Klonoa Beach Volleyball

Klonoa Beach Volleyball
Genre(s): Sports Platform(s): PlayStation Release Date: JP: April 25, 2002 EU: September 20, 2002 Developer(s): Namco Publisher(s): JP: Namco EU: Sony Computer Entertainment Europe Country: Japan Series: Klonoa

Klonoa Beach Volleyball (known in Japan as クロノアビーチバレー 最強チーム決定戦!, Kuronoa Bīchi Barē: Saikyō Chīmu Ketteisen!, "Klonoa Beach Volleyball: Strongest Team Playoff!"), is a sports video game developed by Namco and released for the PlayStation in 2002. It is a spin-off of the Klonoa game series, and has the distinction of being the last game Namco published for the PlayStation. The game is only released in Japan and Europe.

Good Qualities

1. This game is the first Klonoa title to feature multiplayer, and it helps that it lets you use the multi-tap for four-player mode.
2. There are twelve playable characters in the roster, including unlockable characters, and each of them has his/her special moves (similar to the Mario Tennis series) and unique endings.
   • Speaking of endings, there's mostly good ones, such as:
     • Popka's ending has a backstory about how he and Lolo first met each other, and it was very touching.
     • Chipple's ending is pretty funny as it has him doing 3 rematches to make sure he won, even though he's declared as the winner. Yes, really.
     • Heart Moo's ending is quite cute.
     • Nahatomb's ending is pretty amusing.
3. Great anime-style character art, both in official art and in the cutscenes.
   • Not to mention that one of the characters, Chipple (who first debuted in Klonoa: Empire of Dreams) has received a more appealing character redesign that makes him more of a kangaroo than a humanoid (unlike his first incarnation).
4. Catchy music.
5. It's the first Klonoa game in the franchise to have multiple voice tracks, including English.
   • The Wii remake of Klonoa: Door to Phantomile would be the second game in the series to have English voice track.
6. Many of the court designs are oozing with Klonoa vibes.
   • The Windy Court and the Jungle Court in particular brings memories of Door to Phantomile.
7. The game even foreshadows Janga Klonoa Heroes: Legendary Star Medal, which came out on the same year. Guntz even mentions his revenge on the former in his ending.

Bad Qualities

1. Somewhat misleading title: Despite being a beach volleyball game, there's only one beach-themed court in this game.
   • Granted, volleyball doesn't always have to take place on a beach, as Outlaw Volleyball (and its side game, Outlaw Volleyball Red Hot) proves it.
2. Problematic endings, such as:
   • Bad ending for Klonoa: After winning the the prize money, he had another game with Popka, Chipple, and Heart Moo, only to end up destroying a windmill by accident and he's forced to pay for the damage he's done with his prize money.
     • This is very unfortunate for Klonoa and hypocritical of Namco to make that ending because in other Klonoa games, he always gets good endings!
     • To be fair, since this game is a spin-off, it's safe to say that this ending is non-canon to the series in general.
   • Garlen, one of the antagonists of the game, gets treated as a butt-monkey in some of the endings. We understand that he's a bad guy, but still.
     • In his ending and the Super Garlen variant, he gets quickly defeated by Klonoa and the gang.
       • It also doesn't help that his Super Garlen ending is a rehash of his normal variant.
     • In another ending, his entire mansion gets stolen by Leorina and Tat while they get away with it like Karma Houdinis.
       • Plot Hole: Why didn't Garlen call the police to get Leorina and Tat arrested for taking off with his mansion?
3. The character models in this game look awkward as they look like they're limbless, similar to the titular character from the Rayman franchise.
   • There's also a few unappealing character designs:
     • Nahatomb's character redesign isn't very convincing compared to his original counterpart from Door to Phantomile as he's portrayed as a generic, cigar-smoking mobster-styled villain.
     • Super Garlen is just a reskin of Garlen with a different character design.
4. The game was released a bit late for the PS1's lifespan, as the game was released in 2002. Not to mention, it hardly makes sense to release the game on the PS1 instead of the next gen consoles (PlayStation 2, GameCube, or Xbox).
   • What's even more confusing is that Klonoa 2: Lunatea's Veil was released for the PlayStation 2 in 2001, a year before Beach Volleyball came out.
   • Because of those reasons, the game sold very poorly.
5. Similar to The Adventures of Cookie & Cream and WarioWare, Inc.: Mega Microgames!, the idea of playing multiplayer by sharing a controller is rather stupid. But thankfully, you can still use the multi-tap for this game.
6. Championship Mode is incredibly short, clocking in around 14 minutes (or 30 minutes if Training Mode is counted).

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