Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball (Wii game review)

We had a lot of fun reviewing the new Wii game we got to review: Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball. We had a great time picking out our character for the team we wanted to represent. We had a few different options (male and female) to choose from. We could be on the Alien, Robot, Mushroom Men, Zombie, Ninja, Monster or Pirates team. I think the Ninjas are the most fun to play, but my son loves the Pirates. You also get to choose your arena that you will be competing in. Then, you get to decide if you want to play the original Dodgeball, or Dodge Brawl. In Dodge Brawl, you get to fight and beat up your opponent while trying to knock them out. There are no sides on the court, it is a free-for-all approach. There are special attack moves that the players can use to take their opponents down.

The original Dodgeball is similar to the traditional sport. There are three of your own team mates on the out of bounds on your opponents side. You can throw the ball to your team mates out there, to make the opponents unsure of what your moves will be. Your player has a health bar and a stamina bar. The health bar is a limited time frame you have for your play. You don't get knocked out of the game with the first hit, but you get to play as long as your health bar is up. It really depends on how often you are hit, and also how hard you take the blow. Your stamina bar is your ability to perform special moves and throwing/dodging of the ball. I had a hard time figuring out the special moves. So far with our game play, we have just seen the fire ball throw. I am not sure if there are more special moves or not.

The controls can be a bit challenging to get use to, I thought. However, my son and husband didn't have a hard time picking it right up. You need to use the Wii remote and the nunchuck for play. You actually throw the dodgeball by throwing your Wii remote forward like you are throwing. You can also push certain buttons to dodge the ball or move out of the way. You have to push a button to catch the ball, but not to throw it.

I really liked that this game offers two ways to play: single play mode and multi player mode. This makes it nice to either play alone, and be challenged by the computer, and you can play with one, up to three, other people in the multi-play mode. It is so fun playing this game with my son and husband.

One thing that I think this game would be fun to offer is special attack modes and unique skills that each team player could possess. It would be fun if each player had a special weapon or skill that they each did, and for us (the game players) to find out what their special skill would be.

Overall, I think this game is a lot of fun, and it is a great game geared toward the tween to teen age kids. We have fun with it as adults, though, too. This game has an ESRB content rating of E for everyone (ages 10 and up).


This game is produced from SouthPeak games. For more information you can check out their website: SouthPeak Games.com.