XBLA Review: Double D Dodgeball

by Jonathan Zungre on September 29, 2008 at 11:21 pm

Double D Dodgeball is a game that attempts to capture the fun of dodgeball with the style of neo-retro arcade gaming. But is getting hit in the face by aliens really more fun than getting hit in the face by jocks?

The moment at 0:18 of the above video captures everything great about the pseudo-sport of dodgeball: violence that makes you laugh. If you have positive memories of the sport, they probably revolve around either pelting some poor goth kid right in his dumb face or at least cracking up when someone else administered the ownage. Double D’s bewildering choice to completely throw out all of these associations and transport the sport to outer space feels like it’s working against what makes their sport significant and fun.

But if the game was solid enough, it wouldn’t matter if they decided to swim upstream. This is where Double D commits the unforgivable sin of Arcade gaming: It’s not easy to pick up and play. Arcade games are defined by their easy-to-understand, quarter-popping, quick-play nature (think about the simplicity and longevity that a game like Breakout has), and Double D’s learning curve is just too long and frustrating.

For the first 10 games, I found myself very confused and annoyed (in a real 80’s/early 90’s arcade that would be the equivalent of $2.50, almost the cost of an Extra Value Meal at McDonald’s!). All of the retro characters look so alike that it’s easy to lose which one you are, something which the very competent Artificial Intelligence never seems to forget.

Much of the game is based on your ability to turn around and catch balls that are thrown at you from different angles. The fact that I even had the ability to turn didn’t come to me till a few games in, and the catching mechanic takes a lot of timing, something that intrinsically takes practice. So for the first bunch of games 1) you will get owned by the computer, and 2) you won’t know what’s going on, which is by nature, frustrating.

Another thing that could have grabbed gamers right off the bat are the graphics (Geometry Wars) or music (Braid), but where Geometry Wars feels like a neon fireworks show, Double D’s seem to just add to the muddled, busy, confusing nature of the early game experience. Plus, the music is a looping cacophony of sporty-sounding techno beats that didn’t, in my opinion, seem to augment the game experience.

If you do persist through much of the early game difficulties, Double D Dodgeball does have some fun moments. Timing your shot to hit an opponent just as he looks the other way is a tremendously gratifying experience, and developing the timing needed to catch the ball and trigger your super throw makes you feel the equivalent of a videogame slam dunk.

Double D Dodgeball has a variety of creative units to choose from and special balls you can use. The shock lines that incapacitate your character for a moment add some especially good variety to the game. As for multiplayer, playing locally is the best option because of the overzealous smack talking opportunities and the ability the game has to produce screams of “one more game!”

I didn’t play over Xbox LIVE because, after numerous tries at different times, I still couldn’t find a game. I even hosted one and waited for a good five before throwing in the towel.

At the end of the day, I would have to say that Double D Dodgeball gets more “rip’s” and less “ten’s.” After everything, an enjoyable game is buried under a confusing and muddled early game experience and, honestly, I still believe that I should never play a dodgeball game without getting to throw a ball and see it smack someone right in their dumb head.