''Super Dodge Ball'' is a
dodgeball
Dodgeball is a team sport in which players on two teams try to throw balls and hit opponents, while avoiding being hit themselves. The objective of each team is to eliminate all members of the opposing team by hitting them with thrown balls, cat ...
-based
sports game
A sports video game is a video game that simulates the practice of sports. Most sports have been recreated with a game, including team sports, track and field, extreme sports, and combat sports. Some games emphasize actually playing the sport ( ...
produced by
Technos Japan Corp. originally released as an
arcade game in
1987
File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...
. In Japan, it was the second game starring Technos Japan's video game character
Kunio-kun
The series (typically localized as ''River City'') is a video game series started by Technōs Japan. The series is now handled by Arc System Works who purchased all of the intellectual property rights from Technōs' successor, Million Corp. The ...
, following ''Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun'' (the Japanese version of ''
Renegade
Renegade or The Renegade may refer to:
Aircraft
*Lake Renegade, an American amphibious aircraft design
*Murphy Renegade, a Canadian ultralight biplane design
*Southern Aeronautical Renegade, an American racing aircraft design
Games
*'' Comman ...
''), although the connection between the two games was removed in the western release. Various home versions and sequels of the game have been released for various platforms.
Gameplay
The player's team is composed of seven members; the team's captain (a large-sized character) and six smaller-sized characters. The captain and three of the other members are constrained to one side of the main court, while the other three stand at the sidelines surrounding the competing team. The objective of the game is to eliminate the members of the opposing team on the other side of the court by throwing the ball against them. Players who are eliminated are turned into a
caricature of an
angel
In various theistic religious traditions an angel is a supernatural spiritual being who serves God.
Abrahamic religions often depict angels as benevolent celestial intermediaries between God (or Heaven) and humanity. Other roles inclu ...
that flies away to the top of the screen. The team that remains with at least one surviving member wins. If time runs out during a match, then the team with most surviving members wins. The player's life bar represents the number of remaining members, as each character is usually eliminated after taking three or four shots.
The game has two button configuration that change functions depending on the current circumstance. If the player currently has possession of the ball, then the left button will be used for throwing the ball against an opponent, while the right button is used for passing the ball to a nearby teammate. Likewise, if an opponent has possession of the ball, then the left button is used to catch or intercept an opponent's throw, while the right button is to duck an attack. Pressing both buttons simultaneously will cause the player to jump. The player can also dash by pushing the joystick left or right twice, increasing the
momentum of an offensive throw. The team's captain has a specialized offensive throw, also known as a "Power Shot", that travels faster and does more damage than a regular offensive throw.
The game begins with a match between Dallas and Chicago to determine who will represent the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
in a worldwide dodge ball tournament. In the single-player game, the player will control
Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
, while the computer controls
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name ...
. If played against a second player, then the first player controls Dallas and the second controls Chicago. The winning team will then compete in the world cup and face against the following regions:
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
,
Iceland
Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...
,
China,
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
(
Kenya
)
, national_anthem = " Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"()
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Nairobi
, coordinates =
, largest_city = Nairobi
...
in later versions) and
Japan. The foreign teams have more than four team members playing offense, although only four show up on the main court. If an opposing team loses a member, they will call upon one of their backups to replace the fallen teammate. After defeating Japan, the player's team is awarded with the world cup by a
ninja
A or was a covert agent or mercenary in feudal Japan. The functions of a ninja included reconnaissance, espionage, infiltration, deception, ambush, bodyguarding and their fighting skills in martial arts, including ninjutsu.Kawakami, pp. 2 ...
and the game begins a new cycle starting with England.
Regional differences
The Japanese version was released as a spin-off of ''
Nekketsu Kōha Kunio-kun'', the Japanese version of ''Renegade''. The Japanese version features an opening sequence which parodies the pre-stage introductions of ''Kunio-kun'' which depicts Kunio being struck by a dodge ball thrown by a passing thug and his teammates chasing after said thug. The American teams of Dallas and Chicago were originally the Japanese teams of Nekketsu High School and Hanazono High School, while the final match was actually against U.S. team themselves. The characters' skin tones and hair colors were changed accordingly in the Western version to reflect this. The character who awards the trophy to the player's team at the end of the game is a thinly-disguised
parody
A parody, also known as a spoof, a satire, a send-up, a take-off, a lampoon, a play on (something), or a caricature, is a creative work designed to imitate, comment on, and/or mock its subject by means of satiric or ironic imitation. Often its sub ...
of the comic book superhero
Superman.
Related games
Ports
A
Nintendo Entertainment System version of ''Super Dodge Ball'' was released in
1989
File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs ...
, although it is not an exact port, as it featured several differences such as special moves and full stats for individual team members, two additional teams (India and U.S.S.R.), and a "Bean Ball" mode. The soundtrack featured stage music appropriate for each country depicted in the game. For example, the Japan stage theme was "
Sakura Sakura
, also known as "Sakura", is a traditional Japanese folk song depicting spring, the season of cherry blossoms. It is often sung in international settings as a song representative of Japan.
Contrary to popular belief, the song did not originate ...
" and the England stage featured a song apparently written by marrying two Beatles hits ("Get Back" and "A Hard Day's Night").
The
Japan-only
X68000
The is a home computer created by Sharp Corporation. It was first released in 1987 and sold only in Japan.
