274 · Super Spike VBall

• Bump Set Spike Kaboom
• NES Longplay
• Introductions
  • Volleyball having a moment or just a bunch of duplicate games hitting the NES lately?
• Overview
  • Composed of four screens, which, by proportion, would be about as long as two standard pinball tables if it were a real table.
• Character Select
  • Al’s screen has a different color text just for the letter U in the word YOU. Symbolic?
  • Billy and Jimmy (the heroes of the Double Dragon series)
  • Unusual STATE SELECT
    • The stages in the game are (Daytona Beach, New York City, Chicago, Las Vegas and Los Angeles
• Gameplay
  • Tons of controls and moves
  • Am I missing something in the early game? Provided you can time your jump and spike, the rest of the game is just kinda autoplay? Essentially, as long as you’re spamming the A button when the opposing team returns the ball it seems like your players automatically target and volley the ball.
  • Tournament
    • Different circuits
      • The World Cup mode consists of seven teams in the following order: Japan, Italy, Australia, Mexico, Brazil, the Navy and USSR, 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.
  • The real game is the cooperation between 2 players. I don’t think there’s enough here solo
• Female teams
  • Four additional female teams are present in the game but are inaccessible to the player under normal playing conditions. Using a cheating device the teams become selectable.[2] Even though they are fully playable in-game the images representing the female teams in the team selection screen are missing resulting in garbled graphics being displayed instead.
• Sequels and Spinoffs
  • We will cover this game again in our Super Spike VBall/ Nintendo World Cup 2 pack episode
    • Aracdes
      • The Japanese release (U.S. Championship Beach Volley: V'Ball) features an opening cut-scene explaining the plot. Between matches, intermission sequences depict the main characters visiting a car dealership to purchase a vehicle. As the player progresses, the cars increase 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).
• EGL
• Next week - SUPER MARIO BROS 3
• NEStalgia Byte - Cocoron

Auto-generated transcript. Each paragraph starts with its timestamp. Speakers are not identified.

00:00 Super Spike V-Ball, Bump, Set, Spike, Kaboom! Super Spike V-Ball, Bump, Set, Spike, Kaboom!

00:21 And welcome to NEStalgia, a chronological exploration of every NES game released in North America. I'm Mike. I'm Sean. And I'm Joe. Okay, so last week we played a pinball game and that was weird because like we just played a pinball game right before that. Now volleyball is having a moment. Yeah, and we kind of just played a volleyball game before that. Absolutely true. And so we have to come up with, you know, two hours of content here about volleyball.

00:54 Does anybody... About like 30 minutes. Can we do 30 minutes? I can do 30. Yeah, well, two times .25 speed. Okay, yeah, let's do that. I think what helps this version of volleyball is that we don't need to know any athletes. In the last episode, we were really confused about who those guys were or if they were even famous or if people would have known about them. In this game, you just have to know Billy and Jimmy, who were the heroes of the Double Dragon series. They show up in this game, which is really freaking cool.

01:25 Oh, you know, I didn't even notice that, but... It's like Easter egg stuff. It's not like you were... You're not supposed to be like, oh, they have their Double Dragon powers. Like, no, they're just the same names. And I guess like, I don't really remember what they look like in the arcade or whatever, but I guess you... If you played those games enough, you would make the connection that it's more than just the names that they have. The likeliness. The likeness. The likeliness. We're using my words. I got it. It's very likely that they are Billy and Jimmy. Yeah, yeah. You can't say with certainty that anything is anything. Nothing is nothing, though. We all can agree on that. But volleyball.

02:06 Yeah, yeah. Well, so starting with just the fact that we've played volleyball games before, don't talk about this game. What are you looking for in a volleyball game? What's going to like tease us a little bit? What would it take for a volleyball game to be on the essential games list?

02:23 I think it would have to be something along the lines of what... I've talked about my brief tryst with Mario Tennis before on this podcast. And I think it would have to be something that adds enough flavor to such a simple game to, you know, to hold my attention for hours on end. And that's something that Mario Tennis 64 or whatever did for tennis. And I haven't really come across that for volleyball yet. But I guess it's just like an expressiveness to the game that I would want.

03:05 Yeah, it's hard for me to say... Like, I do think that it's possible for a volleyball game to do something that makes me want to put on the essential games list. I don't know what that is, though, is the problem. Like, I feel like I'd know it when I'd see it. And if that doesn't spoil my essential games list vote for you, I don't know what will.

03:27 Right. What about you, Mike? Well, you know, it's a funny question because it's mine and I only ask funny questions. I agree with Joe that, like, I don't think I was going... I feel like I'm a little... I'm not great at this show because I kind of hear that it's a volleyball game and my mind might as well be made up beforehand. And that's not the objective of this show. We're supposed to come in with no opinions. But I've played some volleyball games. I've played some risque volleyball games. Uh-huh. In my video game career.

04:00 And here we are with volleyball on the NES. And I'm kind of like, well, I've played volleyball on more advanced systems. And I don't know, you know, like, I hate to use that as a way to say, like, no, it's not gonna be essential because there's other iterations. But, like, what could the basic version of volleyball do here to set itself apart from deeper, more interesting 3D versions of volleyball? And so I guess that's what we're gonna have to get into now. But before we talk about any kind of gameplay, I want to talk about this character select screen. Okay. Because they give you, like, you know, you choose just one character and then they, like, bring a teammate along. Yeah, them and their clone.

