Super Dodge Ball 

Yet another blast from the past on your GBA! When I had first heard that Atlus was releasing this classic bashfest onto the Game Boy Advance, I was excited. Actually I was euphoric. Super Dodge Ball when I was around 8 or 9 was THE game for play and competition. None of this silly Street Fighter nonsense was anywhere popular at the time, so this was THE game. I could remember just playing this (and the other American Technos games for that matter) for hours on end.

Now that the game has been released stateside, how does it fare? Pretty well. There's a lot of excellent new additions to the game, such as about 20 new super throws that vary from a Roulette throw that can back fire on you to a Return Shot that bounces off your opponent's chest and rebounds back to your waiting hands. Also added to the game is the ability to signal a second teammate to start a run for an "olley-oop" style pass so he can slam that volleyball down your opponents throat. This often leads up to a dizzying array of passes and sound barrier breaking throws. Not only are their new throws, there are many new arenas that usually mess with your gravity or traction. Very interesting indeed....

Graphically, the ugly, squat, yet very personable characters of the NES version have been replaced by colorful, cute and still very personable characters that scream Japanese influence. It's a pretty bright game so you shouldn't have trouble seeing anything on the GBA's screen as all the characters are pretty large. The backgrounds all reflect the cities you're playing in, but really are all the same, which is a disappointment. Some variation in the stage design would have gone a long way. 

Sound is going to knock the socks off the nostalgic types because the old themes from the NES game are here, just remixed to take advantage of the GBA's audio capabilities. The actual in game sound effects aren't anything spectacular...just a bunch of whizzes and thumps from flying balls. I would have liked some better grunts of pain/death from the players as they were getting smashed into oblivion.

Control remains simple to the last. (B) throws and catches, (A) passes and ducks, both of them at the same time jumps, (L) signals a team mate to run. (R) selects who you're bashing. And dashing three steps and throwing signals a super throw. It doesn't get much easier than that. I do sort of wish they had mimicked the NeoGeo version of the game by doing motion style throws and super team throws. That would have been SWEET. Also, where is Bean Ball mode? And where is four-player support? As it is now, the game isn't that great for one player throwdowns, but is a blast for two player competitions. But either way, good show.

As the nostalgia train isn't stopping anytime soon on the GBA, with plenty of other retro games being released such as Phalanx and Super Street Fighter II Revival, Super Dodge Ball is a fine addition to any GBA libraryand a joy for those with an old-skool sweet tooth and those in search of an excellent two player link game. But you gotta help but wonder what more they could have done with it....

The Reverend Mofat Jones will destroy you with a Plague Shot. Go Japan Foxes!