Welcome to our review of Super Dodgeball Beats, the newest rhythm game to hit the Nintendo Switch!
You’re invited to the craziest dodgeball contest ever! Get your groove on with Super Dodgeball Beats, the world’s most intense rhythm-sports game!
Take part in insanely cool dodgeball games played to the rhythm of 18 original music tracks. Conquer your rivals in style with perfect rhythm and sweet moves. There’s nothing else like it!
Play against a friend via couch co-op and show off your amazing skills. Choose from 4 different teams, 8 gorgeous hand-drawn levels, and select any music track you want! Perfectly time your supercharged moves to finish off your opponents!
Be the galaxy’s best dodgeball team in this intense single-player mode! Your squad of 4 dodgeball students must rise through the ranks and face the weirdest foes, from the fearsome Vampire dodgeball masters to the mysterious thunder-infused ancients. Make it far enough and you’ll face even weirder and more powerful dodgeball bosses!
Turn the tide of battle by utilizing a plethora of power-ups including grenades, doughnuts, stone golem and more.
Super Dodgeball Beats is a fun little rhythm game with three basic dodgeball attacks that define the game in all its limited glory. In itself, you just need to make sure your beats outrank the opponents by keeping the upper hand.
You either keep the beats in sync or you lose, the basic premise of the genre and Super Dodgeball Beats does keep its rhythm going, despite being limited in its approach. The position of the teammate is the button you press on the Joy-Con. If the action requires so, you either keep pressing to fill the gauge or you use the left joy-Con to make a directional move as indicated.
Those three attack patterns are your weapons and while you may be facing some issues hitting the proper beats at first, that is mostly due to inexperience as the game does bring an easy to learn tempo to the table. It is basically only limited to not having a lot of attacks, but that might be a good thing though.
As some rhythm games can be highly versatile in the patterns and approaching the genre with tons and tons of stuff to do. Super Dodgeball Beats does provide a more relaxed way to play and though it does get really intense towards the end of the championships, it does not overwhelm and it does more easily let you flow into the game.
So there you have it, a bit of both world. On the one hand, it is a game that will slowly let you enjoy the genre, but on the other hand, it does not give you too many patterns that are preferred by some of the more adept players of the game.
And after having visited Japan before on a few occasions, where the genre is very well present in arcades, you will realise this all too well. I have seen players take out playing gloves and go berserk on some games. I remember my visit to an arcade in Osaka where the cutest girl took out her gloves and played Mai Mai like a pro, using elbows and hands to do the patterns. Compared to that experience, I may be thinking that Super Dodgeball Beats is great for those new to the genre?
In conclusion, Super Dodgeball Beats is fun to play and in my humble opinion also properly priced at what I call a sweet spot for games of this caliber. Not too expensive and just good value for its money. I had fun playing it and while I think some others out there on the Switch are better, this surely is one to consider as well. Maybe sadly it does not stick out either?