04:46 I think they should have leaned into it and actually, like, had this take place in the future where, like, even Chicago was sort of like in a tropical climate where, you know, everyone can always year-round play beach volleyball shirtless.

05:03 And there's cloning and every top athlete has a clone as insurance for their career. And obviously they're also genetically modified to keep them in top. That's terrible insurance, though, if they're both playing in the games at the same time and they could both get injured. I mean, I think the chances of them both being injured are lower than one person being injured. But also, if it's me and my clone are the team and my clone is my insurance, if I get injured, they still gotta replace me because my clone is my teammate. You can't replace me and still be the teammate.

05:38 All right, you've got other clones in the bank. Oh, okay. You know, like, you've got probably a fridge somewhere that's got some at, like, various points in their gestation, you know? Like, that's how it would work. I gotcha. I think that even maybe the actual athlete is never even playing. It's all his clones. He's never even played volleyball. I mean, that's the question, you know?

05:59 But this system where the character you choose just brings along a friend, right? Imagine a story... Yeah, clone, sure. I mean, I get why you're saying clone because it is the same exact sprite on screen. But, like, what I'm saying here is imagine if it was a story-based game, not a sports game, right? Where, like, you're choosing your main character in a JRPG quest, but they happen to also, like, bring along the only other member of your party.

06:28 But you don't get to know any details about them or anything. They're just, like, they're in for the ride. And it turns out, like, the character you picked has all these great stats, but maybe their teammate doesn't. That's not the case here because, as Sean mentioned, it's just two clones, so it's the same person twice. But, like, the implication is bad. I think the implication's wrong.

06:48 I guess also to what you're saying, it's a missed opportunity to give you, the player, the option to be like, okay, I want to pick so-and-so because he's good at spiking, but then I want the other teammate to be good at defense. You know, it's like, no, you can have two players that are good at defense, or you can have two players that are good at, you know, attacking. Well, there's also too small of a roster for, I think, those decisions to really make much of a difference. And I also, I played as a few different variations, and I couldn't really, like, there might be a difference,

07:25 but I couldn't find, like, it didn't feel crazy different. It's still the same experience. Yeah. I mean, now that you mention it, I'm not sure what difference there was in any of these, other than, like, some of the AI that you're playing against was just harder, but I didn't think, like, oh, these guys, wow, these guys are, their defense is great. I never thought like that. On the character select screen for Al, one of the characters you can choose to be, he has just a different color text from the rest of the screen on his letter U in the word U. Is that symbolic of anything? Should we be reading into that?

08:08 I like this. Have we ever done any, have we ever talked about something like this before? It's not like, oh, the rest of it's red and this is purple, or, you know, something like that. Just. No, this is. It's subtle. This is the developer talking to us. This is a sign. It's a cry for help.

08:30 Also, in the character select screen, you have the unusual ability to select your state as well. The stages in the game are Daytona Beach, New York City, Chicago, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles, and then eventually there's the World Cup as well. But the state you select, as far as I know, doesn't matter at all? No, I think it's just for customization purposes. But is it ever mentioned in the game? Like, oh, and here they are from New York, the boys. I think when you win, it tells you, like, oh, it was this team from Alaska.

09:08 Yeah, like when you win the final thing, it says, like, yeah, great job, New York, or whatever. Right. I guess at that point, just, like, let me choose my last name. Yeah, but I mean, I guess if you're doing, like, the, you're doing, like, an American tour, or whatever you call it, like, it's cool to be like, oh, I'm picking my state, or I'm just picking a state to be from, like, you are,

09:31 there's other, there's American cities that you're going to, so it's like, oh, okay, I get to pick the American state that I'm from. Yeah, but assume that you picked the state that you're from, and you're the one doing all the controlling, and you win the tournament, and then it presents it like it's two other guys that you are not that won the tournament, and they're also from New York. It's like, oh, there's two guys better than me in my state, but I'm the one who did all the work. Wait, that's how I feel watching the Olympics.

09:59 But you're the one doing all the work at the Olympics, we know. Yes. Yeah, you're the one watching. My tax dollars paid for their vacation to Sochi. But when you say two other people, are you talking about the two characters that you were playing as? Yeah, yeah, because, like, you're not them. That's what I'm saying, like, take your last name instead as the character selection thing, not, like, the same. So they're at least, like, your distant cousins. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Now it's like they're your rivals. Your two identical clone twin cousins.

10:28 Okay. Yeah, it was a stretch, right? I agree. I got nothing. Yeah. So we're talking about the gameplay now because I decided that it's time for that section. Okay. And there's a lot of controls here, actually. I thought the game was kind of simple at first before I looked at the manual, and I was just like, all right, cool. You can jump and spike, or you can just volley the ball back to the other you and do it that way. But, like, no, there's a lot of options here, and I guess, like, they will come into play the longer, you know, like, as the computers get smarter and your reflexes need to be faster.

11:32 But when you start this game, you don't need to know any of that. No. No, it's very simple. It's easy to get a hang of. One is, like, you know, interact with ball, and one is jump. And the different, like, directional inputs that you can use while using those buttons kind of gives you all the effects that you need. And timing with jumps and spikes has a pretty insane effect on things. I was actually surprised early when I was playing the game. I was like, okay, bump, set, and spike. And then bump, set, and spike. And that was just sort of like, okay, I'm kind of getting bored at this.

