Super Dodge Ball, released in Japan as Nekketsu Koukou Dodgeball Bu (熱血高校ドッジボール部, Nekketsu Koukou Dojjibooru Bu, lit. "Hot-Blooded High School Dodgeball Club") is a dodgeball-based sports game produced by Technos Japan Corp. originally released as an arcade game in 1987. In Japan, it was the second game starring Technos Japan's video game character Kunio-kun, following Nekketsu Kouha Kunio-kun (the Japanese version of Renegade), although the connection between the two games was removed in the western release. Various home versions and sequels of the game have been released for various platforms.

The Japanese version features an opening sequence which parodies the pre-stage introductions of Kunio-kun which depicts Kunio being struck by a dodge ball thrown by a passing thug and his teammates chasing after said thug. The American teams of Dallas and Chicago were originally the Japanese teams of Nekketsu High School and Hanazono High School, while the final match was actually against U.S. team themselves. The characters' skin tones and hair colors were changed accordingly in the Western version to reflect this.

The NES version of Super Dodge Ball was released in 1988, although it is not an exact port. It featured several differences such as special moves and full stats for individual team members, two additional teams (India and U.S.S.R.), and a "Bean Ball" mode. The soundtrack featured stage music appropriate for each country depicted in the game. The Japan-only X68000 version, an exact port of the arcade release, was released on September 1988. It added stereo music and parallax scrolling, as well as a cheat code that increases the character variations. The PlayStation 2 version, released in Japan on January 26, 2006, was published by Hamster as part of the Ore-tachi no Gēsen Zoku series. It is an emulation of the original arcade game.

This game was also ported to the PC Engine in 1990, named Nekketsu Koukou Dojjibooru Bu: PC Bangai Hen (熱血高校ドッジボール部 PC番外編, lit. "PC-Edition"). This Japan exclusive version featured a mixture of arcade version and Famicom version.

In 2020, the Famicom version was translated in Double Dragon & Kunio-kun Retro Brawler Bundle as Nekketsu High School Dodge Ball Club, with the original story and characters.

Images [ edit ]

American promotional flyer

Famicom box

Localized box

American title screen

Japanese title screen

PC-Engine title screen