Anyone who played any beloved third-party NES game:
Oh, that's cute! 😏
Edit: Just so we're clear, I'm poking fun here, I like Demon/Dark Souls just fine.
but waay too many games get compared to them as though they're the first game with ball-retracting difficulty, lmao.
That's some Tecmo charm alright. Probably part of the kunio game set that got broken up into a million pieces over here with different names.
For instance, there was also Super Dodge Ball that was hilariously violent and could be really tough. The computer, at least two of the teams, knew frame timing so well and had the ability to not only decimate your team, but could get the ball to return to them and just go ham on you until you were eliminated if you messed up even once.
I think it was adapted from an old arcade soccer game they made under their former company name, tekhan.