Ah! Smashing kids' faces with balls, my favorite.
The game is, admittedly, a bit lacking in modes. Story Mode and Versus, that's all you get. And, disappointingly, Versus can't be played against CPUs. And it's a huge loss, because you can customize matches with special balls(Such as Fire or Ice balls, which hit with the corresponding elements, among others), special obstacles, such as CARS that you must avoid or what have you. Compounding to this is the fact the there isn't much of a post-game. You finish the game and that's it. No free battles, no nothing. And since I'm at it, the Story Mode has a rather neat variety of unique characters, but... many of them are unplayable. You gain access to six different characters throughout Story Mode, and upon finishing it you unlock another two for Versus Mode. But many cool looking characters remain unplayable, and they even get unique moves. And it's an issue 'cause the full character roster is so endearing!
The first thing you'll notice, upon booting up the game, is how GORGEOUS it looks. Characters are made to look and animate like modern cartoons, and these sprites are laid over 3-D backgrounds. It's very colorful, and incredibly charming. The story is very silly and it's pretty much played for laughs, at some point you even have to duke it out against a cult of Cubeball believers, and you even get to use cube-shaped balls. Are they even balls at that point? The entire game is set inside the Academy, giving it a cozy feel. On every chapter you'll be visiting different parts of the Campus to deal with whatever issue arose that day. There are sidequests too, clearly designated on the mini-map by blue icons.
Moving around the academy is very fun because you can press A to roll around, making you go faster. Just moving around feels very satisfying thanks to the rolling! The campus has various chests that you need to open, by throwing a ball at them, and they can contain healing items, equipment or items that permanently boost one of your stats, so exploration is well rewarded. The game borrows a bit from Pokemon, in that walking in front, or near, other dodgeballers(They are highlighted with a red exclamation mark, so that you can try to avoid them) will make them walk towards you and start a battle. A dodgeball battle. Your health isn't replenished from battle to battle, but you can use items or go to the Infirmary and get healed for free.
Regardless if you are facing enemies on Story Mode or playing against another player, matches are fought 3 on 3. Although Story Mode sometimes pits you against a single, but extra strong, player, or against more than 3 opponents, however, you'll always have a 3-man team at most. You move all three characters at the same time, but you can change who is in the lead with the ZL button.
Battles are pretty much like dodgeball, the field is divided in two halves, one for your team and another one for the other time. You can cross the line, but you'll be forced to slowly run backwards towards your field, limiting your options, until you get back to your field. The objective is to deplete every opponents' healthbar by smashing their heads in with balls. Matches can have up to five balls on the field at once, and you can carry all of them if you want, however, hoarding balls will cause them to shine red, eventually exploding and hurting you. Plus, you can only use the FOCUS ability if all the balls aren't on your court.
You can jump/dodge(Depending on the character), throw the balls or attempt to grab it or counterattack, depending on the character. This is one of the best things about the game, how they managed to give every character very different movesets. For instance, pressing the A button as some characters, like Otto or Ballooney, will have them attempt to catch the ball and keep it for themselves. Maya, however, will kick if you press A, acting as a counterattack. There's another character that also has a counter, but hers works by LETTING go of the button, as she charges a swing with her bat!
Characters have different Focus abilities too. For instance, Otto will charge the Super meter as long as you hold down the X button. However, holding it down for a while as Ballooney will restore a bit of health to his entire team. Maya, instead, increases the team's attack power. Alongside this, every character has a different super shot too, usable only when the Super gauge is full. Each character has their own Super gauge, so you can stock them waiting for the right moment. For example, Otto will shoot a giant fireball, Ballooney will create a healing pool, but Maya needs to have the most balls at hand since she gets one thunder per carried ball.
It gets even more interesting in Story Mode, since you can equip characters with two different items to better suit them for your playstyle, from simple stat boots, to stat boots depending on conditions(X% amount of health left, last player standing, health reduced to 1, etc) to Life Steal on hit among others. What's more, as your characters level up, they start getting passive upgrades. At first Otto has Fire on his charged shot, but eventually you can gain the fire effect on your basic attacks. Or even getting stronger if he is the last player standing, etc. You can change the pre-set level of characters when doing offline Versus matches too!
One thing I'd like to mention... the game removes party members twice, and at both points their equipped items get unequipped, which drove me bonkers.
That aside, if you couldn't tell... I loved this game. It does a LOT with very little, as the Academia isn't very large, however, every new chapter features a new wacky situation to solve. While there are few playable characters, they gave all of them different toolsets to differentiate them. It gave Flash Game vibes, in a good way, the cozy way, while also playing like a proper console game. It's honestly, fantastic, and I loved every second, so much so that I didn't avoid a single Encounter. If anything, not having offline VS CPU sucks, and having so many of the unique characters being unplayable is downright criminal considering how charming the entire cast of the game is!
9.0
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