12:25 But then I realized that, like, you don't really need to wait for the ball to get to a certain point spiking. Like, you could have it, like, bump, set, spike. And you could kind of get a big kaboom effect, and the player flies back. And it is a little bit of that, like, expressiveness that I was talking about in what I'm looking for in these simpler sports games.

12:49 I don't know how you guys felt about that. Yeah, but it does still need, you do still need to, like, it is unforgiving in the way that, like, you're lined up. It doesn't, like, give you any help of, like, oh, you almost hit the ball, so we're going to hit the ball. Like, I noticed that right away. I noticed what you're talking about, too, where you can, like, time it in different ways. But you can easily whiff on the ball.

13:11 Oh, absolutely. And I think that that is, I don't remember if we kind of had a control scheme like this in other volleyball games. But it's just because there's a separate button for jump and then interact with the ball. So you have to jump, and then when you're lined up perfectly to where you want to be, where the ball is close enough to you, whatever,

13:30 then you hit the button to spike. And I feel like because of that, that made it feel more satisfying to actually do it. And also, like, I'm in, I'm in, like, it takes more skill than, like, there just being a spike button. Or I feel like in one of them we had, like, A and B is the spike button or something, like, together. Whereas, like, this is, like, no, I'm actually, it feels a little more related to volleyball because I'm actually having to time it like I would have to if I was using my actual arm on an actual ball. Yeah, it feels like there's a bit of a higher skill ceiling than what I would have expected with the simplicity of the control.

14:08 Right. And what Sean was saying with the kaboom, like, there's a whole, like, flair there to this game with the wop and kaboom and stuff that, like, actually appears on screen as you're hitting that makes it a little, you know, fun and arcade-y. But at the same time, you know, with the skill ceiling. But this game also has the ability to make you feel really cool and then immediately really uncool

14:32 when you do, like, the kaboom, right? And it's like, wow, look at that. Like, this is fast action. Like, that's me. I'm doing that stuff. And then to Joe's point, like, when you whiff, like, when you just don't time correctly and you swing too early and then the ball just falls into the sand, it's like, it feels really bad and it's, you know, there's no more, like, there's no more visual flair for that kind of thing that happens. It just feels like the whole world paused and watched you fail when you whiff.

15:04 I think that's supposed to be that way. Absolutely. I would want that. Well, I don't know if I would want that, but I think that that's effective game design that, like, one minute you're having fun and then the next minute you're in timeout.

15:19 Well, even when you get hit with the ball, like, if someone uses that kaboom move and it hits you, like, there's, yeah, there's a knockdown, like, a little bit of time where you got to get up and get to the ball while your partner's setting it. Like, you know, that adds a little bit to it as well. But it feels so easy early on that I felt like, provided I was just timing my jumps and my spikes

15:41 correctly, the rest of the game was this weird autoplay where as long as I was spamming the A button before the opponent even returned the ball over to me, because your players don't do anything when the ball isn't, like, in their vicinity, it seemed like the players just automatically targeted and volleyed the ball, which is, like, bad practice for what eventually happens in the game where you need to be more reflexive and fast-paced.

16:07 Sometimes you almost got to be, like, preemptive. Right, right. At least maybe me. Like, I felt like I had to try and figure out, okay, where are they going to hit this now and kind of get in position. Yeah, you got to worry about spacing. The good thing is, and it's definitely a frustration saver, is it doesn't matter which of your clones they spike it at. If you hit the interact button, they will, like, set it or attempt to, at least, if you're nearby.

16:38 But you still need to worry about your spacing so that there isn't just a wide-open part of the sand that is just open for them to spike it at. Yeah. One thing, though, that did throw me off kind of about that at first, and granted I got used to it, is that, like, if the ball is going towards the player that you're not playing as at the moment, sometimes, or maybe all the time, you just switch to controlling that person.

17:09 Yeah, that's sort of what I meant. Yeah, that actually kind of bugged me at first, because I would be actively controlling the other guy, trying to get him to a position just because, like, just out of instinct, because that's the person I'm controlling,

17:24 and then suddenly in the middle of me controlling him, now I'm controlling the first guy because he's closer to the ball or something, but I'm already pushing the D-pad in one direction, so he just goes the wrong way or something. I did get used to it after a while. It became, like, kind of just intuitive of, like, who I was going to be controlling, but at first that was really a little jarring. It just felt like without any control or input of my own, it was just like, all right, now you're playing this guy.

17:47 Yeah, but I think it needs to be that way, just because imagine a scenario where it's, like, the floating 1P over your head, and you have to hit, like, select to change between the two. So we've seen that in, like, ways to control football teams in NES games, or even just other video games where, like, you switch between which character you want to play before the hike, right?

