We were dismayed (but not surprised) when Aksys Games' Super Dodgeball Brawlers failed to ignite the sales chartz. In a DS Fanboy-run world, any new Kunio game would be the subject of massive in-store promotions, print, TV, and online advertising, and magazine covers galore. But in the inferior real world, it's just a cute DS game that reminds people of that one NES game they played on an emulator in college.
In case you are among the group interested in Brawlers, but didn't have the cash together to pick it up, Gamestop has dropped the price to $20. This game for $20 is the best post-E3 news yet!
It seems like only a few days ago when publisher Aksys Games announced that it would be localizing Super Dodgeball Brawlers and Jake Hunter: Detective Chronicles (Tantei Jinguji Saburo), much to our delight. Though both titles have been met with mixedreviews, we can't help but be thankful that someone took the risk to bring over these titles that likely would have stayed in Japan otherwise.
With both Super Dodgeball Brawlers and Jake Hunter now on store shelves, we chatted with the studio's localization crew -- associate producer Mike Manzanares, assistant associate producer Frank deWindt, and marketing director Gail Salamanca -- about the two titles and Aksys's future. Jump past the break for details on Super Dodgeball Brawlers' unlockables and Jake Hunter's abridged case load!
With Super Dodgeball Brawlers releasing late last week, we've finally got enough reviews in that we felt comfortable putting up a Metareview for the game. Also, you all have likely had enough time with it to form your own opinions. So, without further ado, let's get to it:
Play Magazine (85/100) grades it as good, but thinks the characters are a bit too slow: "This is damn near as good a version of Dodgeball as I could ask for...if only overall character speed could be tweaked." [May 2008, p.66]
Nintendo Power (65/100) says "Dodgeball fans won't be disappointed with Brawlers, but if you've been waiting for something new to bring you back on the court, the wait continues." [June 2008, p.89]
1UP (58/100) thinks that it's not as good as the first game: "It's certainly entertaining enough, and it offers plenty of detail for dedicated gamers to sink their teeth into. But will fans still be playing it two decades from now? Probably not. It's an acceptable rendition of a time-tested classic -- a little too complex to stand beside its classic inspiration, a little too primitive to stand up to contemporary releases, but still decent."
Any of you with the game want to chime in? Is it as good as the original NES title?
Gallery: Super Dodgeball Brawlers
With our Metareview feature, we comb the internet for reviews on popular games and conveniently place them into one post. But, we also like to review things ourselves, when time permits. So, be sure to check those out!
Are you sitting there and reading this? May we ask why? You have a game that you should be out getting right now! Okay, you ordered it online? Fine, you may read the rest of this then.
Seriously, only one game is on our mind right now: Super Dodgeball Brawlers. We've been waiting on this sucker for what seems like forever now and we're finally going to be able to play it. How many of you out there are doing the same this weekend? If not Brawlers, then what will you be playing?
North American publisher Aksys has accompanied Super Dodgeball Brawlers' stateside release this week with an image bonanza of (Japanese) screenshots, character art, and other promotional assets, all of which we've conveniently collected for you in the gallery below.
Apparently, lots of people are having trouble finding the game in stores, so here's an opportunity for you to flip past the screenshots quickly to approximate an animated match, imagining that you're really playing the game. We had no problem finding Super Dodgeball Brawlers ourselves, as most of the GameStops around our area kept two copies on their shelves.
In related news, Fujitsu also plans to ship Super Dodgeball Brawlers to stores in Korea next week and has released a huge, 80-image-strong batch of Korean-translated screens, which, for some reason, includes shots from the staff credits and celebration scene that appears after a completed tournament. Perhaps they were accidentally released in Fujitsu's rush to get the word out -- the word(s) being "Kunio in Korea!"
Happy holiday weekend to those of us in the US! Looks like everyone not in the UK has at least a few games to look forward to this week. We have some particularly exciting titles ourselves, including the much-anticipated Super Dodgeball Brawlers, but importers may also want to cast an eye toward Japan, as there's some excitement to be had there as well.
Before we go into fits induced by the awesome fact that Super Dodgeball Brawlers is releasing in a mere two weeks, we figured that the least we could do is spread some love for an aspect of the original game that's often ignored -- its music.
Of course, the best thing to do with great video game music is remix it, and The Bad Dudes have done just that. Taking Kazuo Sawa's score from the original Super Dodge Ball (NES) and arranging it with some ethnic flavor (based on the different teams' countries of origin) makes for a great combination. Don't just take out word for it, though -- give it a listen or download the zip file over at No Balls, No Glory.
Aksys also plans to use this EP to promote the upcoming DS remake, which is set to hit American stores on May 27th.
