First was that Indiana Jones movie review, and now a review of remake of an old NES title. It would seem that Nine Over Ten 9/10 is riding a wave of nostalgia. LOL. Anyways..

Dodge Ball. To think that a game that simple would translate into a really interesting affair on the Nintendo DS.

I remember playing the NES game, Super Dodge Ball using the nesDS emulator on the Nintendo DS and I never really gotten around it, due to some glitches with the emulator.

So when the sequel for the game, Super Dodge Ball Brawlers came out officially for the platform, I quickly jumped at the opportunity to review it.

One thing’s for sure is fans would find Brawlers looking very similar to the NES original. The objective of a dodge ball is pretty simple. It’s basically a 4-on-4 match where you attempt to lower the your opponent’s hit points (or rather each individual opposing player) by hitting them with a ball thrown at them.

Achieving this with throwing the ball normally can be a drag, as the damage done is pretty minuscule. Therefore, special shots like the lightning shot and snake shot are the order of the day, which kind of reminds me of playing a game of Prince of Tennis: Crystal Drive. Each player has a couple.

Here’s a tip, to execute a ground super shot: dash and release the ball at the 5-th step.

Other than the 3 players you have on your side of the court, there are also 3 of your players hanging about the perimeter of the opposing side! One way is to to pass the ball to these players and have them throw it at nearby opponents.

Winning matches (in a tournament) gains the team experience and money to buy items which can be pretty useful in improving your players’ personal stats.

There are several game modes available. The first one being Tournament whereby you select a country to represent (watch out for the funny commentary on each of the teams on the top screen of the DS).

You also have the VS Match mode, against a computer opponent or another human player with the multi-cart or download play.

And then there’s the mode which shares the same name with the title of the game, Brawl. This is reminiscence of Dodge Ball games played in school yards and play grounds all over the world. Get a group of kids and a dodge ball (in my case it was a tennis ball), set the rules to no-holds barred and all hell will break loose.

Basically a free for all where you can get up-close and personal, Brawl will have you not only throwing the ball at point-blank range but also kicking and punching your opponents. It’s a good thing that this mode supports both Multi-Cart play and Download play.

Other than the 3 game modes, there’s also an option to create your own teams, up to three of them.

My only grip with the game is that you can’t seem to be able to exit midway through a match. There is of course the tedious way of resetting the DS, but I’m guessing this slipped passed the Quality Assuarance process.

In any case, with that minor niggle aside, Super Dodge Ball Brawlers is a pretty good game, great for some casual-play and hardcore fans of the original alike.

Super Dodge Ball Brawlers is available for purchase at Play-Asia.com. Click here for further details.