As I may have mentioned in the past, I play dodgeball. It’s a schoolyard “sport” that I have carried with me into my mid-twenties and will hopefully carry on beyond that.

There’s something about the competitiveness, coupled with the frantic nature of the game that make it truly enjoyable no matter what age you are. It’s those same aspects of the game that publisher YUKES is hoping to capture in their upcoming Xbox Live Arcade release “Double D Dodgeball.”

Developed at YUKES’ Yokohama studio as a break from their standard fare of THQ wrestling titles, “Double D Dodgeball” is set to offer gamers a slightly different take on the video game version of the sport.

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I’m usually not one to brag, but I’m a pretty good dodgeball player.

I may not be an expert, but I play in a NYC co-ed charity league, and my team won the championship last season. To boot, I spent many hours of my youth playing “Super Dodgeball” on the NES. And I don’t think there’s been a good dodgeball video game since Techno’s original release.

So when I heard there was going to be a sequel to “Super Dodgeball” released for the DS, I felt obligated to take it for a test run and see how it compared to the real thing.

While I couldn’t help but enjoy “Super Dodgeball Brawlers,” there were more than a few differences between it, and the real thing. Read more…

“I can’t believe that having said what I said was interpreted as having been what I said when I said it, because I said it where I said it, when I said it, and who I said it to,” renowned boxing promoter Don King reputedly once said.

With that in mind, here are some more words of wisdom from Mr. King, since we just couldn’t fit all his phrases in our interview about his new video game “Prizefighter.”

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Ladies, forget “Sex and the City.”

Now there’s Wii Sports Boxing… and the city.

Last night, Nintendo invited women around the Big Apple to participate in a “Wii Sports Boxing in the City” competition (similar to last year’s Wiimbledon). The event was held at a bar and restaurant located in midtown Manhattan, and Nintendo touted it as a chance for females “to throw a virtual punch or two while unwinding from a long day at work.”

Seven women. One free Wii. Fourteen furious fists.

Click below to see images of the event, and who ultimately was crowned the “Wii-nner” (sorry).

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A man once said, “If you didn’t have Don King, you’d have to invent him.” And the man who said that? Er, that was Don King.

The legendary boxing promoter came around to tell us (actually, more like yell at us) about his new video game “Don King Presents Prizefighter” by 2K Sports, in stores this week. Watch the video interview to learn just why “there’ve been many boxers to enter the ring, but there’s only one King.”

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This aquatic entry comes courtesy of our very own vice president of MTV News, Ocean MacAdams…

This weekend, I was working the MTV Movie Awards in Los Angeles, and decided to take a break and headed over to the EB Games at the Universal Citywalk.

As I usually do when I’m in LA, I had just gone for a pre-work surf session (the less said about my wave skills the better) and was thinking — “maybe I should get a surfing video game.”

In the back of my closet, I have a copy of “Transworld Surf,” and back in the day I played a few satisfying hours of “Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer.” But when I started to look, I realized that except for a “Surfs Up” movie tie-in, I could not find any surfing games.

What gives?

A quick Google search confirmed my suspicion. In fact, I could only find two other surfing games ever made: “Sonny Garcia Surfing” and “Surfing H30″ from Rockstar Games. None of these games are available for Wii, Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3.

I know that surfing isn’t as popular as football or bass fishing, but at least as many people surf as snowboard. Hell, if I can buy a ping-pong game, I should be able to buy a surfing game.

I can only imagine previous attempts haven’t sold well. I certainly see the argument of “well, all you do is stand on a wave — where’s the fun in that?” But I think most people would have the said the same thing about skateboarding before they played “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater.”

Any thoughts from the Multiplayer community on the lack of surfing games?

Nintendo’s “Wii Fit” gives gamers a chance to turn the Wii Balance Board sideways and treat it like a snowboard, but it’s publisher Ubisoft that is backing the first game that makes such a feature its focus.

I was given a demo of the Wii version of “Shaun White Snowboarding” at a Ubisoft event in San Francisco, one of the first games I’ve seen controlled by the Balance Board.

If a player used the Wii Balance Board, they stand on the board as they would a snowboard and then lean toward the TV to go faster, lean back to brake, and tip their weight to their toes and heels to turn and carve. From what I saw, tricks could be activated with a spring of the legs, and bigger tricks could be triggered with a hula dance shake of the body.

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Electronic Arts has consistently proven to be a surprising innovator on Wii. “Madden NFL 08″ stumbled a bit, but the developers’ Family Play initiative, designed to revamp “Madden” for a more casual crowd, was a step in a promising new direction.

A few weeks ago, EA announced an all-new sub-brand for EA Sports, entitled Freestyle, alongside an evolution of their Family Play interface philosophies designed for Wii: All-Play.

“The Freestyle brand is aimed at those gamers who are looking to enjoy the ‘lighter side of sports,’ regardless of what platform they play on,” said EA Sports senior director of brand marketing Reg Hamlett in an e-mail interview with MTV Multiplayer. “The brand houses games hinged on the suspension of the traditional rules of sports.”

Arcade-styled boxing game “Facebreaker” arrives under the Freestyle moniker this fall. And while Freestlye isn’t just for Wii, it certainly seems most apt for Wii, especially since both initiatives were announced the same day.

But what makes All-Play so different?

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Yesterday’s announcement of the return of “Tecmo Super Bowl” in the form of “Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff” for the DS was a long time coming. And it sparked several questions that a Tecmo spokesperson answered for me overnight.

First of all, I’m told that this game isn’t a new 3D re-invention. It’s a classic 2D game.

