4/5 ★ – ThumbsMckenzie's review of Dodgeball Academia.

This game is filled to the brim with weirdness and it's committed to it so much that I love and respect it. Dodgeball Academia is as close to an anime dodgeball series come to life in video game form that we will probably ever get? Mix in RPG elements, some good writing and even a little Pokemon influence (very minor but they even reference the "I like shorts" meme in this thing). It's a lot to try and breakdown and talk about and try and condense. You play Otto, a kid who ran away from his last school in order to pursue dodgeball (yep). As the story unfolds, you'll come across new team mates that you'll be able to use all with a slew of different abilities to mix and match together to help you become the best dodgeball player possible and solve some truly bizarre conflicts. Mixing and matching is encouraged and I never truly found a combination that felt like the obvious best to go with, so finding a group that matches your play style and skills seems to work best. Though as I progressed, I did find myself trying new team members less and less and just sticking to what I was comfortable with instead of seeing if someone new worked better. The game in general is filled with crazy characters, even the ones you can't get to join your team are absurd to some degree. Whether it's your Dad continuing to check in on you through various odd means, or a student with a balloon for a face that lacks confidence in his dodgeball skills because he's worried that getting hit with a ball will pop his face. Many characters are super weird and fit perfectly in this world. The game is broken down in an episodic-like structure. Each day between the start and finish to this game will have basically a "conflict of the day" type break down. All are very strange, all are pretty fun with one over-arcing story connecting them (you're in a tournament to try and find the best dodgeball team at the school). From trying to stop a computer invasion to discovering a secret school cult that's against round balls (with chants of "down with the radius"), each day there will be something new thrown at you that you'll probably not see coming. It doesn't all connect perfectly outside of "isn't this all so strange?" but even when you get to an episode with a story that isn't that great, you move on pretty quickly for it to really overstay its welcome. Not surprising, the general gameplay of Dodgeball Academia focuses on the game of dodgeball. The mechanics and feel of the actual games feels good. It's all pretty by-the-book, you can throw, catch, swap team members, jump, and use special attacks. You'll also be able to focus your special meter and build up your special attack in a Dragonball-esque way. The variety comes from the amount of enemies you'll be facing, the stages differing, even the ways you throw the ball or catch will differ from people you face and even people you can use on your team. For instance, not everyone will be able to catch the ball, some have a counter ability that knocks the ball back at you or your enemy. Some throws will be fast, some will be thrown up in a big arc, others might even come at you or your enemies in a spinning rotation. It makes the gameplay harder and more rewarding by making the people you're facing unpredictable in how to counter or dodge. Even the dodgeballs themselves will make for differences. You'll run into regular balls, balls that set you or your enemies on fire, balls that stick you to the floor like gum, or slow your movement down. It never gets too difficult which is good but because of the stun/knockdown mechanics of this game, sometimes you can find yourself going from full health and dominating to getting pelted by a volley of dodge balls and suddenly near death. You'll have equipment you can buy or find though to help make your characters better for a given situation, so if you find yourself going up against a lot of freezing balls, you can buy and equip something to help prevent your movement from slowing. Or items to help you recover health after a battle is over or after causing damage to your enemies. Every new day will pop up new random battles that you can choose to do. Some of course are unavoidable as you progress through the main story but you can avoid some if you want to, though these random battles are a lot like Pokemon trainer battles where when they see you, you're fighting so you have to be pretty careful if you're trying to avoid some. After every battle your team will gain experience, money and sometimes items. Each character gains experience regardless if they were used which is nice and each will eventually gain new abilities or improve their abilities. Whether it makes charging up your special bar faster, making your special attacks have a bigger radius, or just give you improved strength/health/etc. Your typical RPG stuff really. I could keep going with this game really as there's a lot to unpack and talk about but this review is long enough as is. Overall, Dodgeball Academia is just a blast to play with a pretty out there and interesting story that fits with the world they've created (somehow). It's worth giving a shot for the sheer absurdity of a dodgeball anime type game. If any of that sounds interesting, give this game a download on Game Pass (writing this review as of 11/12/21 so might be gone if you're reading this for some reason in the future) and give it a shot, maybe it'll hook you like it hooked me.