I just discovered awesome.... Super Dodgeball on the NES.

[prfsnl_gmr]

XS Junior League Dodgeball, despite its terrible cover art, is awesome.

Clearly that kid is the descendant of Wonder Boy, who lived in Monster Land.

No wonder he's so good at dodgeball!

[retrosportsgamer]

I remember being on the look-out for the Advance game before.

That's interesting with the XS game. IIRC, the whole lot of that bargain-priced series came out incredibly late in the PS1's lifespan.

[prfsnl_gmr]

That's interesting with the XS game. IIRC, the whole lot of that bargain-priced series came out incredibly late in the PS1's lifespan.

I was heavily invested in my PS2 when a lot of these games were released - XS Junior League Dodgeball was not released until September 2003 - and I am just now discovering some great titles.

[Snatch1414]

Is it an eye-roll inducing idea to have a "How Is Your NES Gaming Going?" thread? I'm having a ball with mine having never owned one until about a year ago.

[retrosportsgamer]

Is it an eye-roll inducing idea to have a "How Is Your NES Gaming Going?" thread? I'm having a ball with mine having never owned one until about a year ago.

Nope

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=45925

[foxhound1022]

Super Dodge Ball on MVS is pretty awesome, too.

[Sarge]

I don't actually like the feel of the Neo Geo / arcade / GBA ones. I like the NES one a ton more. I'm pretty good at it, and wish I'd been in a position back in the day to participate in the championships thingy they did.

I was in a store earlier this year and found a mint, sealed copy of the GBA version for like $4. I definitely don't plan on ever opening it.

By the way, Russia is the best overall team, if you haven't checked out the stats, but I think India is pretty good to use if you know how to handle them. Swami has crazy defense, and takes forever to take out. The All-Stars are pretty bad, but one of their guys (Paul?) has a third super shot, which is really interesting.

Also, I love the shots that literally have the players wrap around the screen when hit. Delightfully absurd, for sure.

[KalessinDB]

Oh god... I have so many awesome memories of this game, but I haven't actually played it in forever. Might have to bust it out soon.

Although with all the people praising the MVS version, I may have to start hunting that down ASAP...

[Tanooki]

Sarge open it, the game is worthless new or not as it just isn't desirable despite how fun it can be. You are right about Paul, the third shot, the bumblebee is just nasty death as it confuses people and the computer AI too. The trick is knowing how many steps to exactly run before release or it won't happen.

Super Dodgeball I got introduced to with heaps of quarters before the NES game arrived and I got damn good at it, but try as I may I rarely could finish it. The arcade game is by far the most brutal but fun experience as it cheats like a bitch. 3min, your squad has the big guy captain who can only catch/throw power shots, and then your 3 walking target buddies. The enemy starts out the same on stage one. As you go deeper, each stage when you kill off someone 'cheats' and throws another big dude out and no increase in time on the clock. The game is all about efficiency of the catch and kill to beat the clock. Eventually the little guys get replaced by this midget porkers who can do big guy throws, and finally they're out and it's just all these frankenstein looking big guys and that last stage you have to take out I think 7 or 8 of them in 3min which is nuts. Timing of the super shot in the game is far more strict than the NES one but the mechanics are there.

If I throw in ROMs to the mix I think the best version I've done off the arcade would be the PC Engine HuCard version as it is a little more NES like than arcade in style, but has the visuals of it, and it adds this cool around the world mode where you beat on people to knock aliens out of one players body from being mind controlled and then as a thanks you can add their captain to your team to make a big grunt team too. Beyond that the GBA game and the DS title are quite good, never much got into the NG version but it was nice as well. I doubt my skills are there anymore but I used to be able to kick anyones ass as this game, it was the one game where I could run anyone off and back when emulation with net play came into reality in the 90s I'd school people with the NES game and local friends too until the learned it was a bad idea.

[Sarge]

Ha! Not like I can't play it other ways. It might be worth something eventually.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the music in this game. Stuff is phenomenal. They manage to really capture the feel of many of the teams / locales. I especially love Russia's theme song, and the All-Stars theme is rockin', too.

I do wish there were another player with the Bumblebee, because it sucks having to use the All-Stars to use it. Only slightly tricky timing with that shot. The other super shots are really easy to pull off, as long as you know the running window or where to release in jumping. I liked doing a lot of turnaround jump shots, even from the back of the court. There are a few shots this really benefits, like Steve's Spear shot, as it gets so much speed from there and the "camera" doesn't necessarily keep up that well (at least if I remember right). Seems to screw the AI up quite a bit at times, too.

It's also fun to use those wraparound shots just right, have them land on your side of the court, then pound them with another super as they get up. Tricky to pull off, but man, you can put the hurt on some folks.