Review: Schoolyard fun in the palm of your hand
The old 8-bit NES had a lot of great titles released over its lifespan. True, most of them never had the depth or glitz of today’s games, but many of them were a great time waiting to be had. One such title is Super Dodge Ball. You say you don’t remember Super Dodge Ball? That’s not surprising considering that most people missed it. Super Dodge Ball was originally a coin-op arcade game in which you took a team of seven players against other teams from around the world. Pretty simple, eh? Well, the guys at Atlus have done it all over again, this time on the Game Boy Advance.
Don’t let the simple premise fool you, there is a great game packed inside the tiny little cartridge. The game play is kept straightforward; it is all a matter of throwing the ball at your opponent and, in return, not getting hit by a thrown ball. To spice things up, each player also has a couple of different super-throws available to them, and, if your timing is good, you can take advantage of the new ally-oop throw that is present. There are a couple of drawbacks to the game play being this simple though. The first drawback to the game play is that the game doesn’t ever get any deeper than just the ball throwing and catching. This leads directly to the second drawback, which is, that the game can get a little bit tedious during longer play sessions. These problems won’t keep you from coming back after some time away though.
The graphics of the GBA version of Super Dodge Ball are infinitely superior to those of its 8-bit predecessor. The individual players actually have distinctive features in this new advance version, and the art design this time around actually gives character to each of the players. The music and sound effects also play nicely into the formula of the game. The update of the main theme is a great touch while the sound effects do nothing but add to the overall fun of the game.
In addition to being a fun and straightforward game, SDBA is packed full of customizable options. Team and player names can all be changed while several game options (such as difficulty, offense, and defense) can all be adjusted up and down. An interesting addition to this version of the game is the ability to assign different styles to each of your players, which alters the attributes of the player in question. This can be used to strategically assign positions to each of your players. Combine this with a unique championship play mode and exhibition and versus modes and you have a game that keeps you coming back for hours. You definitely didn’t see this many features packed into the original. The only drawback is that the actual game play can, at times, get to be a little repetitive.
