Dodge School

Dodgeball was a pretty popular sport around schools, at least until it got banned for being too violent. However, it’s still a rather widespread activity in some places, because teenagers really like being a little violent most of the time. In case you just want to enjoy the sport and not deal with the actual danger, you can try the computer game version and use controllers instead.

Dodge School is an arcade sports sim that looks quite simple at first, but it can provide the players with many hours of fun. In short, it has the same rules as regular dodgeball, which means that you play as one of the two available teams and try to eliminate the other one by hitting the players with the red ball. When every member of the opposing team is in jail, you win the match.

What makes the gameplay much more exciting, on the other hand, is the fact that your characters have special abilities they can use during the matches. Whenever a player makes a catch, his power-up meter builds up a little. When the gauge is full, you can unleash a special move, such as a very fast throw, or a very heavy ball. These moves can still be blocked, but it’s a lot more difficult to do so.

Unfortunately, you do not have complete controls over the players, since they mostly move around by themselves. You can manually target the trajectory of the ball, on the other hand, which is the most important aspect anyway. You have to react quickly and press the catch button whenever the ball is heading toward one of your players. Press it too quickly, however, and he will stumble.

Thankfully, you can make things easier and use a controller to do all this, although a keyboard works just as fine. You can even invite a friend over and play against him in the two-player mode, which is obviously a lot more fun that against the AI. Even if the graphics are cartoony and rather unimpressive, it’s the fun and exciting gameplay that keeps you engaged.

While Dodge School is a bit too empty and simple to be considered a must-have, you need to remember that this is an indie production, and that it was created in only ten days. Hence, it packs quite the punch under the circumstances, especially since it supports two players competing with each other.