At the heart of Super Dodge Ball Advance is, of course, the gameplay. Each team consists of seven players, three of which surround the opponent’s side of the court and four of which are inside the court on your side. You control whichever player has the ball, and you can choose to pass it to another one or your teammates or throw it at an opposing player. The meat of the gameplay lies in the variety of throws available to use. You can choose to make a normal throw at an opposing player (you choose which one by pressing the "R" button to toggle through them), or try to execute a special throw. There are over 50 special throws that behave in a variety of ways. Some special throws include one that circles your opponent overhead before dropping on them, a wide shot that throws the ball in five smaller pieces, or throwing it with such velocity that it’ll pound the opponent you’re aiming at plus any other player in the line of fire. If the person being thrown at doesn’t either catch (using the "B" button) the ball or dodge it (using the "A" button), it will hit them and do damage to them. The amount of damage it does depends on the type of throw you perform, with harder throws (naturally) doing more damage. Once a player runs out of hit points, they die and float up into the sky as an angel. The team with the last player standing wins the match.

That's basically all there is to the gameplay, and on a whole it’s fairly simplistic. There are a couple of factors that add variety to the game however. Much like a soccer game, before the match you can assign one of several preset formations your team will use to govern their behavior throughout the match. Each member of each computer-controlled team will also control differently depending on their personality, resulting in some variety in throws and behavior throughout the game.

Yet, despite these factors the gameplay itself remains fairly bland. After a couple of matches gameplay becomes repetitive, and at any difficulty it’s fairly easy to master. The computer AI is predictable, and often falls into the exact same patterns of offense and defense throughout the match. The two-player mode helps to alleviate this problem (since you play against an unpredictable human and not the computer), but as a single-player experience it’s lacking the refinement found in other GBA launch titles. No doubt old Dodge Ball fans will eat it up, but it doesn’t really hold up well in this day and age.

The graphics are pretty nice. Arenas are found throughout the world, and do a good job of representing the stereotypical settings one would think each would. Player models all look really sharp and fairly detailed, although this time they now look much younger then their predecessors, which may turn off fans of the series. On the whole, the graphics do a good job of bringing a cartoon feel to the action, even if they are a bit simplistic.

There really isn’t a whole lot in the sound department to talk about. Sound effects are sparse, with only a few different ones to accompany various on-screen actions. The music is very good though, with a nice upbeat feel that helps to set the mood for the frantic gameplay. Atlus also did a good job of making it loud and crisp, making it one of the better sounding GBA titles thus far.

Overall, Super Dodge Ball Advance is a decent GBA game that a lot of gamers will enjoy more than I did. While the gameplay tends to become repetitive during extended gameplay sessions, in short bursts it’s one of the better playing GBA launch titles.