18:10 It wouldn't work here in this volleyball game, and so I kind of, I never really considered the other option until Sean brought it up, that, like, there could be a world where you just play as one of them and the computer is the other, and that would feel really bad when the computer messes it up because you have no role in that, and shouldn't the computer just be perfect? Perfect. So I think it's really smart of them, in the long run, especially knowing how twitch reflexy the game gets, that it's worth it so that the game kind of decides for you, like, who you are. Now, maybe they should have, like, figured out a way to, like,

18:43 maybe that person glows or something. I feel like that would be distracting to see that switch, especially because this isn't, I don't know, this isn't like volleyball where the ball is, like, high up in the air, and you wait for it to come back down, and then you hit it high up in the air, and the opponent has to, like, chase after it. Like, this ball is returning back and forth pretty fast, and for the most part, at least in my game plays,

19:07 there isn't really such a thing as volleying. Like, there might be, like, an exchange back and forth, like, twice or four times max, and then, like, someone's gonna score. Yeah, and one thing I will note, just is just in sports games in general, where there is this ambiguity of who would be getting, who would be receiving a pass, or who's going to intercept,

19:33 and then this switch in control. Like, this is still a problem in sports games. Like, it's always gonna be kind of an annoyance. Um, and so it's not just this old volleyball game that suffers.

20:02 To go back to presentation, because we were really just talking about, uh, fun 1960s Batman-style words, popping up on the screen when you hit the ball, there is a lot of other, you know, like, the locations are really fun, and they change, but also, um, the score is ever-present, um, in the middle of the screen.

20:22 There's a, uh, woman who will, uh, like, announce that somebody got a point, or that it went out, or something like that. She's a great woman. Yeah, she, yeah, she's a great woman for many reasons. I'm not gonna list them off here. Um, but, uh, to get back on track, I just think, like, realistically, like, the presentation stuff is both, like, it's flair, but it also, like, it reads really well. Like, I, I think, even though they're doing this

20:50 somewhat scrolling with the ball, like, they can't show the whole court, I never felt like I wasn't able to see what was coming, you know, which is hard to do when, when a screen scrolls. A lot of times in other games, we'll complain that, oh, well, I didn't know that that enemy was right there, you know, like, until the screen scrolled over and showed it. So with the ball, like, traveling as fast as it is, but it's still, like, communicating, uh, you know, pretty okay. I, I didn't get, like, to the end stages. I don't know how fast the ball can travel. I mean, I think it helps. I think it helps that, at any point, you can see pretty much, like, 75% of the screen. So a lot of that movement

21:28 is just kind of, I, I think, to add some dynamicism to this, uh, I'm thinking about playing the game fully zoomed out with an un, the, the backgrounds aren't really animated all that much, and then there's no camera movement at all. I think it would feel a little stale. I think it just adds a little bit to the energy of the game. Yeah, you're right, too. I think, um, the way that the scrolling works, too, it scrolls with the ball when it goes from side to side, so it actually adds some motion to the hit, you know, as if, as if you feel the ball traveling, whereas, uh, I feel like the other,

22:10 uh, like, tennis games have never done that and probably wouldn't be able to or whatever, but they could certainly give it a try. I'd be down for it. They, they don't communicate that speed or the speed is too fast because everything is motionless, so you're not, you're not tracking with the ball.

22:29 We have a tournament mode in this game. We see this a lot in, um, these, like, more, I don't know, the, the ones that aren't, the sports that aren't the four major leagues, like, when you start to get to, like,

22:41 golf or tennis or volleyball or dodgeball, it's like, yeah, let's just throw in, like, a tournament mode. That's the, that's the mode that you get to, uh, you know, to do, like, a campaign of sorts, whereas, like, in baseball or football, it's like, you know, play a full season as this team. Why do you think they don't do that in, in these, uh, in these kinds of games? Why does it always go down to, like, a tournament? Well, I don't really know if there's really a volleyball season with a set schedule, uh, that eventually ends in a playoff, uh, to win the, uh, the Stan Lee Cup. Uh, I, I think this is more how these,

23:20 like, not, I mean, I guess this is doubles volleyball, but it, it's kind of more of a single sport, and you don't really see that kind of season playoff dichotomy in these. So I think it's just the way it is. Yeah, this is probably just, like, the way more people know of volleyball. Like, more people are probably just, like, I mean, even if there is a league or something, it's not, like, the NHL, NHL, or the NFL, or anything, where it's, like, everybody watches this. You know, everybody knows this. It's, like, so people, I don't know, it's probably just, like, eh, what people are familiar with.

23:55 Right, right, and I'm, I'm not saying, um, that they should, uh, you know, follow, like, they should make a full season, like, 162 games of volleyball before you get to the playoffs or anything, but it's, it's, like,

24:08 you know, if the, if an NHL game, right, just started with the playoffs, right, so it was just the tournament portion of it, shouldn't there be, like, you know, I guess, like, exhibition modes can kind of be like that, but just games that you can play where it's, like, oh, you know, I want to win these games, right, like, exhibition modes are very hard for me to care about winning, but, like, in a season mode kind of thing, it's, like, yeah, I want to win this game, but I don't need to win every game

24:36 consecutively to keep playing, you know, whereas tournament mode is, is, you know, you lose one, you're out. I guess it would have to be maybe more of, like, a Gran Turismo style, like, campaign where there are, like, there are tournaments and you might lose one, but then you take some winnings and, or whatever the currency

25:00 for progression is in these games and then you move on to the next one, and it's just a bunch of tournaments. Yeah, and you use your cash to buy new volleyballs and new swimsuits and stuff. I went, hey, you're, you're selling me. You're, it sounds like a game that I've already played.

