooperative and competitive multiplayer (non-networked) are also supported.

Kings of the Beach is yet another very successful game in the series of excellent sports games by Electronic Arts. You can say they really were on a streak in the early Nineties. Just like all the others, this game is simple, high quality and very entertaining. There is not much to say about this game, as it is exactly what it's supposed to be - a beach volleyball game. You can play with the computer or a friend. There are two modes available: practice and tournament. In practice mode you can perfect your skills, and once you feel ready, you can enroll in the tournament. There you will face many opponents, each of whom has been given a short description. Of course, the farther you get in the tournament, the more skilled your opponents will be. That is pretty much everything about gameplay. The graphics are just fine - nothing spectacular, but they serve their purpose - and the sound is also satisfactory. So, I give this game a 4, since it's exactly what it is supposed to be - no more, no less - an excellent way to get your mind off things and go play some volleyball on a hot, sunny California beach. :)

You play volleyball on the beach, either doing singles or doubles, and you can also enter in Tournaments. It also had a chance to go and practise some of your plays, such as the Spike. This game has pretty good graphics considering the time it was made, and is a pretty challenging game. I'd recommend this game for anyone that as interest in sport, as it has pretty good movement and realism.

Kings of The Beach is a great beach volleyball game from Electronic Arts that remains to this day one of the only game of its kind. (There are actually more recent freeware releases, but they are all arcade-style games with little regard to rules of the sport). Kasey Chang's review at MobyGames says it all:

"The Good:

Simple interface (just 3 action buttons besides the direction keys!), easy to learn, plenty of practice (serve, set, spike), decent graphics (for its time).

The Bad:

A bit TOO simple at times, as blocking and spiking is mainly guessing (it's nearly impossible to fake the AI at the highest levels), requires just a BIT too much timing (it's HARD to just "lob" a ball instead of spiking it, and to jump for a block at EXACTLY the right time), gets repetitive after a while.

The Bottom Line:

KotB is probably the only beach volleyball game ever (certainly don't remember any other). It uses a third-person perspective where you can see the whole court from the "side". You control one player while the AI controls the other. You can pass/set for each other, spike, block, and do other moves. You can even serve three different ways, including jump serve! The "campaign" is to win the world BVB championship by playing in tournaments in various locales (from Rio to Miami to Long Beach and so on) against various AI opponents.

The characters are small but nicely animated. After getting a point your characters will high-five each other. A hard spike can cause the opponent to miss a dig and do a roll, then stand up and brush off the sand... If you win your two players will do a victory dance. Some of the characters will even argue with the referee, and maybe even issued a yellow or red card!

The controls are very simple: just three action buttons low, middle, and high. When serving you get three different serves. When playing low is dig, middle is set, and high is jump/block/spike.

The game is quite simple but quite entertaining, as you will swear after losing points and cheer after winning points. The graphics are simple and the music simple, but it is effective in drawing you into the game world.

All in all, it's due for a serious remake, now that Beach Volleyball is an acknowledged Olympic sport. If you can find it, it's worth trying for nostalgia's sake." Highly recommended, especially for fans of Epyx's classic California Games series.

How to run this game on modern Windows PC?

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