Story-driven sports RPGs like the early Mario golf and tennis games or, most recently, Golf Story are slowly coming back into fashion. Brought to life with the art of veteran animator Ivan Friere and Brazilian studio Pocket Trap, Dodgeball Academia is a confident combination of Shonen anime, sports games, and Saturday morning cartoons that delivers a thrilling experience right through to the last game.
After leaving his old school and freeing himself from his controlling parents, Otto wants to prove that he has what it takes to be successful at the Dodgeball Academia, the leading school for this sport. Academic professors initiate the new students by releasing their extraordinary latent power. These abilities manifest themselves after touching a magic ball, an artifact from the “Great Dodgeball War,” an event that shows how deeply the sport is rooted in this world. Think of this induction ceremony as if X-Men get their skills from the Sorting Hat. This amalgamation of some of the most popular tropes in modern media works well, and allows the narrative to expand its ingenuity ideas where it matters most: on the court.
Dodgeball games are played in real time, but these games aren’t the one-hit elimination matches that you may be used to in physical education class. Your primary goal is to reduce the opponent’s health by throwing balls at them, an easy target but thanks to the special abilities mentioned above, it becomes even more explosive. Over time, you will level up characters and receive stat boosts and other improvements that will change how each character plays.
Some students, like Otto, add elemental effects to their attacks, others heal their team or teammates, and some boomerang or bend the ball. I am enthusiastic about the individuality that every athlete in my team and with my opponents brings with it. These differences are factors in choosing your team of three based on their skills and play styles. I enjoyed and succeeded with a balanced group of an attacker, an experienced defender, and a support player who was able to replenish HP. One of my favorite characters can’t catch balls thrown in their path and relies on a more creative method of defense. Instead, hold and release the catch button at the right time, and she’ll throw the ball back at the opponent with a baseball bat.
After the characters charge a meter throughout the game, they can unleash their Balltimate move, a super technique that can turn the tide of the game. Otto’s Balltimate is a normal Hadoken-like fireball, the support character Ballooney lays down a healing puddle and Mina strikes opponents with deadly lightning bolts. Balltimates are unique to each character and are a key factor in building my team of three. Balltimates can be used to spam your way through games, and I’ve done that a couple of times, but I’ve never felt like I’m cheating. Any given game can go south no matter how you try to cheese the game.
Matches at Dodgeball Academia offer a refreshing, if subtle, variety that keeps the action fresh. The opposing teams have different compositions, and even the course and obstacles change from game to game. Some dishes are bigger. Some have oncoming traffic that you have to dodge along with enemy attacks. Even the balls vary from fight to fight and have different elemental properties and shapes. I didn’t like the forest square, which obstructs the view of the action by covering everything with tall blades of grass. This type of recurring match is annoying; luckily, they only take up a small percentage of the games you will be playing.
I enjoyed everyday life at the academy. Some days you go to class to practice on topics like dodging or catching through timed survival mini-games; on other days you will be sent on quests by the professors. In between there are games in a school-wide tournament to determine the best team on campus. Each day brings a fun, self-contained story with pieces that culminate nicely on the last day of the competition. Along the way, Otto and his ever-growing teammates have to battle rampaging training robots, scheming classmates and a cult of students who firmly believe that dodgeballs are square shapes. Each student in Otto’s class has their quirks and personalities that you learn in the eight chapters of the game, and while most are antagonistic, all of them are fun.
Unfortunately, the action is never far from the school, its parking lot and a nearby forest. A brief stint on an icy mountain brought up some fun platforms that weren’t seen in the rest of the game that I wish were more common. Running through the same three areas over and over again and looking for the next goal is repetitive. While I enjoyed what was there, the mundane nature of the world was a disappointment compared to the absurdity of the characters and their powers.
Fortunately, an incredible soundtrack made me trot happily through school. With tunes like the happy and hopeful themes of dorms and recreational areas, or the energetic, electric guitar-powered song that can be heard on school grounds, Dodgeball Academia has my favorite game soundtrack of the year to date. It doesn’t hurt either that the battle intro music seems heavily inspired by the Pokémon games, featuring a similarly alarming intro and triumphant victory fanfare. I didn’t wake up a day this week without some of that soundtrack looping in my head and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
The art and character animation is on a par with the music. Pocket Trap did a great job adding great personality to each sprite, even in its standard idle animations. Ballooney’s emptying head, the principal’s shiny badge stripe, and Vampy’s animalistic movements are notable small details on some spectacular character work. These characters look like something out of a cartoon network series. While I expect this quality in cutscenes, the graphics and animations even shine in the dodgeball games. Whether the main characters and their attacks or standard nameless opponents, everything has an excellent opportunity to move and interact on the pitch.
I like to have a few minor arguments here and there about specific places or reused environments, but at the end of the day, Dodgeball Academia is a champion in its field. It features the best parts of sports RPGs with cheeky characters, eye-catching special moves, and gameplay that is fun. Better still, the package is upgraded with a killer soundtrack. Look no further than this gem if you want to have a great time for a dozen hours.
