Summer Heat Beach Volleyball is a beach volleyball

Beach volleyball

Beach volleyball, or sand volleyball, is an Olympic team sport played by two teams of two players on a sand court divided by a net.Like volleyball, the object of the game is to send the ball over the net in order to ground it on the opponent’s court, and to prevent the same effort by the opponent....

 video game released by Acclaim

Acclaim Entertainment

Acclaim Entertainment was an American video game developer and publisher. It developed, published, marketed and distributed interactive entertainment software for a variety of hardware platforms, including Sega's Mega Drive/Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast, and Game Gear, Nintendo's NES, SNES, Nintendo...

 in 2003 for the PlayStation 2

PlayStation 2

The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...

 gaming console.

Gameplay and Style

Summer Heat follows the basic rules of the sport of beach volleyball. Two teams of two players each face off in a sectioned-off area of sand that serves as the playing area. One player serves the ball, and play begins. The objective is to land the ball on the ground within the play area of the other team's side. Players alternate hitting ("volleying") the ball, up to three volleys per turn, and the ball must travel over the net no later than the third hit. The game supports up to four players, though the use of a multitap

Multitap

A multitap is a video game console peripheral that increases the number of controller ports available to the player, allowing additional controllers to be used in play...

 accessory is required for three and four player games. Summer Heat is styled similarly to other arcade

Arcade game

An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...

-style volleyball games of the era, where there is an emphasis on the sex appeal of the bikini

Bikini

The bikini is typically a women's two-piece swimsuit. One part of the attire covers the breasts and the other part covers the crotch and part of or the entire buttocks, leaving an uncovered area between the two. Merriam–Webster describes the bikini as "a woman's scanty two-piece bathing suit" or "a...

-clad female characters as well as having the overall tone and atmosphere of a summer beach party.

Reception

The game was released during a period where volleyball video games were experiencing a period of renewed popularity for the first time in many years, although it received considerably less hype and critical praise than its contemporaries Beach Spikers, Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball

Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball

is a beach volleyball game by Tecmo released in 2003 exclusively for the Xbox. The game is a departure from the rest of the Dead or Alive series which otherwise consists of fighting games and marks the first game in the series to have a Mature rating due to the very revealing swimsuits featured in...

, and Outlaw Volleyball

Outlaw Volleyball

Outlaw Volleyball is a video game based on the sport of volleyball. It was originally published for Xbox and included a sampler CD of tunes by cover band Diffuser. It was later ported to PlayStation 2 with two new courts and a handful of additional player costumes, accessories, etc. under the...

. This was one of several poor-selling titles that would lead to Acclaim's bankruptcy in 2004.

Music

Summer Heat's soundtrack features music from Pink

Pink (singer)

Alecia Beth Moore , better known by her stage name Pink , is an American singer-songwriter, musician and actress....

, Sum 41

Sum 41

Sum 41 is a Canadian rock band from Ajax, Ontario. The band was formed in 1996 and currently consists of members Deryck Whibley , Tom Thacker , Jason McCaslin and Steve Jocz .In 1999, the band signed an international record deal with Island Records...

, Kylie Minogue

Kylie Minogue

Kylie Ann Minogue, OBE - often known simply as Kylie - is an Australian singer, recording artist, songwriter, and actress. After beginning her career as a child actress on Australian television, she achieved recognition through her role in the television soap opera Neighbours, before commencing...

, Sprung Monkey

Sprung Monkey

Sprung Monkey is an American band that originated in San Diego, California, USA, initially active from 1991 to 2002, and again since 2005. Sprung Monkey consists of five members, Steve Summers for the vocals, Mike Summers and William Riley for the guitars, Ernie Longoria for the drums, and Tony...

, Freshmaka, and Suburban.

Future

In 2006 Canadian game publisher Throwback Entertainment

Throwback Entertainment

Throwback Entertainment is a Canadian games publisher based in Toronto, Canada.Founded in 2004, the founders of Throwback Entertainment considered purchasing Acclaim Entertainment, but after researching the company decided against doing so...

 acquired the property rights for Summer Heat Beach Volleyball from Acclaim. Throwback had planned on developing another Summer Hear volleyball game for release on the PlayStation 3

PlayStation 3

The is the third home video game console produced by Sony Computer Entertainment and the successor to the PlayStation 2 as part of the PlayStation series. The PlayStation 3 competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...

 or Xbox 360

Xbox 360

The Xbox 360 is the second video game console produced by Microsoft and the successor to the Xbox. The Xbox 360 competes with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation of video game consoles...

, but there is currently no official word on the status of such a game.