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GBA

North America

Super Dodge Ball Advance

by Billy Berghammer - June 2, 2001, 1:33 pm EDT

After working on Planet for over 2 years Billy likes to throw things! A LOT! Does Super Dodge Ball Advance make the cut?

First off, I have to say that I am partially a blasphemer due to the fact that I have never played Dodge Ball on a console prior to these past 2 days. But in grade school I was a real Dodge Ball master! Dodge Ball or full on "Scatterball" (which is an open field to attack at will) were some of my favorite childhood games. I would give anything to be able to get in a gym and play those two games again. If you've got a wicked arm and you go for the legs you can have a heck of a good time. I almost imported DBF, but since I never played it before, and due to the fact that there's a lot of titles that I already know I'm going to get at launch, I decided to play it before I decided to purchase. Fortunately, our good friends at Atlus sent us a development ROM that we could try out for a few days.

What is Dodgeball? The court is a little smaller than a basketball court and has a half court line. There are two teams of 7: Four infield players on your side of the court, and there's 3 outfield players, who surround the perimeter of the other teams side of the court (who do not take damage when hit). Here's some screen shots to further demonstrate.

The Sone Crazy Court Action

Basically the object of the game is to throw the ball at the opponent and knock down their strength. You can jump over the midfield line and throw the ball, but you can't walk over the midfield line. You can also pass the ball to the outfielders and they can attack. Players can also catch the balls being thrown at them without receiving any damage…but pressing the button at the right time is sometimes tricky due to what type of throw is being used.

There are over 50 different types of throws. The dash throw is a sort of alley-oop shot where one of the infielders runs and jumps and you toss it to him for a mid air attack. Timing is crucial, but it's a damaging (and pretty damn cool) attack. And there are many different ways this can be used. Your infielders and outfielders can pass to the attacker in mid air for more of a surprise attack. Vary your attacks and your opponent will be toast.

Sound complicated? It isn't. It took me about 5 minutes to start winning matches in the championship mode. I still have a ton to learn about how to execute some of the more damaging throws. I mean there are 50 different attacks. I think I've touched on 10-15 already. That's where the "fighter" appears. When you throw hard to dodge shots you can smack your opponents all over the place. It's like grade school all over again….but with a lot more strategy needed. The harder teams get pretty tricky.

Graphically this game is mediocre. The different countries you play against have different styles to their respective arenas. They are varied, but nothing all that impressive. I mean, there doesn't need to be a whole lot going here. It's like a tennis court! In a sense, they reminded me of how the original Street Fighter 2 backgrounds were. Simple. The players are animated well, and some of the power shots are really nice looking. But overall, not too intricate.

The sounds we're also on par with the graphics. Simple. The music sounded like a F-Zero song. It didn't seem to have a whole lot of variety. Plus I don't think the game had any stereo separation what so ever. I'd at least expect that I would hear footsteps from both sides of the court. Not that that should be a difficult task to handle.

Due to the fact that this wasn't a final version shipped to me, I wasn't able to try the multiplayer, or save my game for that matter. But with a link cable and another SDBF cart on hand…it looks like there could be some serious late night action going on.

Overall I think Super Dodge Ball Fighters is addictive and a lot of fun. If you loved it on the NES/SNES, I'm sure this will be a hit with you. If you're looking for something a little different give this game a try. The simple act of throwing balls at someone else has never been so fun. I'm looking forward to the GBA launch to add this game to my collection.

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Genre Sports
Developer Atlus
Players1 - 2

Worldwide Releases

na: Super Dodge Ball Advance
Release Jun 10, 2001
PublisherAtlus
RatingEveryone
jpn: Bakunetsu Dodge Ball Fighters
Release Mar 21, 2001
PublisherAtlus
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