This deliciously simple game pits teams of magically explosive characters against each other in the ultimate anime beach episode! Find out more in our FAIRY TAIL Beach Volleyball Havoc Review!
Resulting from an initiative dubbed “Fairy Tail Indie Game Guild” with approval of Fairy Tail creator Mishima Hiro, this is quite an experimental title that makes fun use of the Fairy Tail license. Developer Tiny Cactus Studio has a small number of games under their belt with this one being one of the more interesting of their collection. With a whole anime franchise, manga and more to draw on, is this a slam dunk or a bit of a damp sandcastle? Find out in our FAIRY TAIL Beach Volleyball Havoc Review!
FAIRY TAIL Beach Volleyball Havoc Review – Story
Well, most of the heroes of Fairy Tail have gathered on the beach for some fun in the sun and that’s that! With this being a spin off title featuring sports, there isn’t any story to speak of but that doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy bashing the ball around a bit.
Cats vs Humans…seems fair.
FAIRY TAIL Beach Volleyball Havoc Review – Gameplay
Volleyball games are few and far between these days and this one treads a fine line between quality fun and that old flash game that would grab the attention in the school IT labs. Best played with a controller, though perfectly fine on keyboard, this beach thrill-fest has a simple controls scheme. Jump, hit and two magic attacks are all that is needed to get balls flying. A ground hit pushes the ball up for a followup hit and a jump attack slams it over to the opposing side. It is a simple yet fun and engaging affair.
Muscle men unite!
Magic is what offers the depth here, each character has one type of magic by default and as a match progresses various other magic is collected. These initially add a second magic attack but following magic pickups can augment these attacks. For example, if a character has wind they might be able to augment it with fire resulting in huge explosive magic attacks. Sometimes these attacks engulf the screen or change up the gameplay in a more bizarre way. It can feel a bit unbalanced but it’s part of the fun to be had after all this is more like a Smash Bros than an NFL. Beating opponents and participating in battle drops will earn you Lacrima or magic crystals, which are needed to charge magical abilities. So there is a little bit of resource management here that keeps things interesting.
How a typical match plays out.
Teams are made up of two heroes, so four per match with different teams having different dialogue during the match and loss/victory screens. It’s all small details but it adds an element of charm. Obviously there are type match-ups as well, as each character sports their main anime magical power type. Laxus has lightning, Wendy for wind, Lucy for celestial etc… all having a unique visual representation and attack range, type and shape. The roster is pretty big and varied, it even includes the three main Exceed characters; Happy, Charle/Carla and Lily.
Some fun and interesting fan art that exists as the game’s main reward.
The game also has a robust couch co-op mode where up to 4 friends can pick a character and smash one out together. This works well if using controllers but can be a bit awkward if one person needs to use the keyboard. In terms of rewards, the game uses a quite unique way of rewarding the player. Fan art… Each match victory unlocks two or three pieces of fan art which depicts the various characters, sometimes in compromising positions, some of which definitely inspired the look of the game. It’s not a huge gallery but it is nice to have something to unlock.
FAIRY TAIL Beach Volleyball Havoc Review – Visuals
Colourful. That’s the appropriate descriptor. Far from the art style of the anime which is obviously somewhat flat though expressive, this game goes for a very exaggerated drawing style with popping colours and unusual proportions. All characters are easy to recognize even with these changes, as they retain most of their iconic character design features such as hair and beachwear styles. Character dialogue is shown in text above their heads and is often in response to the team picked and the action on screen.
Wish I had that muscular ability IRL…
Alongside the characters there are a good amount of visual gags when using the more powerful magic effects. Characters like guild masters will pop on screen and do something from their iconic magic library and sometimes the ball or characters will invoke a funny anime related in-joke. It’s really great stuff and it adds so much character to the proceedings. These events are also some of the best visual elements of the game with screen filling, gags and all sorts of effects livening up the scene.
It’s like if the Olympics teamed up with Nintendo from the 90s.
There is only one arena but luckily it has a pleasant beach theme and nice clear playing spaces for optimal visual clarity. Where things get a little muddy is with the overall flashiness of things like magic attacks that can make it hard to keep track of the action with explosions, expanding, lightning and more kicking up artsy particles. To try and alleviate this the ball is almost always rendered above the effects so it’s not obscured by all the magical shenanigans.
FAIRY TAIL Beach Volleyball Havoc Review – Audio
There is a decent selection of music with all of it keeping in theme with Fairy Tail but when playing they do somewhat meld into a single entity. However, the tracks that exist are pleasant enough for setting the atmosphere and enhancing the action. Backing up the music are the sound effects, there are quite a wide range that play out across the whole game. With grunts, smacks and more, it comes across quite lively. Combined they create a surprising amount of fun atmosphere plus one of the best tunes has to be Main menu theme so here’s 10 minutes of it to enjoy.
FAIRY TAIL Beach Volleyball Havoc Review – Conclusion
FAIRY TAIL Beach Volleyball Havoc is a fun little game that does exactly what it set out to achieve. There is one singular focus and one single arena but it’s well crafted that has a tremendous and sometimes fairly deep set of Fairy Tail characters from across its full anime roster.
Winner winner volleyball dinner!
Seeing some truly perfect and bizarre match-ups smack each other around is quite rewarding for fans of the anime, however, with a limited set of unlockables and short form content it may not have wider reaching appeal. A real “I have 5 minutes” title that you can quickly jump in and out of.
Why you should play FAIRY TAIL Beach Volleyball Havoc?
- The artwork is charming
- There is an undeniable “summer” atmosphere at play
- Access to a staggering roster for this type of game
- Some of the fan-art is quite risque
- Local versus modes
Why you shouldn’t play FAIRY TAIL Beach Volleyball Havoc?
- There is only a small amount of content
- Gameplay doesn’t evolve after the first match
- Not a Fairy Tail fan
- You dislike silly fun
A review code was kindly provided by Tiny Cactus Studio for the purpose of our FAIRY TAIL Beach Volleyball Havoc review. You can check out our other reviews here and if you haven’t already, be sure to join the Qualbert Discord to find out about the latest game and review updates!
