Nekketsu Volleyball

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Kunio makes yet another sport fun to play.

Story - Controls - Review - Images - Downloads

Storyline
Each of the eight teams has different reasons for entering the tournament, so there are effectively eight different storylines. I think. C'mon, it's volleyball! What kind of dramatic legend do you need to back it up?

Controls
The game controls pretty well, it just takes a while (quite a while, for me...) to get used to the timing and positioning you need to be able to hit the ball. The buttons:
B: Ground hit (bump). If you're far away from where the ball's landing, you can press a direction with this to slide.
A: Jump. Follow up with another button press to spike.
When hitting the ball across the net, you can hold down a direction arrow to control where the ball goes.

In-Depth Review
Years ago, before I even knew what "Nekketsu" meant or who Kunio was, I'd watch volleyball games and think "Y'know, if they made a volleyball game kinda like Super Dodgeball, that'd be pretty cool." Well, they did. And it is cool.
You've got eight teams to choose from, each with two members: Nekketsu (Riki & Kunio), the ubiquitous Girl team, the Soccer team, Matadors, Tengu Team, Bodybuilders, Kung Fu team, and the... er... weird guys with umbrellas. They all have different styles of play, some graphical (the umbrella team bumps with their rear ends) and some that affect gameplay (the matadors use their cape to hit the ball giving them longer range; the soccer players just throw the ball across rather than serving).
The rules of the game are fairly true to the real sport. Usually the game proceeds like this: serve, bump, set, spike, repeat from bump until someone screws up. If you're bold enough, you can spike the ball right back over the net as it comes over. Sometimes a spike will turn into a super-shot (I'm not sure how) and it'll knock someone down if they don't time their bump or return just right. Since there are two on a team (your teammate is controlled by the computer, and usually does a good job of backing you up) even knocking one down usually isn't enough to score; the other guy can move in and save the day. You need to aim for holes in their defense. I'm not sure if anyone can get knocked out permanently...
There's an "Item Select" option before the match begins, where you can pick various types of bombs, "drugs," and other stuff. I have no idea what this is good for; I've never seen the computer use any strange items and I've never been able to use mine.
The music is nothing special, but it's not bad. The graphics are pretty good; this is probably the best looking Nekketsu game on the Gameboy. Each team has their own personal arena, and when you super-spike a ball into the ground you get a different effect depending on the type of floor (sand, wood, etc).
Even though I'm really bad at this game, I'm going to say it's pretty darn great.

Images
A montage of the teams' heads.
Spot me, stickboy! (I get my ass kicked by the strongmen)
Shock! I actually win a round.

Downloads
Nekketsu! Volleyball Gameboy ROM - requires a Gameboy emulator, I suggest Hello! Gameboy or smyGB.
(check Links section to find the emulators you'll need to play these)