25:19 You buy new volleyballs, does that imply that, like, that one of the teams gets to pick which volleyball you use in the game? There's two teams. Uh, yeah, that's sort of like you flip a coin and whoever wins gets to kick off and to win. Do the balls have different, like, stats and stuff too? Like, oh, this one's got, like, really high wind resistance. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And that's one thing I'm really upset that they didn't put into the game is the coin toss.

25:44 They, they forgot to include that in the game so we don't know whose ball we're playing with. True, true. That's true. I think it's just a ball that they found on the sand, yeah. Yeah, this isn't even, like, a tournament or anything. It's just people playing volleyball on the sand. And a bunch of people just came to watch. Yeah. And you notice, you know, speaking of the crowd,

26:04 you know, every, every city that you go to is in the American cities, like, they each have, like, a little thing about, you know, Chicago has, like, some bears in the stands even though, like, that's not the same sport. And then they have, like, you know, it says pizza because they have pizza. We have good food. Yeah, we have, just New York, it just says good food, good food, like, like, advertising for just generic general good food. I'm not gonna complain.

26:33 But then the, sometimes the people can be weird too, like, not just the locations itself, but I've never been, I've been to Hawaii for my honeymoon and I've been to beaches in Hawaii. Congrats, Mike. Thank you. I've been to beaches on Hawaii and I have never seen people show up in top hats to the beach to watch a tournament. Maybe there's sun hats.

26:56 I'd like to believe that. I don't think it's true. They all are like, they're wearing, like, suits. Are they the press? What is, this is gonna sound really stupid, but is there, like, a sailboat? What is, like, right next to the scoreboard to the right? Yeah, that's a sailboat. That's gotta be. Okay, because when I look at it, like, when I see it in my peripheral, I think there's, like, a giant toucan sitting there. I like that better. You know, like, that's... I don't have this in front of me, so I can't comment. I feel like our listeners It's 100% a sailboat.

27:27 But it doesn't look like it's in the water. Okay, so it's on the beach. Does it have, uh, what color is it, guys? Well, no, it's like, it's weird. It's shaded the same color as the people. Hmm. So it's a skinbow. Huh. Okay, speaking of, uh, content, uh,

27:50 I, you know, like, my, my typical very in-depth research for these games is I look at the Wikipedia page, um, which, uh, I don't think a lot of people think to do. And, uh, for this game, it actually had a little, uh, section for a piece of cut content, and that was, uh, female teams. And that was, which is kind of notable because there, there are, there's like a woman on the cover for the game, uh, and I guess maybe that's just, you know, your, your person that, the, the very, the very great woman that calls, like, out of bounds and stuff. Uh, but there's no female teams, it's just a bunch of, you know,

28:32 big, burly, muscle dudes. Um, like, I wonder how much, like, that's actually cutting, like, cutting that mode. Like, is it just sprite swap anyway? So, it's not a mode, it's just more teams. That, yeah. But do you think they really would have let them play against the men?

28:51 I mean, regardless, uh, there was a, it's apparently, it might be cut content, but like, that data is still on the cart. So, I mean, that's my point, is like, what would be the, what would be the point of cutting that? Uh, I think the point of cutting it is that the, the image of a bikini clad woman is a bit too much for the Nintendo audience, I guess. Have you seen the woman who's announcing the points? I, I know, but this is full body, even though it's less detailed. But, you know, being the, uh, the, the in-depth researcher that I am, I put the game genie code in to unlock these, uh, these teams.

29:35 And, uh, they're actually like, they're fully animated. Like you could play as, they don't really, they don't have a character select, uh, page there. It's all just sort of garbled garbage. Uh, but like they've got, and when you win and sort of, uh, celebrate, that just glitches out too. But when you're playing the game, like there is a sprite for every frame. And, uh, I don't know. I just thought that was interesting.

30:02 Hmm. Maybe they were, they were saving it for a sequel. They were withholding it so they could make more money on a sequel. You're right. But DLC, I guess we'll wait for Mike to get the sequels and spin-offs. Yeah. After the central games vote. That's a great callback, Joe. Um, I was wondering, Sean, if in your research, you also noticed that, uh, this game was not called Super Spike V-Ball. Yes. Um, that was, uh, you actually told us about this game using the Japanese title.

30:34 And so, and I, so it was kind of hard for me to, to find it at first. Um, but yeah, it's, uh, what is it again? U.S. championship V-Ball, which again, at that point, just say volleyball. Okay. Like, United States championship volleyball. Just do it. United States of America championship volleyball video game for the NES. Yeah, actually, Joe, that's a great, that's a great segue for a second. What makes people decide U.S. versus USA? What is the, what is the deciding factor there? Like, why would they not just say USA championship volleyball? I don't know. Maybe, uh, they pay by the letter.

