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#359

The first beach volleyball game for PlayStation 2, Summer Heat Beach Volleyball offers 14 playable characters, 12 venues, and five game modes. Each male or female character has individual skill ratings in power, control, and speed, with players able to modify attributes in the areas of skin color, hairstyle, clothing, and accessories to fit their preferences. Venues include Venice Beach Stadium, Flamingo Pier, Emerald Marina, Silver Sands Beach, and more. To keep the atmosphere festive, the in-game soundtrack features licensed music from recording artists Pink, Sum 41, Kylie Minogue, Sprung Monkey, and Freshmaka. Modes of play include Arcade, Exhibition, Tour, Mini-Games, and Training. Arcade is a series of six matches, while Exhibition is a single match consisting of a choice of teams and locales. Tour is the heart of the game, where players compete in a total of six tournaments, each consisting of five matches apiece. Both Arcade and Tour modes let players track statistics as well as unlock hidden features, including music videos from the featured bands. Rounding out the game modes are Mini-Games, which offer specific drills to help serving, spiking, and other moves, and Training, where players can learn the controls. The action is played from a series of dynamic, television-style camera angles as players bump, serve, and spike with power that varies according to how long the corresponding button is held in place. A yellow or red arrow appears along the deformable sand to indicate where the ball is likely to land while it remains in play. As in titles like Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball, players are only concerned with the actions of one character instead of alternating control between teammates after each hit, with the computer or a friend controlling the second player. Four difficulty levels are available to help customize the action for players of all skill levels.