Can you honestly say you didn’t see this collaboration coming? (And we don’t mean the one between publisher Gamecock and indie developer Blazing Lizard.) Ninjas. Pirates. Dodgeball. One battle to settle the score...But despite the gimmick, there really is a full-fledged, arcade-style dodgeball game lurking within Pirates vs. Ninjas Dodgeball.

Multiplayer ball-dodging can take place online or off-, with up to eight players facing off in head-to-head mode over Xbox Live (four-person co-op is also included) or four on a couch. But aside from the prospect of eye-patches versus katanas, you’ll have the chance to choose your team from the zombie and robot populace, as well as one as-yet-unrevealed team-type.

With the ability to sprawl freely across open-courts, Gamecock is pushing the idea of actual combat moves for each character as a way to secure the win in a match. Basically, if you’re playing as a robot, you’ll be able to fire off deathrays; if zombies are more your bag, then imagine tossing bones at opponents to briefly stun them. Honestly, is there really any concept of fairness when you’re playing as the undead or a dodgeballing pirate? We think not. And the basic goofiness of PvND capitalizes more on wackiness than on straightforward, restrictive rules-based gameplay.

And anyone who guesses monkeys to be that last unrevealed team-type? Well, great minds think alike. Here’s a banana.