31:14 Well, U.S. championship V-Ball, uh, as we're forced to call it by Technos Japan, uh, was an arcade game first. I guess this is sequels and spinoffs in a way. Um, we're just talking about the first game. Uh, and you know, it's, it's basically the same game, but obviously like the graphics are better and everything, but there's a lot of like parodies in the, um, in the locations that you go to and stuff like that. So in the New York, one, you could see the statue of Liberty and the empire state building in great detail in the background and the people aren't wearing suits and they, they, you know, they look like people who say I'm walking here. Uh, even though there's no beach,

31:52 you know, like I guess they're on Coney Island. Um, but I don't think you can, you gotta go with the rockaways, man. Yeah, no, I'm just saying, I guess like the, you know, we did this on another episode too, uh, where we discussed like the skyline and where they are and it just doesn't make any freaking sense. they're at like the tip of, they're like in Dumbo or something. Yeah, right. Even though there's no bridges. Yeah. Um, but anyway, pretend that they've put a bunch of sand in Dumbo and just went for it. Uh, the parody that I like the most is, bug light. Like, um,

32:23 it's B U G and, uh, they put it as like a little sign as like, as if it's the sponsor, but then there's just a giant can of it too, of bug light. And I'm just trying to figure out like, is that, is that a, is that like a specifically a New York thing? Or is that like, are they a sponsor the whole time? Like bug light? Like, is that even funny enough on its own? Like what's the parody?

32:45 It's about the cockroaches, Mike. I guess, I guess bed bugs, maybe who knows, but like, yeah, I think you came the closest to selling me on why, because like, it's not funny on its own, right? Bug light. Like, that's just like potty humor. But honestly, it's kind of a stretch to think that like, it's specifically about cockroaches. I'm just trying to, just trying to add to the conversation here. I just appreciate you giving me a, a moment to speak. Thanks for having me on the podcast, Mike.

33:16 You want to talk about the, the game we're supposed to be talking about a little more? Uh, okay. Cause I, I have a, yeah, go for it. I have an anecdote that, uh, it's been a while since we've done Joe's pause sounds, but I don't know if you guys noticed that, uh, when you try to pause this game, like during play, it just like honks at you like a car horn and it doesn't pause. I kind of like that. I don't think I tried to do that. It just goes, but like nothing pauses, nothing happens.

33:49 It's acknowledging that you're trying to game the system and laughing at you for it. Where do you fall on that pause though, Joe? Like, are you appreciative that you're not allowed to pause mid play or do you think you should, as a video game, you should always be able to pause at any second? I mean, I wouldn't, I wouldn't hate in this, like if you couldn't pause, which you can't, but like if you can't pause like in mid play, I get that. As I think that like, I've seen it where it's like, maybe you can pause, but the, but the ball and the players disappear. So you can't like sit there and study like, okay, what's my next move? That's a, that's a pretty good compromise. I think I'm fine with it not being able to pause.

34:32 Yeah. Each, like each volley is short enough. Yeah. Like it's not like, unless like, you know, I mean, I'm imagining though, like my parents never understood if they were calling me, like, and I was like, I just, one second, I spent so much time on this boss battle. I just have to save it or whatever. They're like, no, you listen to us. And I'm like, you don't understand. So like, I get that element of it. If it's like, if you're a kid playing.

35:04 Sean, any thoughts on pausing? Oh, no, I'm not the one with the pause segment. Oh, right. Right. Duh. Okay. Wait, how about, how about any thoughts on the world cup mode? Because it's a little different than the, um, us championship, because now you're going up against the big guns, uh, Japan, Italy, Australia, uh, the U S Navy, um, the USSR.

35:31 I did not specifically the Navy, the Navy. Yes. Hmm. I find that hard to believe, but I'm just going to believe you, uh, because I didn't play too much of the world cup mode. Uh, it's fun. I think like, you know, the, the world cup is an interesting concept when the Navy and, um, the Soviets get involved, but, uh, yeah, like it starts off pretty strong, Japan, Italy, Australia, Mexico, Brazil. The U S Navy is the curve ball, but, uh, I didn't get there either. But if I'm just from reading the game,

36:01 FAQs portion of like their guide, either, uh, that guy wasn't too good at playing the game, which I find hard to believe if he wrote a whole guide about it, or once you get to the U S Navy section of the game, it just becomes so hard that it's like, good luck. I guess that follows. The Navy is perfect. They, they own the sea. They own the sea. They have a lot of free time to play volleyball. I'm like,

36:28 what is that? Why the Navy? Is that a, is that a commercial for the Navy? Like, are you, are they, are the other countries, navies playing, or are you just planning against like their, that's a good question. Maybe that plays into the deep lore of like the cloning situation. Yeah. It was like an, it was like a Navy funded program that. Right. Yeah. The Navy reveals it. Are they in uniform? Cause I, again, I didn't play. I think I didn't get to the Navy either. Um, I'm sure that they are in uniform though. If they went through the trouble of announcing them,

37:02 right? Like if, if, if you know it's the U S Navy, it's like the USSR one is even more extreme in its visuals. And in fact, it was so extreme that they cut it down a little bit for the American one, um, from, from the Japanese one, because the Japanese one was a little more like anti USSR, which is funny because I feel like that would have, would have been fine. Right. To do that in the U S version too. Nobody would have like, you know, hated that here, but they chose to strip it down anyway. Uh, I can't get an answer for you on the U S Navy if they show up or not. So what did, what, what's so bad about the Soviet one?

37:35 So Sean, you found it. The American version. What's it look like? Uh, just some, you know, bald, pale, Russian men, very muscly. They're wearing speedos. I get the muscle part for the Russians and everything, but like, where does the bald come into play? Is there like some famous bald people from Russia? Or was it like a decree that you had to be bald? Like, don't they want some hair? Aren't they like kind of in a cold area, cold climate? I mean, when I think of somebody named Vladimir, I think bald, bald, bald. Uh, you know, maybe it's the, maybe it's the Lennon thing. Lennon was pretty bald.

