|| VALUE REVIEW || All-Star Slammin' D-Ball (PS1)
Developed By : Access Published By : Agetec Inc
Category : Sports, Arcade Release Date : October 2001
In real life, dodgeball is a game that every kid knows. At some point in school, there's been a rainy day that's thrown off the teacher's plan for the day and they've lined up a series of balls in the middle of the gymnasium, and told the kids to go nuts. So it's only natural that there's video games based on this amazing sport. All-Star Slammin' D-Ball pits you in a world where the grownups have devised this game for gym classes to keep the young kids occupied. Every four years, a worldwide tournament takes place to determine the best of the best teams, and vying for a spot in that tournament is tough.
Players will have two game modes to choose from for the most part : participating in a single game, or the big whopper of a tournament. Either way, the core gameplay remains exactly the same, it's just a matter of whether you drop in and out of one game, setting your difficulty manually, or having to chain a series of victories through an ever increasingly difficult field of opponents, culminating in a battle against the team of Elementals.
Each round consists of two teams, on a small basketball-like court. This court is divided in the middle, making up two sides, and each side has an infield and an outfield. On the left side, will be player one's infield players and the computer's outfielders (one top, one bottom, one side). On the right side of the court it's flipped, with the computer making up the infield and the player being on the outfield. The goal is to not be the team who's entire infield get's eliminated.
Gameplay is broken down into offense and defense. On offense, you'll be able to switch which opponent you'd like to aim your throw at with R1 and L1, and you can take that throw by pressing the Square button. Or, you can choose to pass to one of your teammates with the Circle and a D-Pad direction : pressing to the left passes amongst your own infielders, or up/right/down to the respective outfielder. While on defense, if you time it correctly, you'll be able to press Square to catch the ball if it's thrown at you, or Circle to perform a dodge or duck (or dive, or dip, or dodge...). No matter which side you're on, X will jump you, and the D-Pad controls your movement.
Obviously the goal is to eliminate the other team before you get eliminated. Taking out your opponent may slowly become more difficult as you progress through the tournament. Each of your characters will start off with a base strength to their throw, but each time you catch the ball thrown at you, you can raise that particular players throwing stat to make it stronger. Catch enough balls and you'll unlock a powerful maneuver that, as far as I could tell, was specific to each player. These include things like a super-charged shot, a super-slow shot, throwing two balls in quick-succession, and a couple of other things meant to throw your opponent off and make them stumble.
One thing I was over-thinking at first was the ability to catch the ball being thrown at me. I was panicking, trying to frantically switch players to the one who had the best chance to catch the ball, and missing more than I was making. But, after a few failed games I soon realized the error of my ways. When your opponent is targeting a specific player, you will automatically have that player highlighted as the one you're in control of. The only thing you need to change, is which direction you're facing. Try and catch the ball thrown at your side or back and you'll most likely get hit and knocked out.
Personally, I enjoyed All-Star Slammin' D-Ball. It was short, sweet, but a lot of fun nonetheless and definitely a challenge climbing up that tournament ladder. As challenging as it felt though, it's a game that can be toppled very quickly. From my first moment picking this game up, without doing any practice runs and jumping immediately into the tournament, it took me roughly an hour to take down every team.
So, with a game this short, the question of "Pick It Up" or "Leave It On The Shelf" comes down to one simple secondary question : Would I play it again? Truth be told, I would. I don't know if it's something that I would rush back into playing, but I can definitely see myself scanning through my library down the road, having my eyes fall on this title, and going "Oh yeah, let's play that again!" This in no way is a game that you will beat and then never want to look at again. And again, we've all played dodgeball at some point in our lives, so getting to kickback on the couch and play it is something I can easily, and highly recommend. Top it all off with the fact that this game is ridiculously cheap (a NEW SEALED copy of this game won't even break $10), keep an eye out for this one and if you find it, take it.
