Volleyball is one of the later sports games after the big launch titles on the NES and while it has some ambition the game feels a bit too clunky to manage and have a good time with.

The game is based on a twelve player match of volleyball to compete in either a men's or women's competition versus various world powers. It's fairly straightforward and the extra options add some difficulty and cool simulation bits.

As for the game itself, the movement of the actual team is a bit of a mess. The player can toss and serve the ball as well as receive, set, and try to set up a spike or block. Movement is done with three characters per front or back line at once, making lining up for the ball surprisingly frustrating. It's not quite sure based on where the shadow falls if the player is in the right spot to block or spike at times and will be fumbling about with both sets of teammates.

Other than that, there are 15 points to win a game. It gets pretty repetitive over time, but the player can also try to pull off some advanced moves like feinting, double spiking, quick set, etc.

Volleyball definitely wants to stand up with the best of the sports NES games but ultimately runs into frustrating limitations with its design.