Super Dodge Ball (NES)/Gameplay

Changes from the arcade

 * There are only three inner-court players as opposed to the four which appear in the arcade. There are still three outer-court players on each edge of the opposing team's box.  There are no replacement players for computer controlled teams.
 * There is no time limit as opposed to the three minute time limit in the arcade. There is also no penalty for holding on to the ball for long periods of time.  You may hold on to the ball and not use it to attack for as long as you like.
 * Players of the same type no longer have the same amount of health. Each player has a different amount of health according to his Energy stat.  The amount of energy remaining for the three inner-court players is shown at the top of the screen in the form of an energy meter.
 * There are two new countries, India and Russia, expanding the single player tournament to eight rounds with a bonus ninth round against a mirror image shadow team if you defeat every team in the game without losing a single player.
 * There are six different player types instead of just four, and they are no longer distinguished by body type. Rather, they are distinguished by face type.  Every team is composed of exactly one case of each player type.  However, the same type of player on two different teams are not identical.
 * Not only are regular players capable of performing Power Shots, they each have one distinct Power Shot, and one distinct Aerial Power Shot. In addition, there are "Nice Shots" which are normal shots that do more damaged when performed correctly.

Game Modes
There are three modes of play in Super Dodge Ball. The first is World Cup Play. This is only for single players. A player takes control of the USA team (or Nekketsu high school on the Famicom), and must battle other teams from around the world in order to claim the championship. If the player succeeds in defeating a team, he or she advances to the next round. If the player loses, they are given the opportunity to continue and redo the losing battle.

The second mode is Versus Play. This mode is for two players. Each player chooses from among the nine different teams and faces off against each other in a battle. Press while choosing a team to see each players' statistics.

The third and final mode is Bean Ball. This mode is for one or two players (up to four on the Famicom). In this mode, each player takes control of one particular player on Team USA (or Nekketsy high school on the Famicom) in a free-for-all battle, where the winner is the last player left standing.

For World Cup Play and Bean Ball modes, the player must choose a difficulty level which dictates the computer controlled players' level of ability:
 * Easy: Easy opponents don't do a lot to get away from your throws and they rarely catch the ball. They don't rely on Power Shots, choosing to throw normal throws most of the time.
 * Normal: This difficulty is a balance between Easy and Difficult, with players doing a fair job at getting away from obvious attacks, attempting to catch the ball, and mixing in a few Power Shots among the normal throws.
 * Difficult: Difficult opponents actively get out of the way of your attacks, or catch them with great frequency. They will use Power Shots almost every occasion they get.

Before each round of play in World Cup Play or Versus Play, players are given the opportunity to move players around the court. The position change screen is shown to the right. This screen gives you the opportunity to ensure that players with particular Power Shots are available for use in the inner-court. Three players must be placed around specific edges of the outer-court. If you are in World Cup Play and choose to rearrange your characters, the computer will also rearrange the players, but there's no guarantee that the new arrangement will be any different from the previous arrangement. In this way, you can try to influence which computer-controlled opponents will occupy the inner-court.

Stats
Every player in the game has seven stats which determine his skills and abilities. These stats are:

Types
There are six different types of players. One of each type is represented in every team.

Nice Shots
Nice Shots do twice as much damage as a regular shot. They are performed by executing a regular throw in just the right fashion, and can only be performed by player with very high Throw Technique values, particular Type F players. When performed correctly, the ball does not change in appearance, but the ball travels a little faster, and a whooshing sound can be heard as the ball flies through the air.


 * Jumping Nice Shot:To perform a jumping nice shot, the ball must be thrown right around the apex of a standing jump.
 * Dashing Nice Shot:To perform a dashing nice shot, the ball must be thrown when the player takes the ninth step of a dash to the line.
 * Jumping Dash Nice Shot: To perform a jumping dash nice shot, the player must jump after the ninth step of a dash to the line, and the ball must thrown right around the apex of the jump. This particular shot will do tremendous damage, far more than any Power Shot.

Power Shots
Power Shots are performed by running a short distance (about half the length of the inner-court) and then pressing and holding. If performed correctly, the ball will flash and its movement will take on different properties, depending on what type of Power Shot the player is capable of performing. Each team captain has their own unique Power Shot.

Note that in the Famicom version, the execution of Power Shots is much more precise, as the ball must be thrown on the seventh step of a dash.


 * The Blaster: When thrown, the ball flattens out and streaks across the screen. It doesn't stop after it hits an opponent, so it can actually blast through all three inner-court members if they're lined up just right.  It's typically easily picked up by one of your outer-court teammates, so that they can pass it back to you for another throw.
 * The Uppercut: This throw will send the ball straight towards an opponent. After it hits, it takes off into the air, bringing the opponent along for the ride.  Typically sends the ball into the outer-court.
 * The Wave: When thrown, the ball will move side to side in a wave motion. Once it strikes an opponent, it knocks them down to the ground.
 * The Stinger: This throw causes the ball to slowly seek out one of the opponents until it gets close enough to "sting" them, doing considerable damage.
 * The Tsunami: This throw differs from the Wave because it moves up and down instead of side to side. As a result, it is very difficult to dodge it by crouching, as it is still likely to strike the opponent.
 * The Warp: When thrown, the ball will disappear after travelling a short distance, only to reappear right in front of an opponent. This throw is difficult to catch without having experienced it first.
 * The Breaker: This throw travels in a straight line for a some time, before suddenly changing direction and moving towards one of the opponents. The ball might literally turn as much as 90 degrees.
 * The Boomerang: The most powerful Power Shot in the game, this throw sends the ball high into the air before dropping back down and hitting an opponent which such force that it sends them around the world.

