Super Dodgeball Beats is unquestionably one of the most stylish rhythm games I’ve ever played. It’s also one of the least readable, with the timing of your inputs being dictated by quickly closing circles that frequently get covered up by opponent powerups and jostled by a screen shake effect that can’t be turned off. If you can get past that and are merely looking to play a multiplayer game that’ll result in someone throwing a controller across the room, Super Dodgeball Beats could very well be the game for you. Anyone looking for a single-player campaign that plays fairly is in for a rude awakening, however, with a number of the underlying design decisions here proving downright player-hostile in the harder tournaments.
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For better or worse, Super Dodgeball Beats puts a spotlight on its gameplay
It wouldn’t be entirely accurate to say that Super Dodgeball Beats doesn’t have a story, but there’s no denying that it’s an afterthought; an early cutscene sees some characters being woken up and assembled into the Sigma Nerds Club, the dodgeball team that the single-player campaign has you using, and the only other story stuff consists of other teams plotting to steal your trophy after you beat each of Super Dodgeball Beats‘ three tournaments. The results of this plotting are slightly different depending on the league’s difficulty despite most of the art being reused. This is a game where the premise of bizarre groups of characters assembling dodgeball teams is intended to carry the story side of things, and beating a team of old fogeys known as the Senile Company and watching their panic as you go to deliver the final dodgeball strike is undeniably amusing. There are also teams of cats, vampires, military troops, and even a British guy with a monocle-wearing kaiju costume. Things get pretty weird.
Using rapidly shrinking circles can make it difficult to decipher the number and order of inputs.
Super Dodgeball Beats is a rhythm game and not a dodgeball game despite its title; your four-character team corresponds to the four face buttons on a controller and remains fixed in place, with the goal being to watch the circles that appear under characters and press the button when they reach a certain point. While the timing is synced with the music to make it easier, additional complexity comes from the game’s three different types of inputs: in addition to normal button presses, there are also inputs that have to be held (with the release functioning as an input of its own that also has to be timed properly) and up/down/left/right analog stick inputs.
Unlike many rhythm games, the goal in Super Dodgeball Beats isn’t to hit every input or reach a certain score. Instead, your successful inputs cause a dodgeball icon at the top of the screen to move in your direction, while misses and successful opponent inputs move it in the other direction. You only win the match if the icon is on your side when the song ends.
The single-player content consists of three tournament leagues that effectively boil down to easy, normal, and hard difficulties. The first half of a tournament uses a leaderboard system, with the wins and losses of NPC teams being randomly generated and the goal being to finish within the final four and go to the playoffs. It’s possible to lose to an opponent team and still make it in with a little luck, and it’s always nice to have that leeway once you’re in the Legendary League. Once you’re in the playoffs, however, a single loss (whether in the quarterfinals, semifinals, or finals) resets the bracket back to the quarterfinals, so a single loss can send you up to two difficult matches back. One workaround that I found is to restart the match right after the song ends if the dodgeball isn’t on your side, but if you don’t remember to do this, you can be sent back just far enough to induce a ragequit. Especially if, like me, you have trouble with your quarterfinal opponent. Some teams are way harder than others.
I refuse to accept obscuring the player’s view as a valid type of difficulty
As you beat teams in tournaments, new mascots and items are unlocked (with each of Super Dodgeball Beats‘ three mascots bringing different item loadouts to matches). These items are then obtained as your successful inputs fill up a bar, at which point they can be freely unleashed on your opponent. Opponents also obtain and use powerups as each match progresses, though, and that becomes a problem when one-fifth of all powerups serve no purpose but to block the other side’s view. Even when you’re the one activating a giant head on your opponent’s side of the screen to block their inputs—which seems pointless since CPU opponents don’t require sight to play—it can be distracting enough to slow down play on your side of the field. Other powerups don’t fare much better, with many of them inducing a screen shake effect that makes figuring out the specific timing of button presses even harder than the weird circle system already makes it. When the notes start coming quickly, it’s easy to overlook one circle in favor of another in your field of view, and the whole thing just feels clumsy compared to other rhythm game systems.
Losing knocks you down in the rankings or resets the playoff bracket, so you’re best off restarting instead.
Since the only thing dictating whether you win or lose is that dodgeball icon, opponents will often hit you with a sight-blocking powerup in each song’s closing seconds when you’re dealing with a flurry of notes. This can wipe out two full minutes of dominance in a matter of seconds. I’ve found that winning matches in the hardest league is strangely dependent on enemies not using powerups at the very end, and the only way around it if they do is to memorize every song’s inputs.
Memorizing every song is technically possible. As I became more comfortable with each, I found myself recognizing tricky sections and making fewer mistakes. The problem is that inputs are often placed on weird beats that don’t always feel like they correspond with the music because of the way they jump between reflecting the notes of different instruments. The sound effects are also so prone to overwhelming the music that I turned them off entirely after an hour or so.
It feels like every part of Super Dodgeball Beats‘ design is fighting against the rhythm gameplay. There are even some songs where I could swear the inputs were slightly off compared to the music, and in those cases, I performed better with my headphones off, using the visual cues instead of the music to determine what to press and when. My biggest problem with the game is the ubiquitous sense that it goes out of its way to make rhythm gameplay needlessly aggravating. Fortunately, I can think of a few fixes that would instantly take this from a 6/10 game to an 8/10. First, being able to disable individual powerups for everyone is a must. Second, having the option to disable screen shake would go a long way. Lastly, it wouldn’t hurt to mention somewhere that you can see details about how each powerup functions by checking its codex entry after unlocking it. There are also some smaller things that could be changed like the distracting orange circles that shoot out from characters after successful presses and the powerup window being at the top-right where you can’t see while keeping track of the notes, but those are minor complaints.
Super Dodgeball Beats has enjoyable visuals and music, distractions aside
If not for the majority of Super Dodgeball Beats‘ gameplay woes arising from its visual obstructions, I’d be totally comfortable giving its visuals a score of 1.5 or 2. The art style and animation convey a lot of personality. Its comic scenes are bare-bones, existing in black and white rather than being colored in for what I imagine are stylistic reasons, but the level of visual polish is otherwise on par with the most artistically-minded indie studios. The music in Super Dodgeball Beats is also really good. I didn’t think that was the case at first, with the title music possessing a certain tinny quality that I found unpleasant (which I’m confident has something to do with a downsampler on one of the instruments), but the high-energy dance music is paired with specific opponents in interesting ways. For example, a Tengu is paired with music that, while still electronic, is recognizably Japanese-inspired. The vampire opponent, meanwhile, features howling and a synth lead with theremin-inspired vibrato.
Story: N/A Gameplay: 3/6 Visuals: 1/2 Music: 2/2 ★★★★★★☆☆☆☆ – 6/10
*Click here and scroll to the bottom for a detailed explanation of what these numbers mean
Super Dodgeball Beats Review Screenshots
*A Steam key was provided for this Super Dodgeball Beats review. It took me around 3½ hours to beat the three leagues, but local multiplayer should last well beyond that point.
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