38:17 See, when I'm thinking of like this, like a video game, like USSR character, I'm thinking of that. What's the guy from Rocky with that? Like, block of, you know, like block of seagulls. What is block of seagulls haircut? What is that? Uh, it's a lot more like feathered. Oh, that's not what I'm thinking of. What's the one where it's like flat on top, but like, kind of like, yeah, like behind tight.

38:38 Yeah. I mean, I don't know my hairstyle in this game. I get it. You can play with four players using their, uh, NES multi-tap. Uh, I, I suppose, I, I have a hypothesis that the real game is the cooperation between two players. That's the, that's the game we played along the way. That, you know what I'm saying? It's like, when you play this game, what, where have we started at the beginning of the episode where like,

39:10 wherever the ball is, you just become that person. That's like, you know, that's a way to smooth out the gameplay because you're lonely and you don't have friends and you have to play by yourself. But the real game is probably when like you and a friend have to like work together to be like, all right, you take the front, I'll take the back. And then they don't trust you. So they come up to the front too, but the ball goes to the back and you're like, what the hell? Like real volleyball.

39:35 Right, right. Exactly. Like, like that, the, the way that you and the computer play, uh, is more like, you know, you have all this coverage and, uh, and you can decide on the fly what you're going to do. You can't do that with a friend. Yeah. Less Madden, more overcooked. Exactly. Yeah. A hundred percent. Sean, how does multiplayer work in Madden? Do you get to like one person be the QB, the other person be the linebacker? Um, I meant, I guess I meant more so like in Madden, you being every character or every player. Um, but yeah, there, there is a cooperative multiplayer mode in Madden where it would be like quarterback, wide receiver or quarterback, running back. It's, you know, everyone just wants to be the quarterback,

40:20 but, um, it's sort of like a Sonic and tail situation. So you're telling me that Madden in 2023 doesn't have like a, you remember that game? Uh, it was like mag where it was, um, yeah, like 200, yeah, 256 players and stuff. And that was like what they were both about. Madden doesn't have a, like an online mode where you create a character and you just choose to be this guy.

40:45 And then you can do like, how many people are on the field at once, Sean? There's 256 players on each team on the field at a time. There's two. Exactly. There is, I think you can have like four players and like there's two, one D two, one offense. There are 256 quarterbacks on the field at all times. But in all honesty, in seriousness though, like if you're looking for a quote unquote real sports game that does a fully, uh, like player team situation, that's, that's NBA 2K.

41:16 Like that is part of, as partly like the main mode of the game is like playing pickup games with people on, and, uh, I'm like an impromptu, on a digital playground. Basically. I get that because everybody gets to feel good and put, uh, the ball in the net.

41:36 Well, only the ones that play the game too much really can do that. Sure. But in theory, yes. You remember that episode of Hey Arnold, where they're all just told to pass the ball. Yeah. Cause the, cause his dad's the coach. It's like, that doesn't happen in a game of NBA 2K. And it probably wouldn't happen in super spike V ball where you just be like, all right, I'm going to just, I'm going to return all the, the volleys. Like you just hang out.

42:03 Like you can't do that in this game. It's true. The, uh, arcade version also had, um, like little cut scenes in between the matches where it shows the characters. Like first they go to a car dealership and purchase a vehicle. And then like, as the, as it goes by, like the car gets better and better. Uh, you know, like Gran Turismo. Well, yeah. Uh, Gran Turismo, the movie, the game. Um, but do you need, do you, did you miss the cut scenes? They removed them. I think I would appreciate the cut scenes, but it's not a deal breaker. I would appreciate the cut scenes only if they showed you going back to the state you chose on the state select screen and doing state related things.

42:45 Yeah. Like you, you should have to like walk through Manhattan to get to the beach, you know, and, uh, you know, depending on, you should have like a whole, like an apartment and stuff. If you pick New York. Yeah. And you should be able to like decorate your apartment. And yeah, it should be the Sims.

43:05 Yep. Only if you pick New York. Yeah. If you pick California, you just are on the streets. Yeah. I mean, if you pick us in the world cup, you have to like be in the Navy. You have to like, you have to, you get in a submarine shooter now. Yeah. You have to beat 1942 before you can play the, uh, world cup mode on this game. All right. No, no, nevermind. Fuck it. That wasn't funny. I laughed. Um,

43:33 so yeah, we've talked about the game. Now we're going to talk about whether it goes on a little something I call the essential games list. You know, I call it that, but do you guys, I call it party, party, dream time. The episode's almost over. I've never spoken about it out loud by referencing it by the name. I call it. Right. You're, it's actually, uh, unpronounceable. The name you've given it. Yeah. It used to be in the old, in the old tongue. Well, to get back on topic, my vote for super spike V ball.

44:08 Uh, I, I started this episode being like, well, I'm not really sure if I could ever put a volleyball game on the essential games list. Not because of, you know, any good reason, just because it's like when I hear a volleyball game, it's like, well, that's just not my kind of game.

44:22 And yeah, I still feel like this isn't my kind of game, but I think they put down a pretty good game here. Uh, we're gonna, it's such a good game. We're going to cover it again when we get to super spike V ball slash Nintendo world cup, the two pack. So we have to, we have to recover that. Um, and we'll find, you know, we, I feel like we should have saved some of our jokes. We haven't had a two pack in a while. Yeah.

