That "power of friendship" fighting spirit oozes from every corner of the small, but lively campus. Like Phoenix Wright yelling "OBJECTION!", Ballooney starts screaming "I WILL HELP MY FRRIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEENDS," and revitalizes the entire team with a giant healing tidal wave effect. Our team's current rival, a snot-nosed boy named Cubo (who, get this, has a cube for a head) sneaks in a devastating attack while the principal has his back turned, and depletes my health bar to one point. The kind you see in any anime when a character somehow magically finds a way to have an entire conversation in the span of three seconds. In Dodgeball Academia's story mode, battles are occasionally interrupted by comic book interjections. Not that I have a problem with that when it's this much fun.Īll the while, our third teammate, Ballooney, has been sitting scared on the sidelines. In the same way that NBA Jam really only had a handful of mechanics, but managed to feel like a deeper game that demanded some level of skill, Dodgeball Academia feels like something I'll need a few more hours to truly master. The 3D school environment is pretty enough, but it's all the incredible 2D character art and animation that makes me feel like I'm suddenly stepping into an episode of Gumball or some other Cartoon Network classic.Īt first, I was worried Dodgeball Academia would be too much of a cakewalk, but that increasing pressure to get the dodgeball out of your hands kept surprising me, reminding me that victory was never certain. True to RPG fashion, the defeated opponents offer up some cash and XP. On my way to class, several students interrupt me to duels, and quickly learn the bite of my dodgeball. I'm free to roam the moderately sizable campus as I see fit, spending money at the gear store, challenging classmates to battles out on the courts, or going to class in the main building. I begin working my way through the ranks of Dodgeball Academia, waking up each morning in the student dorm I share with Ballooney, a boy with a literal balloon head.
Dodgeball Academia explicitly recalls the influences of Pokémon, sports anime series, and Steven Universe.
The only thing missing is a catalog of creatures to capture, unless these dodgeballs have some extra functionality I don't know about. Along the way, you'll meet quirky faculty, form friendships and rivalries with fellow students, and discover the campus' mysteries. Stop me if this sounds familiar: You're a young boy with big dreams of becoming the best dodgeball player in the world, and the only way to do that is to attend a giant school where apparently that's the only curriculum.
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