
	Platform NES Genre Sports Publisher CSG Imagesoft Developer Technos Released 1989
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Super Dodge Ball

super-dodge-ball-1.JPG (34513 bytes) super-dodge-ball-2.JPG (65760 bytes)

Back when I was in the seventh grade, I came across arguably one of the most important games I had ever played. It was so different from anything else at the time. It didn’t have platforming, nor did you fly around in spaceships while collecting power-ups and blowing things up, and it wasn’t even a big head baseball game. This game was Super Dodge Ball for the NES. I had never played anything like it before, and I have my doubts that I’ll play anything quite like it again either.

For it’s time, Super Dodge Ball was a title that got so many things right. The visuals were great, the music was peppy, and there were plenty of strategies one could incorporate while making their way to the championship.

Graphically speaking, what players saw in this game was par for the course in terms of semi-big headed characters that were quite common at the time in games created by Super Dodge Ball’s developers, Technos. For those who have played River City Ransom, the visuals in that game as well as this one are quite similar. Helping things along were the nice animations that characters had, especially the cheering and crying. I remember constantly re-rolling my front line in Super

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Dodge Ball in hopes that the opposing team would eventually put their big, bald player on the sideline. This way when I won, I could see his crying animation, as he sadly moved his finger in the sand. Good stuff.

What made the game fun, though, was the players’ super moves, as they threw the ball at opponents, trying to whittle down their hit points until they were knocked unconscious and eliminated from the

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match. For a game on an 8-bit system, there was a surprisingly large number of moves available, ranging from a high-speed one that turned the ball into a disc as it hurdled toward its target, to one that would come barreling at its prey, then strongly swoop upward, carrying its victim into the air, and there was even one that moved incredibly slow, only striking at full-speed at the last moment. Besides these moves, there were dozens more available too. What made the attacks all the more interesting was that each character had a different attack for a running start, and for when throwing the ball while jumping.

With all of these moves, the area where the game really shone was in 2-player mode. The best moments that could be had in Super Dodge Ball came when trying to dupe a friend as to when you were going to throw the ball, often trying to fake it, as you turned around in mid air at the last second, and passed the ball to another player to do a super attack at an angle your friend wasn’t ready for. Even then, there was so much satisfaction to be had when you still managed to catch the ball, despite your friend’s best efforts to trick you.

On the surface, Super Dodge Ball looked like a very simple game, and to a certain degree it was, thus allowing people to get into it quickly. However, once players got the hang of it the fun came in pushing one’s on-screen team as hard as possible, getting fancy with the passes, while trying to keep opponents guessing as to when an attack may come, all the while feeling great about making a miracle catch. For all of the talk that games like Zelda, Mario, Contra, and such get for being some of the greatest games to grace the NES, it’s really a shame that Super Dodge Ball doesn’t get similar recognition.

Mr. Nash

(April 30, 2005)


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