Super Dodge Ball
Advance
System:
Game Boy Advance
Publisher & Developer: Atlus
Released: June 12, 2001
Genre: Sports (Dodge Ball)
Capabilities: Game Link(Up to 2 Players, with all owning
cartridges)
Ahhh who can forget
the greatness of the original Super Dodge Ball on the NES?
The Pics above show the updated classic's box art and the game in
action on the GB Advance.
Picture Credit(IGN.com)
Review Written: June 17, 2001
The Game
If you didn’t know by now, this game is the sequel to the 1989 NES version of Super Dodge Ball. The game has received much appraise from the old NES veterans, and many folks have been expecting this one just to be twice as good. So with that intro, let’s get started and see if this update is just as good as it’s old version.
Graphics
Well, everything looks twice as good right off the bat once you hop into the game. In your first round, you’ll quickly notice the River City Ransom-clones from the original Super Dodge Ball are gone, and are replaced by more polished off characters. All the characters have many different designs. You got various different hair styles of the characters, for example, there is this one team from Europe where all the players have Afro’s. The game makes sure all the country’s tiniest stereotype’s get through also, like all of Japan’s players have squinty eyes, and so on. Also each country has their own type of court backgrounds like one team has Pandas surrounding it, and another you play on a cage-like structure, and some of these background’s even add in to the game mechanics, like when you’re on this one court made of Ice, characters tend to lose their balance a lot in the game. The GB Advance’s extra wide screen helps out a lot too by making it so you can see the extra half distance across the court. The game’s menus are easy on the eyes, and you’ll be breezing right into the game in no time. The game moves at a surprisingly smooth rate once you consider 14 players on screen at once, and with the fast-paced Dodge Ball action, there isn’t a trace of slow down or flicker I’ve seen at all.
Sound
Like most other GB games, sound is the weakest part of this one. You get a variety of background tunes in the game. While they aren’t anything bad or horrible on the ears, it’s just that they aren’t catchy or good in particular, and you’d be getting annoyed by them rather fast, especially the games opening kiddy tune. As far as sound effects go, you get your basic sounds of pounds and so on whenever you hit someone with a ball, and a special bleep whenever you do a super throw in the game. So the sound isn’t all that bad in the long run, but you’d be better off just leaving it off all together so you don’t get annoyed by the game right away.
Game play
Dodge Ball is the old playground sport where two teams of 7 duel in a volleyball like court, minus the net. Each team has 4 member in the inside of the court, and 3 players surrounding the court’s sideline on the opposite end. In the game you keep on tossing the ball at each other, and you can perform super throws by running with the ball, jumping, and pressing another button at the precise moment. The object is to eliminate your opponents inner court players, and the outer players cannot get hurt at all. Players can dodge opponents throws by trying to catch a ball thrown at them, and by ducking or jumping out of the way. Everything controls fine and super throws are easy to pull off in the easier difficulties, but in the tougher ones you’ll be going nuts that the precision you need to pull them off will need to be top notch.
The game has several modes to play from. The first main mode is the Championship, where you can pick as one of several teams, and move up the ranks by beating all the nine other teams and then by going against the special champion team. You got your exhibition mode up next, where you just pick two teams to go at it. Your last main mode is the versus mode where you can link up with one other person who owns a GBA and SDBA and you two can go at it for serious fun. Of course, there’s your standard options to tinker with like difficulty and how good the offense and defense is. I’m really disappointed that the Bean Ball mode from the original is not in this game. Bean Ball was a free for all with several players going at it in the schoolyard.
Replay Value
In the games modes, before every match, you can adjust your teams formation, line ups, and edit your team’s name and player’s name. Each player has different stats, so your strategy rely’s on the placement of your players. Like have the player’s with the low health points on the outer side of the court. The championship mode is really easy to beat, but you can keep on beating it over and over to unlock some of the hidden teams in the game. The two player link mode is a great addition, and by linking it up with a friend, you’ll be playing for hours on end, and reliving the NES glory days in no time. Aside from unlocking the championship teams, there’s really nothing else much to do in single player after owning this game for a while, and the Bean Ball mode would’ve cleaned up that bug, and you just have to wonder why the developers left it out.
In Brief
+: Better polished off graphics, 2 Player Link Play, Several teams to unlock through Championship mode
-: Like most other GB games the sound isn’t the greatest, no Bean Ball mode, controls are tough on the harder difficulties
The Final Ratings Rundown
Graphics: 7.6
Sound: 5.0
Game play: 8.1
Replay Value: 7.5
Overall: 7.0
Rounded to fit GameFAQs Score: 7
Comments
Dodge Ball Advance is still a great game. If you loved the first one, then you should pick this one up too. If you haven’t looked at the first one though, you may want to try this out first, the game is a blast to play with a friend and you should buy it for multi player, but if you’re buying it just for yourself, you should make sure to try it out first from a friend, or rent it if your local outlet rents out GB Advance games.