Steam quietly released a very cool, and very CHEAP, volleyball video game on Friday. It’s called The Spike, and it’s an incredibly unique version of the sport of volleyball.

It’s almost like if you took all the aspects of a typical indoor volleyball match, and distilled it down to only the most exciting and intense moments with only the players relevant within those moments, and then amplified them into an arcadey, rocket-paced, pounding contest, you’d have The Spike.

This game is played on a two-dimensional court, with three players on each side. You can imagine the visual confusion if you had a full squad of six players all moving back and forth on a 2D plain. But that’s the beauty of this. The three players on your team are moving around at double speed, essentially representing as though they ARE six players. You have your setter, your attacker and your middle blocker, all covering every part of the offense and defense like they are actually a full unit.

I mentioned arcadey. In The Spike, you got your 20 ft leaps, your 100mph serves, your noticeable, and might I say underrated, action music playing in the background. I’ve played a lot of decent to subpar volleyball video games in my life. This one is hands down the most intense from start to finish.

It’s made from a small developer and therefore doesn’t have the polished menus or 100% clear explanations of certain icons or numbers you frequently come across during and outside of the gameplay. But man do I appreciate the incredibly tight and responsive controls, as well as the cute story mode that you are obliged to play through while learning the ropes. I even think the difficulty curve moves at a perfect pace.

There are a couple things I’ve noticed that seem a bit odd. One is the in-game currency system. Your main menu displays one of your three players mimicking a spike motion, in which he is spiking a sack of “cash,” which then immediately adds a very small amount of currency to your total banked amount (Typically in the vicinity of 8-10 units each time). Which is great and all. But then a few seconds later, it happens again. And then again, and again. I’m not ashamed to admit I kept the game up and running through the night on the main menu screen as this exploit increased my balance significantly, allowing me to level up my three players to their max by day two. Perhaps it’s just something that will eventually get fixed in a patch.

Another thing I just couldn’t figure out is the numbers that appear above the player heads after they make contact with the ball. They don’t appear to have any impact to the play that just occurred, but I’m not entirely sure.

There are also some modes and content that aren’t “available” just yet, but apparently will be added at a later date. As of right now, there’s the story mode that I mentioned, a practice mode (where you play against a mirror image of your own team), and a very basic tournament mode. I’m really hoping they add some sort of customizable season mode with created teams and players.

Anyways, I didn’t want this to be too long. This game kicks ass. It’s available on Steam for less than 5 bucks. If you like volleyball, you owe it to yourself to give this game a try.