U.S. Championship V'Ball

Infobox VG
title= V'Ball


caption= Japanese sales flyer for "U.S. Championship V'Ball"
developer= Technos
publisher= Taito (arcade)
Nintendo (NES)
released= Arcade version:
^NA October, 1988
NES version
^JPN November 10, 1989
^NA February, 1990
^EU January 23, 1992
genre= Sports
modes= Up to 4 players, simultaneously
platforms= Arcade, NES
input= 8-way joystick, 2 buttons
cabinet=
media= 2-megabit cartridge
cpu= M6502 (@ 2 MHz)
sound= Sound CPU: Z80 (@ 3.579545 MHz) Sound Chips: YM2151 (@ 3.579545 MHz), OKI6295 (@ 8 kHz)
display= Raster, 240 x 240 pixels (Horizontal), 256 colors

"U.S. Championship V'Ball", also known simply as "V'Ball", is a 1989 beach volleyball sports game released for the arcades by Technos. The arcade version was distributed in North America by Taito. A Nintendo Entertainment System version, which was published by Nintendo in North America and the PAL region under the title of "Super Spike V'Ball".

Arcade version

The player takes control of a pair of self-described beach bums named George (a white guy) and Michael (a black guy) who made their living playing beach volleyball against locals. One day, they find a flyer for a nationwide beach volleyball tournament offering the winning team a million dollar prize.

A single player can take control of both characters or be assisted by a second player. The two players can also compete against each. In the American version, the game can be set-up to be played by up to four players (if the cabinet allows it to). The single player mode consists of two cycles with four stages: the Minor Circuit and the Major Circuit. The stages in the game are Daytona Beach, New York, Los Angeles and Hawaii. After completing the Major Circuit, the player faces against the U.S. Navy team, set in a naval base.

The play controls consist of an eight directional lever and two buttons for jumping and receiving. The player can perform several moves including power spiking, back spiking, jump-serving, blocking and diving.

There are a few minor differences between the Japanese and American releases. The Japanese release ("U.S. Championship Beach Volley: V'Ball") features an opening cut-scene written in that provides the game with a plot. Between matches, the game shows intermission sequences showing the main characters going to a car store to purchase a new car. As the player progresses, the cars that are purchased increased in quality, shifting from used cars to new cars during the Major Circuit. The American release ("U.S. Championship V'Ball") removes these cut-scenes, but extends the multiplayer support to up to four players with multiple game modes (1 or 2 players against the computer, 1-on-1, 2-on-1, or 2-on-2).

A conversion of the arcade game, developed SPS, was released for the Sharp X68000 computer in Japan. [cite web|url=http://www.sps.co.jp/05_03_other02.htm#09|title=株式会社 エス・ピー・エス～博物館―Windows|language=Japanese]

NES version

The NES version features several key differences from the arcade game. In the NES version the player can now select their teams. The available pairs in the single player mode are: George and Murphy, the default well-balanced team; Al and John, powerful, but slow players with poor defensive skills; Billy and Jimmy (the heroes of the "Double Dragon" series), defensive players with poor spiking power; and Ed and Michael, fast players with average hitting power. The NES game features a tournament mode against the CPU that can be played alone or with another player, and a competitive mode that allows up to four players.

There are several differences between the Japanese Famicom version ("U.S. Championship V'Ball") and the western NES version ("Super Spike V'Ball"). The Famicom version features a single tournament mode which consists of five American Circuit matches (Daytona, New York, Chicago, Las Vegas and Los Angeles) three World Cup in Hawaii (of random nationalities) and two additional matches against the U.S. Navy and a Russian team in that order. The player can adjust the difficulty setting in the option menu in the Famicom version. Additionally, the characters of George and Ed had their partners switched in the Famicom version, with George being partnered with Michael as in the arcade version, while Ed is partnered with Murphy.

In the NES version, there are three different tournament modes: Exercise, the American Circuit and the World Cup. The Exercise Mode is just a match against the first team in a crowd-less court set to an easy difficulty. The American Circuit simply consists of the first five teams featured in the Famicom version's tournament mode set to an average difficulty. The World Cup mode consists of seven teams in the following order: Japan, Italy, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, the Navy and Russia, all set to a hard difficulty. The background for the Russian stage was also redrawn to make it look less hostile with the omission of the tanks in the Famicom version. There is no difficulty setting in the option menu since the three different tournament modes serve as difficulty settings themselves.

oundtrack

An arranged soundtrack was released in Japan by Meldac based on the Famicom version of the game. The soundtrack was composed by Takashi Furukawa, Yoshimitsu Hamano and Funky Yasuda. It was released on March 10, 1990 with the catalog number MECG-28002.
# V'Ball (Title Back) 4:01
# First Wave (Daytona Theme) 4:21
# Twilight Game (New York Theme) 3:37
# Sea Breeze Hero (Chicago Theme) -Female Vocal Version- 4:07
# $1,000,000 Night (Las Vegas Theme) 4:20
# SeaSide Walker (L.A. Theme) 4:12
# Beyond the Sky (Hawaii World Cup Theme) 6:05
# Iron Wing (Aircraft Carrier Theme) 4:11
# Big Red Attack (U.S.S.R. Match Theme) 3:45
# Winner's Theme (Championship Scene) 4:44

References

External links

* [http://www.mikesarcade.com/cgi-bin/spies.cgi?action=game&entry=U.S+Championship+V'Ball The game's entry on the Coin-Op Video Game List]
* [http://www.nesworld.com/manuals/ssvball.txt Super Spike V'Ball instruction manual]
*moby game|id=/super-spike-vball