Game Review: Pirates VS Ninjas Dodgeball (XBLA)

Published by: Gamecock
Developed by: Blazing Lizard
Genre: Sports/Action
Platforms: XBLA, WiiWare
Players: 1-4 (Offline) 1-8 (Online)
ESRB: E10+: Animated Blood,Cartoon Violence,
Suggestive Themes,Use of Alcohol and Tobacco.
Prices: 800ms pts

$10.00
£6.80
€9.30
$12.79 (CAD)
$13.20 (AUD)
¥1184
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Overview: For many years now there has been a debate between who would win, Pirates, or Ninjas, this game lets you play as ether, and two more (Robots, and Zombies) in a game of dodge ball, And each team member is packed with its own special ability to spice things up during the heat of battle.

Gameplay: There are a few different modes to play, and three different ways to play them:
Exhibition : this is pretty much free mode, you choose your team's size (1x1, 2x2, 3x3, or 4x4) the number of rounds, the difficulty mode (easy, medium, or hard) the arena, the two teams you want in the game, how many balls, and the rules (game mode)
"Combat Dodge Ball" is the first mode in the list, here, you will notice that the line that goes through the middle is removed, giving you the freedom to roam around the whole map.
"traditional Dodge Ball" is probably the closest thing to an actual dodge ball game you'll find here, due to the fact that as soon as you step foot across the line, you will be turned back to your side.
"Enhanced Dodge Ball" is by far my favorite, You are allowed to step foot on enemy territory for three seconds, which adds a good amount of strategy, and it is always fun to steal your enemy's balls.
Then there is story mode, where you will start out with only one team mate, and work your way up to three buds to make up your team, throughout your journey, you will encounter numerous text boxes, normally i would skip them, but these ones caught my attention since i AM a pirates vs ninjas debater, and found that the story, altho senseless and short, has many jokes that will make you smirk.


If you are playing offline, then you have an extra option available, which is co-op play, this allows you and up to three friends to play through the story together, fun as it may seem, you will often get lost and run in circles trying to figure out where you are at, not only is this contributed by the fact that there are too many players on screen in such a small arena, but all the characters look alike from far away, specially if you are playing on a standard T.V.
Apart from story you can do a local match which is the same thing as an exhibition match, except you get to play with, or against friends, sadly enough, there are only four different arenas in which to play, and altho they all look beautiful, some may resemble one another in large amounts.
If you are playing online, then you have the options to play privately, ranked, or just a player match, here you loose alot of the options you once had in local modes, you will only be able to choose your character, and the amount of players, everything else seems to be randomly generated.
Not excluding online mode, when you play with three or more players per team, you will easily loose track of yourself which is why in my opinion, two on two is the best way to go, not only do you keep track of your self at all times, but you also gain a great seance of team work.

Going deeper into the game, you have a few cool things you can do while in game, apart from each player having their own special power, you can also preform special throws which will make the game go in slow motion for about a second, allowing you to see the flamed up ball slowly reach its targeted flesh (or metal if it is going after a robot) it is always cool to see someone dodge it in slow motion, or slowly hit the ground from the impact, which brings me to say that smacking someone with a ball in this game feels good, no seriously, you can REALLY FEEL the ball hit your opponent, it is one of the most rewarding things i have ever done in a game in years, unfortunately, that is probably the peek of this game, the controls feel flimsy, and it is hard at times to grab the ball seance the 3D environments can be very confusing at times due to the fact that you are almost getting a side view of the arena, it seems to me like an over the head camera view would have been more appropriate for the game.
There is also a stamina meter which goes down every time you dodge, (the right analog) strike, or jump, which are the two actions you will be doing the most; If it ever goes down all the way, you will be forced to stand still until it goes back up.
You can also catch balls to gain some health back up, but should only be attempted after alot of practice or you will simply be a sitting duck, hit balls to throw them back at whoever threw the ball at you in the first place to hit him, this can be done back to you so stay alert.


Graphics: It doesn't take much more then a few minutes to appreciate the level of detail found not only in the characters, but in the arenas as well, in the snow arena for example, when you step on thick snow, it will go down, but the fact that there are obstacles on screen, not only serves to purpose of having something to hide behind, but it aslo makes the game a hell of alot harder, when you go behind a tree for instance, it will not turn translucent, fully blocking the view of your character, this quickly becomes repetitive, and you will soon be wanting to play in levels with less obstacles.
Other then that, they do a good job animating the characters, and keeping a good frame rate throughout the game, still, a wider variety of models would have been appreciated, mainly just so that i don't keep thinking i am some huy, and then find out i am all the way across the screen getting hit by a robot.

Sound:There is a nice song that plays at the beginning of the game and stays throughout the menu screen featuring Chinese instruments and pirate "arrgs"apart from that you will hear alot of "ouchs" and "wooshses" as you may expect, and each level has its own fitting song.

Difficulty:For the most part, the AI in this game is absolutely horrible, they will stand in one place waiting for you to hit them, and the next minute they are running towards the ball deflecting anything you throw at them and catching every ball that gets near them, and then go back to maybe running in circles while you go grab the ball, on the bright side, you don't have to play against them scene the game comes with on, and offline multiplayer.

Replay Value:It is no secret that most games with multiplayer have at least a decent amount of replay value, and this is no exception, playing two on two can actually get pretty exiting, but most other multiplayer game modes are virtually broken, they are frustrating and confusing for the most part, which is a shame because this game had the potential to be a great one, but bad level design and controls made it go down on the fun factor.

Achievements: Most achievements are pretty simple, and if you dedicate about an hour to them, you can get most of them, they ARE fun, but too obvious at times I mean, you get an achievement for dodging a ball :P and another one for winning a match, ect, they could have been a bit more imaginative.

Conclusion:At the end of the day, even tho this not the best game ever made, multiplayer modes you will keep you happy for a few days, specially if you have something to prove to your friends (who is better, pirates or ninjas) but for an 800 ms pt price tag, I can't really recommend it.
Also, there is a free downloadable special moves pack available which is a nice touch, tho I don't see why it couldn't come in the game if it was going to be free in the first place.

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Pros:
*Great graphics
*Each character has its own special move
*finally! a pirates vs Ninjas game!
*Fun multiplayer
*The story is entertaining

Cons:
*Character movement feels odd
*Only four stages
*You can easily get confused
*too many times it won't feel like a dodge ball game

Gameplay: 1.5/5
Graphics: 4/5
Sound: 2.5/5
Replay Value: 2/5
Difficulty: 3.5/5

Final Score:
.:Not Recommended:.

Vote Now! Pirates Or Ninjas!