0 to Z of Playstation 1 Games - All-Star Slammin' D-ball

  

All-Star Slammin' D-ball the North American title is a Dodgeball themed sports released on the Playstation 1, also known as Simple 1500 Series Vol. 76: The Dodge Ball in Japan and  Super Slammin' Dodgeball in Europe, the game was developed by Access and published by Agetec in North America with D3 and Midas Interactive handling the Japanese and European releases.

The games first released in North America and Japan in October of 2001, two years later on the 2^nd of May 2003 the game would finally release in Europe. The game would also get a later release in 2010 on the PSP and PS3 and two years later on the Vita.

All-Star Slammin' D-ball is an arcade style simulation of favourite wet weather P.E game Dodgeball, with two teams facing off against each other, with 4 players on each team on the infield and an additional 3 players form each team on the outfield the aim knock out all your opponents infield players.

The obvious aim of the game knock out each of the opposing team players using either a normal short or a powered shot,  there is a catch mechanic in the game. The game features two modes a single game mode for either one or two players and a tournament mode.

This is a budget Dodgeball title released late in the Playstation 1’s life cycle no story or story mode present

Even with this being a late Playstation 1 release we do have some critic reviews for it, with reviews ranging from above average to abysmal. As always though we will start with the best which comes from PSX Nation, who found the game a little dated, or very dated comparing the graphics to the NES days, as well as the midi style soundtrack, they did however praise the fun you can have in the 2 player mode in their 71/100 review.

GameShark had not trouble in calling the Playstation 1 a dead console in their 63/100 review, and your only hope now is find a game that will keep your interest for a few hours, and D-Ball will do that they concluded. GameZone in their 57/100 review were critical of the lack of content with their review conclusion starting you would be able to buy the game, sit down and finish it in about 15 minutes.

French publication Jeuxvideo.com scored the game at a 30/100 concluding, this is not a terrible game and is sold at a low price, however the game wouldn’t keep your attention for over an hour, even with another player the gameplay will become very boring quickly.

This however was not the lowest rated review this game received that honour goes to XenGamers who gave the game a 0/100 with their review conclusion reading. The fact of the matter is that I'd be exaggerating if I said I’d found even the stalest morsel of enjoyment out of playing All-Star Slammin' D-Ball.

This is the part of 0 to Z where is visit five online retailers and see what the availability of the title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this title up, the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com,  eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very location specific, but from a podcast I listen to I’ve heard they have a huge stock of older games, I will also be including Ebay.com as well

So lets get down to business with Gamedude, where the trade in price is laughable if you are looking to trade in your copy don’t expect anything more than 5 cents. If you are in the market for a copy of this game from Gamedude you can expect to play $2.

Moving to Retrogames.co.uk who sadly don’t stock this title neither do eStarland.com, so we head to Amazon.com next who have plenty of copies of the game available with prices starting at $4.49 for a like new copy, this also comes with free shipping as well.

That converts to £3.51 in the UK, in the Euro zone countries you will be looking at a total of €3.80 while in Thailand a copy will set you back 149.65 Thai Baht, please be aware these are only guide prices and shipping charges may apply to your country.

New copies of the game a pretty cheap as well with a brand new copy priced up as low as $6.50 prices do get much higher though, with new copy prices currently reaching a high of $29.99, there are however plenty of options available to get a much better deal than that.

Heading to the co.uk version of Amazon for the European version, and we find very few copies of the game available, the few that are however are pretty cheaply priced. A very good quality used copy of the game can be picked up for £3.19 and comes with free delivery. A new copy is also available for a few pence short of £8.

Now to Ebay.com and again I will be setting my location to the UK, the first copy of the game that is available is a disc and manual copy of the game, which is priced at $2.50 this comes with free shipping. There is a Japanese version of the game for sale  this copy ships from the United States, and is priced at $10.95 with a hefty shipping fee of $13.00.

Another European copy of the game, this is a complete copy and ships from the UK and is priced at $4.77 and comes with free shipping, this is a good condition copy of the game. Another couple of copies of the game are available but the shipping costs knock the price well beyond what this game is worth.

  

Written by

P J Gibbon