They certainly don't make 'em like they used to, and they certainly don't make something like Super Spike V'Ball these days. What started as a fun arcade game — under the title ofU.S. Championship V'Ball — became a super-addictive port on the NES back in 1989-1990. Sports games like this were so great because they truly understood how to take a simple concept and make it approachable to all players. The “sport” was disambiguated from the game, and users were able to focus on a few gameplay systems rather than dwell on their unfamiliarity with the sport in question. Many football, baseball and hockey games around this time also achieved success by employing a similar design philosophy.

Why Was It Awesome?

Super Spike V'Ball is such a joy to play because its core gameplay is so easy to grasp yet also rewarding to master. The setup is simple: two beach volleyball teams, two on each side, trying to get to 15 points. There are several different teams to choose from (in the NES version), and each of them have a different skill at which they excel (speed, strength, defense, all-around). The three stages of gameplay are: serving, offense and defense.

Serving allows you to throw the ball up in the air and time your arm swing as it comes back down (you can also place the ball's location on the other court by aiming the d-pad). Conversely, you can also jump up in the air as the ball is at its height, allowing you to do a jump serve with much more power. The cool risk-reward of this setup is that you can mix up your serves to throw off the other team, with the normal serve being a safe but highly precise shot and the jump serve being risky but more likely to put the opposition off balance.

Offense has a few wrinkles as well, but a lot of it comes down to timing and power. The cool part is that even though offense focuses on those two elements, there is a lot of control over how much of each to use. After you or your partner digs out an opposition shot, you can then set it up for a spike. From here you can hammer on the jump button as much as you like and that will determine the power of the shot. The power is represented above the player's head as a flashing diamond, and you can use this visual cue to not only gauge your power but to fake out opposing human players as well. 

The KABOOM lettering that flies up on the screen is always such a satisfying piece of visual feedback, and the accompanying animation of a defending player getting blown away by the spike never fails to amuse. Often the placement and power of a spike shot dictates how the defender can handle it, and matches can often get quite tense when each team is seeking out that one part of the court that's just a bit out of the opposition's reach.

Defense also has some great complexity, as you can position yourself correctly to try and handle one of those murderous spikes, or you can risk going to the net and employing the same jumping power-up as a spike to block a shot. This often depends on your team's skill, but if you button mash better than the player spiking the ball, you can angle a block right back to the opposition side. There are quite a few different slide and dig animations as well, and it's truly satisfying to save a shot that's about to paint the outside corner for a point.

All of these simple, yet rewarding, gameplay systems are matched up with some fun presentation (rumbling crowds, jamming music that fits each stage, varied background art), challenging tournament modes and four-player multiplayer support. What makes the multiplayer so great is that each player truly relies on the other. You both have the same skills depending on which team you pick, and you need each other to defend and offend in ways that are in sync with one another. Back in the day it was always fun to laugh and shout about where one of you should of been defending or to freak out if some rally of crazy spikes would just never end. Super Spike V'Ball is a true multiplayer game in that sense, even though the AI is actually quite good as well.

How Could It Be Awesome Today?

I think you could do some really fun things with a game like Super Spike V'Ball these days. The first things that come to mind are leaderboards and online play. Just like many other arcade sports games, the competition element carries a great deal of weight. If you were able to have the tournaments of the original game but with something like a speed run or score attack, that could be great fun for leaderboard races. Online play pretty much makes anything better, and something like Super Spike V'Ball would work particularly well because of the speed of which the game moves, both literally and figuratively.

I could imagine some really fun stuff coming out of a revamped tournament mode, with truly exaggerated characters, more outlandish locations to play volleyball (not that it wasn't fun playing in Las Vegas or Chicago, mind you) and maybe some Mortal Kombat-esque modifiers that change up the way the game plays. Hell, they could even bring back that awesome soundtrack but remix it ala Super Street Fighter 2 HD. The core gameplay is so awesome that I think just adding all of the modern-day trappings and features would let the game shine.

Will It Return?

Doubtfully, but it should. There's plenty of room in the digital download space for more cool arcade sports titles, and I think something like Super Spike V'Ball could fit in quite well with the likes of MLB Bobblehead Pros, NBA Jam: On Fire Edition or Hot Shots Golf. Sports games do a great job of catering to the hardcore, and they can still have that hardcore mastering element, but they can also be made in an accessible way so that competition junkies and casual players can have fun with them too. Super Spike V'Ball was just such a game.