The initial model has a 10 MHz Motorola 68000 CPU, 1 MB of RAM, and lacks a hard drive. The final model was released in 1993 wi ...
version, an exact port of the arcade release, was released on September 1988. It added stereo music and parallax scrolling, as well as a cheat code that increases the character variations.
Another home version was released exclusively in Japan for the
PC Engine
The TurboGrafx-16, known as the outside North America, is a home video game console designed by Hudson Soft and sold by NEC Home Electronics. It was the first console marketed in the fourth generation, commonly known as the 16-bit era, thoug ...
titled , released on March 30,
1990
File:1990 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 1990 FIFA World Cup is played in Italy; The Human Genome Project is launched; Voyager I takes the famous Pale Blue Dot image- speaking on the fragility of humanity on Earth, astrophysicist ...
. It was published by
Naxat Soft and developed by KID. Similar to the NES version, the PC Engine version added individual stats, life gauges, and power shots for each member of every team. However, the graphics, teams, and stages are still identical. In addition to the single-player tournament mode and a 2-player versus mode, it also features a single-player quest mode where the player can replace the default members of their team with the captains from the rival teams.
The
PlayStation 2 version, released in Japan on January 26,
2006, was published by Hamster as part of the ''Ore-tachi no Gēsen Zoku'' series. It is an emulation of the original arcade game.
Sequels
Sequels to ''Super Dodge Ball'' have been released for various platforms. A Japan-exclusive
Game Boy
The is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. It was designed by the same t ...
sequel, titled , was released on August 8,
1991
File:1991 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Boris Yeltsin, elected as Russia's first president, waves the new flag of Russia after the 1991 Soviet coup d'état attempt, orchestrated by Soviet hardliners; Mount Pinatubo erupts in the Phi ...
. Another Japanese sequel, titled , was released for the
Super Famicom
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a Fourth generation of video game consoles, 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South ...
on August 6,
1993
File:1993 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Oslo I Accord is signed in an attempt to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict; The Russian White House is shelled during the 1993 Russian constitutional crisis; Czechoslovakia is peacefu ...
. A
Neo Geo
Neo Geo is a family of video game hardware developed by SNK. On the market from 1990 to 2004, the brand originated with the release of an arcade system, the Neo Geo MVS and its home console counterpart, the Neo Geo AES.
The Neo Geo MVS was ...
sequel, simply titled ''
Super Dodge Ball'', was released in
1996 and co-published with
SNK
is a Japanese video game hardware and software company. It is the successor to the company Shin Nihon Kikaku and presently owns the SNK video game brand and the Neo Geo video game platform. SNK's predecessor Shin Nihon Kikaku was founded in 1978 ...
. It was the final game produced by Technos before they went out of business and as a result, no home version was released and the arcade version was produced in limited quantities.
Years after Technos went out of business, a new company called Million (composed of former staff members of Technos) developed ''
Super Dodge Ball Advance'' for the
Game Boy Advance
The (GBA) is a 32-bit handheld game console developed, manufactured and marketed by Nintendo as the successor to the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on March 21, 2001, in North America on June 11, 2001, in the PAL region on June 22, ...
in
2001. While not an official ''Kunio-kun'' game in Japan, it features play mechanics similar to the console installments and some of the same background music as the ''Kunio-kun'' series. An official sequel was released by
Arc System Works
, commonly referred to as ArcSys, is a Japanese video game developer and publisher located in Yokohama. Founded by Minoru Kidooka in 1988, the company is known for arcade 2D fighting game franchises, including ''Guilty Gear'' and ''BlazBlue'', a ...
and
Aksys Games
Aksys Games Localization, Inc. is a video game publisher that specializes in translating and localizing Japanese video games for English-speaking markets. It was founded by Akibo Shieh in 2006. Some of its clients include Bandai Namco Games, X ...
for the
Nintendo DS titled ''
Super Dodgeball Brawlers'' in
2008
File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
.
Although not an official part of the series, Miracle Kidz (a developing team composed of former Technos Japan staff members) released ''River City Dodgeball All-Stars!!'' as a
doujin game
is software created by Japanese Fan-made, hobbyists or hobbyist groups (referred to as "dōjin circle, circles"), more for fun than for profit. The term includes digital , which are essentially the Japanese equivalent of Independent video game ...
for the PC in
2007. An
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...
version was released in
2009 titled ''Downtown Smash Dodgeball''. Miracle Kidz released the
Wii version titled , on July 12, 2011 as a
WiiWare
WiiWare was a service that allowed Wii users to download games and applications specifically designed and developed for the Wii video game console made by Nintendo. These games and applications could only be purchased and downloaded from the Wii ...
title. Unlike their previous Dodgeball games, this installment is officially sanctioned by Million.
Reception
In Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed ''Super Dodge Ball'' on their January 1, 1988 issue as being the second most-successful table arcade unit of the month.
The game sold more than 500,000 copies by October 1989.
Notes
References
External links
Hamster page(Japanese)
*
at
Arcade Archives Page (Japanese)
{{Arc System Works
1987 video games
Arc System Works franchises
Arcade video games
Dodgeball video games
High school-themed video games
Kunio-kun
Sharp X68000 games
TurboGrafx-16 games
PlayStation 2 games
Video games developed in Japan
Video games scored by Hirotoshi Suzuki
Video games set in Dallas
Virtual Console games
Multiplayer and single-player video games