Gamers who judge Double D Dodgeball by its title will be misled by their assumption that it could potentially be an entertaining game.  Double D Dodgeball is a game that doesn’t have one redeeming feature and suffers from a lack of depth in its gameplay.

Having a retro look, Double D Dodgeball is played from an over-the-top view with minimal 2D graphics applied to the package.  The “characters” in the game basically resemble what you could expect from a Space Invaders title.  The graphics are appalling by any measure.  Many XBLA remakes of retro titles of yesteryear amount to be better looking than Double D Dodgeball.

Using the basic characters presented on the screen, players will have their team throwing against the opposition in hopes to knock them out.  There are two set of rules to oblige to: Eastern and Western dodgeball rules.  Western rules have players adhering to the basic structure of sitting out after your hit until your teammates hits a member of the opposing team.  For the Eastern rules, players sitting out are eligible to roam around the opposing team’s outfield and attempt to get their own knock outs to re-enter the fray.  If those two sets aren’t to your satisfaction then players can customize the rules to their own liking.

For the structure of the game, players can choose their character types for their team.  They are generic and dreadfully named, but even with that said, here’s a listing of what you can expect from Double D Dodgeball: The “Shooter” is able to throw faster but moves slower, “the Runner” is the best at dodging, the “Catcher” is good at catching (who would’ve guessed?) and lastly, there’s the “Normal” player who is the all-around type of player. It’s as if they hired a third-grader to do the hard work of naming their characters in the game.

Outside of that, players will have the ability to pick up four different ball types including: Normal, Fast, Heavy, and Glass.  This isn’t to say that the ball types help make the game entertaining because it’s exactly the opposite.  Even the eight arenas they provided become drudgingly boring.

Within a competitive game in Double D Dodgeball, you control one character on the screen while the computer AI manages the rest.  The thumbsticks allow for movement while the right trigger allows players to catch and throw balls.  This is the basic controller layout of the game and shouldn’t take players long to overwhelm the easy computer AI.

Lastly, the Xbox Live multiplayer should have been named ‘Lag Mode’ as the experience online is horrible.  Both ranked and unranked matches were compromised of lag-laden matches.  There’s truly nothing fun that comes out of this overall weak Xbox Live Arcade title.

Gameplay: 3.5

Throwing balls back and forth becomes monotonous after ten minutes.

Graphics: 3.0

Just one look is needed to see how “retro” (if you must call them that) the graphics are.

Sound: 4.0

Everything you should expect from a budget title – basic sound effects and background music.

Difficulty: Easy

Players should be able to wipe the floor clean of the computer AI in no time.

Concept: 5.0

Although the idea of a dodgeball game is commendable, Double D Dodgeball will not bring back fond memories from your elementary classes.

Multiplayer: 2.5

The Xbox Live portion barely works and it might be hard to even find friends who’ll want to play more than one match.

Overall: 3.1

The game is boring in all fronts: graphics, gameplay, audio, etc.  There’s not many redeeming values packed into Double D Dodgeball so the best advice is to play the demo and call it good.