Aerial Power Shots
Similar to Power Shots, Aerial Power Shots are performed by running a short distance, jumping by pressing, and then pressing and holding.


 * The Compressor: When thrown, the ball compresses into a small dense object. When it collides with an opponent, it suddenly expands, and sends the opponent flying Around The World.
 * The Accelerator:This ball will drop down to the ground, and zip along the floor of the court. Once on the ground, it moves faster and faster until it strikes an opponent.  It's actually more effective when thrown while running backwards since it will have more time to speed up.
 * The Spear: This is a fairly standard Aerial Power Shot that moves very quickly from the thrower to an opponent. Does a good deal of damage if it connects.
 * The Psycho: This is an odd throw that creates an illusion. Once the ball is released from the thrower, it appears to split up into three balls before merging back into one ball.  This can make it difficult to determine where the ball is actually going.
 * The Lightning: Similar to one of the enemy's Power Shots in the arcade version, this ball flies high into the sky before suddenly dropping down on the head of one opponent. Very difficult to catch unless thrown from farther away.
 * The Sidewinder: Arcing up and down like the Tsunami Power Shot, this throw can be rather difficult to catch, but it's also considerably harder to strike opponents with this throw, as it may often go over their heads.
 * The Pulse: Similar to the other enemy's Power Shot in the arcade version, this throw causes the ball to expand and contract as it flies through the air. Not as powerful as the Compressor.
 * The Slug: This throw is the most powerful Power Shot available. Once it leaves the thrower's hands, it moves at a surprisingly slow speed.  This slow speed can make it appear as though it is easy to catch.  However, if it connects with a player, it will send them flying Around The World.

USA
The USA team is the team that you control throughout the World Cup mode of play, as well as anyone participating in the Bean Ball mode of play. They are the all-around average team, not necessarily specializing in any particular aspect of play. Their captain Sam (Kunio in the Famicom version) is capable of the devastating Blaster Power Shot which can be used (and somewhat abused) to make short work of any competition.

Pro All-Stars
In the North American version, this is Team USA's rivals. In the Famicom version, this is the competing high school, Hanazono H.S., and their stage is actually set in Japan. Like the USA Team, they don't excel in any one area. However, each player is amazing at something different. For this reason, and because of their low stamina, it's a little more important to pay attention to where each player is placed in or around the court, and how you plan to utilize them.

England
Team England's strength is their relatively high Throw Technique. If you can keep the ball in their hands, you will be very likely to pull off the Nice Shots and Power Shots needed to knock the competition out. However, their weak point is their inability to take a lot of damage. Even their B type player Peter isn't so good at sustaining a hit. When going up against England, you should find it fairly easy to knock them out quickly.

India
While Team England is pretty poor when it comes to taking damage, Team India is the best in the world. So much so, that it's next to impossible to do more than 1 point of damage to their type B player Swami. On top of that, they have great Ball Breaking skills, and they're rather fast. Unfortunately for Team India, when it comes to hurting the competition, that's where they fall apart. When going up against a computer controller India, you might want to try changing positions a couple of times until Swami is no longer positioned in the inner-court.

Iceland
The battle against Team Iceland takes place on a large sheet of ice. The ice exaggerates the effects of any momentum that player's carry with them as they dash along the ice. Being a fairly healthy country, the members of team Iceland have a high amount of energy, so you'll need to hit them a lot more in order to knock them out. However, they don't really excel in any other area, and they're quite slow.

China
Team China is not the most difficult team, but they're certainly no pushovers. Their Catch Technique is the best in the world, so be prepared to have a lot of your throws turned against you. They're also fairly fast and have good Throw Technique scores. They're undoing may be their low Damage Capacity scores, although they're still better than Team England when it comes to taking damage.

Kenya
Team Kenya possesses the greatest amount of speed around the world. This is particularly helpful to them on their own home court, where the soft ground makes it difficult to build momentum for Power Shots. Outside of Agility, Team Kenya is fairly strong in other areas, but poor in Ball Breaking ability. Players battling in Kenya need to remember that it's the number of steps that count, not the distance traveled, when attempting to make a Power Shot.

Japan
Team Japan is the semi-finals challenge before the Championship round. On the Famicom, the stats below belong to team USSR, who players must face-off with before the Championship. Either way, this team possesses considerably strong Throw Power. It won't take too many hits from this team to whittle their opponents health down to nothing. The only thing they lack is Agility, but when you throw the ball like they do, you don't need to be fast.

USSR
The championship battle takes place in the former Soviet Union for the American team in the NES version. However, in the Famicom version, the members of Nekketsu high school go to the United States for the championship, and the stats below belong to Team USA instead. The last team had good Throw Power, but this team even out-throws them. And none of their other stats are particularly low. About the only weakness they possess is the fact that none of their players can use the devastating Blaster Power Shot.

Shadow
If you manage to defeat every team in World Cup Play without losing a single member of your inner-court, you will have the opportunity to play in a mirror-image battle against a shadow version of your own team. The sky will crack with lightning as you duke it out once and for all against yourself. Expect the shadow team to be a little more lethal in the hands of the computer, but stick to the strategies that helped you reach this battle, and you'll do fine.