44:44 I thought we should have probably saved some of our jokes though, for that episode. We'll come up with new material though. We always do. Uh, and they came up with a lot of, you know, like a lot of ways to separate themselves from the other valuable game that we just played on the NES. That is so boring that name is escaping me. Kings of the beach is the name of the game, but like, that's how boring that was. They tried to put in, you know, like real celebrity athletes.

45:09 And even that, like, I feel like when you do something like that, it's almost like an act of desperation. Like your game's not good, but it was endorsed by somebody who is good at volleyball, who won't play your game. Uh, super spike V ball needed. None of that has a lot of good flair has a, you know, a pretty,

45:28 how do I put this? Like a pretty mundane tournament system, but like the locations are fresh and it keeps, I don't know, like it changes just enough, but like the, obviously the gameplay loop of volleyball can't change. It's not like they're going to introduce like, and here's a new scoring technique when you get to, you know, the Italy match, right? Like all of a sudden the whole way of how volleyball is played is different. It's like, no, you're not expecting that in these kinds of games,

45:52 but I think I was expecting a little more from just like the characters you play as, or especially just like the clone situation. I really think that they should have made it so that you pick two different types of characters to like have a, you know, like a triangle system. We're always, you know, we're always talking about triangles in a Nintendo games. Uh, they made a whole game about a project triangle strategy. They could have had something where, where it was like, you know, offense is good for this defense is good for that. And technical is good for this. And those three kind of work in a triangle things. You can never have all three, but you could have two of them and that would be good enough.

46:28 Uh, so I guess what I'm saying is, is it's not a, it's not a bad game at all, but it's also not like good enough to be pushed over the edge into the essential games list. This was a really roundabout way of saying that I'm impressed, but not impressed enough. Sean. Yeah, I, I do, I do like this game, uh, more so than Kings of the beach. Uh, and I do think that it offers a lot of the things that I'm looking for in a game like this. Uh, like I said, at the top of the episode, uh, just, you know, I could, I could use a little bit more, uh, goofball energy. I could use a little bit more,

47:04 uh, fun and, uh, you know, put, put it in space, you know, uh, give me, give me some wacky, like super moves, like in, uh, like in dodge ball, like where you can sort of control the, where the ball goes in wild ways. And like, if it's a game like this, it's gotta have some cartoon energy. And this does to some extent, but if you want to get on the essential games list, you got to pull out all the stops. Uh, but yeah, a fun game, not essential. Joe. Yeah. Sorry. No, I was like, Oh, I think I say it. It was a very long pause. So I was like, maybe, you know, maybe I'm just supposed to go. This is wild. I don't know. I need direction.

47:52 Um, Oh yeah, yeah. For this one, you're supposed to vote. No. Oh shit. Now I'm going, I have to vote. Yes. Just, uh, just to prove to everybody that I'm not, I won't be bought. Um, no, this is a good volleyball game. Uh, I really honestly don't have too much more to say about it. But then that, I think this vote sort of has like shades of last week's vote for, uh, roller ball where it's kind of like, yeah, this is good. But to me, it's just going to blend into all the rest of the games, other volleyball games. Like, yes, that, uh,

48:23 whatever that other volleyball game we played was like, this is better than that. But like, it's not doing anything where I'm like, Oh, this is the volleyball game you have to play. It's, it's fine. It's a good game. Also not essential. So that's three, not essentials. Don't worry. If anybody has their doubts, Joe is not bought, at least not by me. I don't know if like some of our Patreon listeners are paying him extra on the side, which is stupid because they're already paying for the show. He should be paying Joe.

48:50 And then, and then if you're like listening for free and you're like, wait a minute, people are paying for the show. It's like, yeah, shame on you for not paying for the show. Like we, you know, we're giving it out for free, but we're kind of, there is an expectation that you're going to give us something. No, no, no. Bread in the mail is good. Yeah. Um, I, we're kind of doing like a, uh, sponsorship thing. Like you can sponsor like my, Monday meals, uh, by, you know, subscribing. And I think it's more that you sponsor me for like $5 for every mile of podcast that I, that I do. Right. If we took the tape, minute to mile there.

49:37 Oh, it's not, it's different for every, it just depends on how, you know, how fast each game is moving us. Hmm. I'm just saying words. Uh, so the tape minutes to mile, uh, I will get back to you cause I'm pretty sure that is a thing. Um, at least for, at least for film. So I, I don't know what the audio translation is. Um, if it matters, but we record digitally. So it's all gigabytes. What's the gigabytes, uh, to miles. If every bite was lined up end to end,

50:08 how far would it go? There you go. Yep. Um, the entire podcast, what's the size of a bite? Three times. We're saying a lot of things. Oh, that wasn't the end. No. All right. Oh, here's the end. Do you guys know what the inside of a Kit Kat is between the wafers? Not nougat. It's crushed up Kit Kat bars. Dan, Dan.

50:35 That's true. Isn't that actually really weird? Like how is, who made the first Kit Kat bar and how? Doesn't it also kind of make you a little sick? It's like a little bit like Soylent Green, like discovery. You're like, Oh, the inside of Kit Kat bars is just like defiled Kit Kat bars.