I have to say, that Super Dodgeball was one of my all time favorite games for the NES. When I saw this game come out for DS, man I was excited. I knew that as long as they kept the gameplay the same, then any "improvements" they would try to make would just be icing on the cake. And the new extras, like being able to do some limited River City Ransom fighting in the game, are actually good additions, especially since you can turn off this feature easily enough if you don't like it. Another new feature are the falling objects that rain down on you when someone gets their angel wings on (again, you can turn off this feature if you don't like your field all jumbled up). The best new feature, and the one that should have sent this game way over the top from the NES version, is the ability to gain experience points and money to buy items. This feature is well implemented and makes the game a lot more interesting.
Here's the con. This game doesn't have the same gameplay. On the NES version, you could select the guy closest to the ball and start using him with just a push of the button. Now, this new version almost, but not quite, chooses which character you play on the field by what feels like randomness. This is especially evident when you try to use the 3 out of bounds guys on the other side. When the ball comes to the side, you have about 2 seconds of nothing at all before the AI finally gives you control over the nearest sideliner. By then, the guys that may have fallen have already gotten up and either run away or positioned themselves to catch the ball. In the NES version, this was prime time to score an extra couple of points of damage, possible the last couple of points of damage needed to finish off one of the opponents. Very disappointing, and severely takes away from what should have been a great blast from the past. Everything else is great, I just wished they wouldn't have messed up the gameplay like that.
