All-Star Slammin'
D-Ball
System:
Playstation
Publisher: Agetec/Tommo
Developer: A1 Games/D3 Publisher Inc.
Released: 2002
Genre: Action
Capabilities: Makes a great coaster or frisbee
Review Written: April 4, 2002
The Game
I’m a big fan of Dodge Ball games. I’m also a proud owner of the original Super Dodge Ball for NES and Super Dodge Ball Advance for Game Boy Advance. And when I saw this game for PSX, I thought “about damn time!” Boy, was I wrong. Read on to see why this is the worst Dodge Ball game of all time.
Graphics
At first I wasn’t expecting much out of the graphics. I was expecting them to be right up there with Dodge Ball Advance at the very least. But once I started my first game I was ticked. Heck, even the graphics from Dodge Ball on the NES are better than this. All the players are simple little characters. And there really isn’t much detail to any of their uniforms, or any other parts of their body to say the least. The only difference is the simple outfits they’re wearing. And the characters are barely even animated. All of their moves, save for the special throws, only consist of a few frames of animation. It is that bad. The only good thing about the graphics is the super throws look pretty darn good, and the game actually has some good looking courts to play on. The super throws are complete with many type of flashy effects like lightning, and explosions. I hate the team select menu, its like a clustered pile of crap. Trust me, that isn’t a pretty site.
Sound
The sound is just as bad. You have all these cheesy tunes as background music. I was annoyed by them within minutes. The sound effects aren’t all that great either, just your basic stuff. But wait, the game does move from 8-bit era sound effects to 16-bit era ones with ok effects used for the super throws.
Game play
Controls aren’t that hard to get down. Just like in most other dodge ball games. The super throws are easy to pull off as well. But where this game goes wrong is where it has its own set of rules to make itself unique from the rest of the Dodge Ball games. First off the holding times for each team who has the ball is way shorter than DB Advance. You are also limited the number of passes on each turn, and when running you can’t jump pass the half court line. Remember in DB Advance how each player had a health bar, and you had to hit them several times to knock them out of a match? This game has it set where you have to hit them only once to knock them out. That rule alone causes most games to last not even two minutes. This takes away from all the fun in the game.
The game only has a couple of ways to play. There’s a tutorial mode, but all that it contains is a five page description of the rules for the game. Next is Single Match where you can practice rounds against the computer or a friend in two player mode. The last way to play is tournament mode where you take on all the other computer teams to earn the right as champion. Too bad there isn’t any sort of save feature so you can keep tabs of win records, and what not.
Replay Value
Two player isn’t all that fun with most games only lasting a minute long. And the tournament mode can be beaten within ten minutes. And to top it off, there’s no save feature to keep track of records or high scores. You’ll be lucky if you enjoy this game for more than a day.
In Brief
+: Super Throws look good
-: NES-era graphics and sound, No save feature, Game can be beaten in under ten minutes
The Final Ratings Rundown
Graphics: 1.8
Sound: 0.3
Game play: 1.2
Replay Value: 0.7
Overall: 1.0
Rounded to fit GameFAQs Score: 1
Comments
This game is a disgrace to all Dodge Ball video games out there. Make sure to do everyone a favor and avoid renting, and even thinking of buying this game.