FIVB Volleyball World Cup Venus Evolution - Best

The Japan Women's Volleyball Team is the featured squad in the game which means their likenesses are recreated in the game in fairly decent fashion. We can sort of recognize super players like Miyuki Takahashi and the five freshmen of the 18-player team: Akiko Ino, Masayo Eguchi, Midori Takahashi, Shuka Oyama and Yuki Ishikawa. Finally, coach Shoichi Yanagimoto also appears in the game. The international teams that made it to the World Cup are all in attendance and players may enjoy an Exhibition Mode, the World Cup Mode, or a World Championship Mode.

When the ball is in play, a green spotting cursor focuses on the ball and the time to hit is when the green outliner touches the boundaries of the ball. The 13 teams in the game are from an international base including the United States, Poland, China, Brazil, Cuba, Korea, and others. The motions of the athletes are fairly convincing in terms of realism and their feints, jumps, and spiking motions are reminiscent of watching a game on some sports channel somewhere in the world. When the girls win, they'll cheer and hug each other as teammates will do. Strategy and combination moves may be set up before the game begins in an easy-to-use template screen where the four trigger buttons on the Dual Shock are used to trigger moves and strategies on the play field.

View the back cover and screenshots on the main NCSX website.

» An announcer performs the play by play and the girls smack hands with each other and hold their hands to their hearts before the game starts. There's pomp and camera flashes from the crowd and the cheer is audible.

» The action moves reasonably well during a match but the frames of animation aren't the best so that the girls occasionally look like they're sliding across the floor instead of walking or running. When the ball is in play, the "X" and "O" button markers will appear near the players to show what's available in terms of moves to the highlighted players. The "SQUARE" and "TRIANGLE" buttons are also used to trigger other players when the ball is moving around the playfield to indicate who can smack it or pop it higher. In our opinion, the markers detract from the visuals but they are helpful for novices to learn the timing and plays as they are triggered by the positioning of the ball.

» The countries and their respective teams featured in the game are:

Japan
China
Russia
USA
Brazil
Korea
Cuba
Italy
Kenya
Poland
Netherlands
Taipei
ORG

Each team differs in their Offense, Defense, Stamina, Footwork and Jump as denoted on a pentagon when a particular squad's flag is highlighted.

» Exhibition game options include 1P vs COM, 1P vs 2P, and COM vs COM - that last option is for checking out how the COM plays and sets up the ball.

» An Exhibition Match (First Menu Selection) starts with two announcers emceeing the event followed by the team players smacking hands and holding heands to their hearts as the camera slowly pans across the arena and the players. After the formalities are over, the girls are shown bouncing the volleyball at each other. The action starts with a serve and the game is under way as the players smack, pop, and dive for the ball with the occasional spike. After a successful scoring move, the video playback is shown in slow motion.

» The bottom of the screen shows the playfield from a top-down view and the different players are represented by blue or red dots which represents each side. The ball is represented by a white dot that drifts across the area.

» The default move of the players on your team who are closest to the net is to push up against it with their arms up to block any attacks.

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