Bakunetsu Dodge Ball Fighters
One of the biggest cult hits of the Famicom (NES) era makes it triumphant return to the modern game scene courtesy of the Game Boy Advance. You might know that the company that published Super Dodge Ball on the NES, Technos, went out of business in 1995. Technos' ex-president, however, now works for a Japanese company called Million and they are developing a 32-bit update of the now classic 8-bit dodge ball game. Titled Bakunetsu Dodge Ball Fighters, the game will be published by Atlus.
From a standpoint of overall fun-factor, you'd be hard pressed to come up with a finer game than Super Dodge Ball from the NES days of lore. The Game Boy Advance version will feature 9 playable teams and four "dream teams" (boss teams). Apparently there are also no "out of bounds" in the GBA version; you simply must hit opponents with the ball until their life meter is empty. That hasn't been verified fully, however. It's unknown at this point whether or not the game will support the Game Boy Advance link cable, but we're guessing it will. A 2-player mode is almost a given, but the possibility of a 4-player mode is enough to send an old fan of the NES original into a state of sheer giddiness.
You can tell from the screenshots that the visuals are well beyond the 8-bit version. The slick anime design of the characters seems to come across more clearly as well. It's the game play that counts most, however, and hopefully Bakunetsu Dodge Ball Fighters will live up to the lofty standards that has kept the aging NES version in a godly light even through the days of blast processing, analog precision control, DVD movie playback, and multimillion dollar marketing campaigns.
Pete Deol
(Screenshots courtesy of Magic Box)