I’ve also learned that the game won’t include any NFL teams or players, due to EA having the licenses locked up. It won’t include retired players either, and that includes “Tecmo Super Bowl” icon Bo Jackson.

The teams in the new DS game will be aligned with the cities from the original “Tecmo Bowl,” with a few added to bring the team count to 32. “Although the team names are not NFL, we picked names that fit with the original spirit of ‘Tecmo Bowl,’” the company rep told me. Customization features will let players change the team names.

So what should gamers make of this new game? Is it a port? A sequel? Something else?

Take it away, Tecmo rep:

“‘Kickoff’ is based on the most popular (and everyone’s favorite) ‘Tecmo Super Bowl’ and is not a completely original, new game. However, there are a host of new features in this upcoming version that were not included or were not possible in the earlier versions of ‘Tecmo Bowl,’ such as customization, stylus control, super-abilities, Wi-Fi and wireless multiplayer. For those who remember and have been itching to play ‘Tecmo Super Bowl,’ there is no need to bring out the old home consoles – this game is the one you want to play with friends and with your kids.”

***

I never even played “Tecmo Super Bowl.” (Sorry James!) So tell me, long-time fans, do you like what you’re reading here?

After more than a year of teasing, Tecmo has finally confirmed that “Tecmo Super Bowl” is coming back as “Tecmo Super Bowl: Kickoff” for the Nintendo DS this fall.

[Correction: The game does not include the word "super" in the title. My mistake.]

The announcement of this game has already caused one yell of excitement elsewhere in the MTV News newsroom, which is part of the reason I’m blogging about it now.

Here are some of the official press release details on the game, which is said to be based on “the most popular Tecmo Super Bowl”:

“Tecmo Bowl: Kickoff” brings a host of new features that will further enhance the gameplay experience, including:

· Customizable Teams: Choose team colors, emblems, player names, team cities and abilities.

· Super Abilities: Tactically use over-the-top plays to take over a game.

· Wi-Fi and Wireless Multiplayer: Play against friends across the country or across the room.

· Stylus Control: Feel the action by using the stylus to control your player.

· Variety of Teams: Choose from 32 different teams.

· Cut-Scenes: All-new cut-scenes showing off the dramatic presentation of various plays.

· Customizable Playbook: Prepare for gridiron greatness by customizing your playbook.

· Music and Sound Effects: Turn up the heat on your opponent as you play the game to rock ‘n’ roll remixes of the most memorable tunes in football gaming history!

In this week’s special Multiplayer series, I spoke with different black professionals working in the game industry.

First, Newsweek’s N’Gai Croal talked from a game journalist’s point of view. Then “Tomb Raider” producer Morgan Gray shared his thoughts from the game development side at a major studio.

Today, Brian Jackson, creative design director at urban-focused upstart Nerjyzed Entertainment, gave me his perspective on working in the industry. I first met the industry veteran, who’s worked at EA, Microsoft and Bethesda Softworks, at a GDC roundtable called “What Would a Black, Latin or Caribbean Game Really Look Like?”

When we spoke on the phone several weeks later, he talked about why he and his company decided to make “BCFX – Black College Football: The Xperience“:

“I feel that the other football games that were out there just put out a quality football game. As far as I could tell, they didn’t want to go in any deeper than just a football game and the things that are associated with a football game, like managing stuff that’s within the realm of playing the football game. With ‘BCFX,’ we actually made the halftime show into a mini-game. … If you looked at the way that the schools in our game were portrayed in other video games, how they didn’t really capture the essence and the spirit of black college football. … At a HBCU game, when you’re playing your rival, if you actually lose the game but your band is better then your rival’s band, you actually feel as though you’ve won the game.”

Read on to see learn more about Nerjyzed’s vision, why Jackson doesn’t like Jar-Jar Binks and how he almost created a hip-hop fighting game before any of the Def Jam titles.

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What happens when you take the timed sequences of “God of War” and “Elite Beat Agents” and put them into a basketball game?

You get Midway’s new title “NBA Ballers: Chosen One.”

I had the opportunity to check out the up-coming street ball game last month in a VIP room at Jay-Z’s 40/40 Club. “Chosen One” steps away from its more ambitious, open world-style predecessor “Phenom” and focuses more on the sport of basketball itself. Although there still are different levels of lifestyle customization (character, clothing, and pro-wrestling-esque entrances) the focus of the game has been brought back to the court.

One of the ways the developers decided to do that is to evolve the games’ combo system. What fans of the “Ballers” series have come to know as the humorous, streetball-inspired “Act-a-Fool” moves can now be strung together, powering up your players’ “Shut ‘Em Down” game-ending super moves. The combo-stringing system struck me as a really interesting implementation of the quicktime event sequences that were made famous by the “God of War” series. The team tweaked the visual display to give the player a sense of urgency as well, reminiscent of the shrinking circles in Nintendo’s “Elite Beat Agents.” For example, when facing the player defending you, you can initiate the “Act-a-Fool” combo by pressing L1 and circle (on the PS3). From there, the player is prompted on screen to press a certain string of randomized buttons, each of which will add to the combo and cause the baller to perform an additional “Act-a-Fool” move.

I inquired about how it’s decided which string of buttons a player can expect to press, and was told that there are different sets depending on the player’s position. Centers have the possibility of stringing together only three moves, whereas guards can perform up to a five-move combo. Once the combo sequence is initiated, the buttons that are chosen to are generated randomly by the game; button-mashing will invalidate your turn.

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