Paging through the magazine, however, we spotted at least two advertisements that we wanted to share with you. As we were tearing them out to throw into our scanner, we thought, "Why not post all of the other DS ads (and the cover)?" Join us past the break for the scanned pages!
Okay, folks, the next few months are going to be absolutely, 100% crazy hard on our wallets. With some very awesome looking titles coming around the bend in May and beyond, we were wondering how you were preparing yourself? Super Dodgeball Brawlers hits this month, which will be an absolute must-buy for everyone, as well as some other quality titles (Drone Tactics, Puchi Puchi Virus). Still, it's nothing compared with how difficult June will be for our bank account.
What're you most looking forward to in the coming months? The summer is going to be great for DS gamers, so what are you waiting on and how excited are you for it?
With all of the impending games to hit the DS, which excite you the most? We don't have to tell you how pumped we are for Super Dodgeball Brawlers and the games coming from Mistwalker, but what about you all? What titles on the radar have you all giddy and feeling funny in the pants? Space Invaders Extreme?Edgeworth's game?
Though Aksys published these Super Dodgeball Brawlers clips to keep the game fresh in our minds, the videos are also a reminder of the potential that playgrounds have to serve as battle arenas for our nation's youth. Imagine a utopia in which children of all creeds and races, rich or poor, can come together during recess and pummel each other with dodgeballs, crude weapons, and their own two fists. It is a dream we have worked our entire lives to realize.
The Brawl Mode in Super Dodgeball Brawlers is a window to that dream, allowing up to eight kids to battle it out in a no-holds-barred, free-for-all game of Murder Ball. Adolescents are encouraged to swing lead pipes at each other, throw exploding rocks, and transform the dodgeball into a tire-hugging panda whilst a small yapper-type dog cheers them on. Wipe that proud tear from your eye and step past the break for another clip of elementary school children locked in gladiatorial combat.
We estimate that about 95% of the people who're hyped about Super Dodgeball Brawlers's release are nostalgic fans of the original NES game, scarred veterans of the flickering playground. Publisher Arc System Works must have come to the same conclusion, as its latest promotional trailer introduces the return of the Kunio dodgeball series with "archival footage" of the 1988 title, positioning Brawlers as a modernized remake. Smart move!
This minute-and-a-half-long video has a lot more excitement than the mini-clips we've featured the past two months -- it has florid lines of text flying around, chaotic scenes grabbed from the 8-player free-for-all battle mode, and some dude lifting a vending machine over his head. Expect Super Dodgeball Brawlers to hit Japan this March 19th (the February 21st date advertised in the trailer is from before the game was delayed).
We haven't really seen much on what is sure to be the sports game of the century: Super Dodgeball Brawlers. Actually, scratch that. We've seensomanydifferentaspects of the game, we can probably already go insane within a mental playground constructed of the game itself. We will feel the agony of being crushed by a 225mph fast ball to the gut. In reality, we'll have just walked into a bus. Probably on the day it releases.
But, we digress. There's always more to look at, more to appreciate about the game. These new screens in our gallery, for example (which come courtesy of JeuxFrance) are more the former: just more of the game to look at.
Japanese publisher Arc System Works announced that they're delaying the release of the Japanese version of Super Dodgeball Brawlers from February 21 to March 19, citing the usual desire to improve the game.
We asked American publisher Aksys Games if the delay would affect the U.S. release, which, according to Nintendo's gigantic list, was slated for April. The Aksys rep told us that the game had never actually gotten a confirmed release date, but that since the American version is built from the finished Japanese game, Aksys will certainly have to wait for the final version before releasing it elsewhere.
In happier news, Aksys posted another spate of wonderful special-attack videos, this time focusing on the French team. The new Fake Shot (above) may be the most diabolical throw in the history of the series.
If you're having trouble making out what it is exactly that Lorenzo is tossing across the field, it's a giant pizza, heavy on the green peppers. Aksys' most recent video update for Super Dodgeball Brawlers showcases the special throws of Team Italy, a smooth bunch that insists on walking into every match wearing leather jackets, open arms and thumbs up, introducing themselves with an "Aaay!"
IGN also has a two-minute movie worth checking out, in which you can see the two teams actually trading shots with each other. We need more of this! As with the mini-clips, the video is soundless, but you'll get to see our paisanos throwing a vending machine at people's heads. Team Italy's celebratory pirouettes are worth watching, too!
We were dismayed (but not surprised) when Aksys Games' Super Dodgeball Brawlers failed to ignite the sales chartz. In a DS Fanboy-run world, any new Kunio game would be the subject of massive in-store promotions, print, TV, and online advertising, and magazine covers galore. But in the inferior real world, it's just a cute DS game that reminds people of that one NES game they played on an emulator in college.
Before we go into fits induced by the awesome fact that 
