Game of the Week: Super Dodge Ball for NES

It was never a huge hit in the arcades, but believe it or not there was an arcade video game about dodge ball in 1987. It was originally released in Japan, and titled Super Dodge Ball when it reached the United States.

The game must have had some success, at least in Japan, because Nintendo decided to import a version to its huge mega-hit home video game console of the time, the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES).

Super Dodge Ball is entertaining, but it does take some getting used to how the game plays and the control system.

Like real dodge ball, there are two teams of multiple players that try to smash to smithereens the other team. In Super Dodge Ball each individual member on a team has their own health meter, and once they get hit enough and the health meter reaches zero, that member of the team is trashed.

There's a lot of action here, as the player can toss the ball back and forth between players on his or her team, and the player can have team characters jump and duck and even catch a ball that's thrown at them.

One letdown is that the graphics are only fair, which is disappointing because the NES was capable of solid graphics.

The worst part of this game, however, is that a player's control of team members alternates all the time, and this is confusing. Still, a player can get used to it and learn to use it in his or her strategy.

If you want to play a different kind of sports video game, Super Dodge Ball is worth giving a try. And if you're a collector of retro NES games, you should probably check out Super Dodge Ball.