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The blistering sun is kissing your tanned skin, your ears are being serenaded by the gentle, musical lapping of the waves against the shore and your eyes are feasting 'pon the miles and miles of grey, murky sand... At first I thought the game was set on the site of some old US airbase in the Philippines, the beach made of volcanic ash. But no, the sand is grey because the C64's colour palette can only do so much. Anyway, where there's a beach theres beach volleyball and now there's a beach in your C64, thanks to the Genias crew.

Over The Net is a sport sim for up to two players. These players can be either chummy and play on the same team or play for opposing teams. Each team consists of two beefy blokes in shorts. The rules are simple enough: work together to hit the ball "over the net" - don't let it hit the ground. It ain't easy?

There are five play options. First comes the 'point on change' option. All this does is change the scoring system slightly. If you accept 'point on change' then a point is awarded to the other team when you foul up and lose the service. Otherwise, you can only get points when you keep hold of the service and not during the crossover. The second adjustable option is the number of sets played. Set this to one every time if you value your sanity. The next two options sort of go hand in hand as the first is 'cup match' which enables you to enter a tournament, followed by 'match' which only accesses one-off games. The final option appears when you've actually decided to play a match and is the single/multi player option.

Controlling your player is simple. The joystick moves you up down left and right. Pressing the fire button makes your man volley the ball. So it should really be a case of positioning yourself and pressing fire. Unfortunately, pixel perfect positioning is required before the game allows you to even initiate a volley. If you're slightly out of position, your blokey doesn't even move, he just stands there as if paralysed from the hair-parting down. This leads quickly from annoyance, to frustration, then on to anger, followed by blinding rage and finishing nicely with a call to the Samaritans, if you get my meaning.

This is a real shame, because had the collision detection been a bit more forgiving this could have been a fast moving and challenging game. The simplicity of a two-on-two, competition could have led to an uncomplicated wheeze that you'd come back to time after time. But the way it is, it's just not worth the frustration. Hopefully, Over The Net won't be the last word on volleyball.

1. Collision detection is merciless to the point of making the game unplayable.
2. The option menu and game are loaded separately causing annoying delays between games.
3. The sprites are a bit blocky making positioning even more tricky.
4. Grey sand? Attention-to-detail is sadly lacking.
5. Jumping near the net seems second nature to your opponents but next to impossible for you.

1. Pretty hot sprite animation for all the volleyball moves.
2. The icon system gets you from A to B no messin'.
3. Spikin' fast gameplay.
4. For the best results, play against a friend.