As seasoned dodgeball professionals over here at Nintendo Life, we're well aware that the most important aspect in creating a successful video game based on this king of sports is nailing the sound that a ball makes as it smashes powerfully into the face and/or body of your opponent. It really needs to get that springy, rubbery, wince-inducing "thwack!" just right and, we're happy to report, Knockout City does just that. This is a quick, slick and colourful team-based arcade sports game that gets the basics right, builds on them with some neat tweaks and twists and serves up some excellent and addictive action as a result.
If you're the type of player who tends to shy away from online competitive action, not one for the constant deaths, steep learning curves, lengthy match times or complex meta of many of the currently popular squad-based offerings, this bright and breezy effort could well be something worth dipping your toes into. Getting started, having a measure of success and, most importantly, enjoying yourself in Knockout City really is as simple as picking up a dodgeball and throwing it. It's clear that Velan Studios — the developer behind Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit — has thought long and hard about how to make this one accessible on a very basic level and the decisions they've made have paid off handsomely here.
Jumping into Knockout City for the first time you'll be guided through an easy-to-follow tutorial that walks you through everything you need to know, from how to move around and throw and catch balls to more 'complex' stuff like lob shots, curveballs, perfect catches and team passing. Picking up a ball and nailing an opponent or catching an incoming shot really couldn't be simpler though and that's all the info you really need to begin having some success. By just walking into a ball here you'll grab it from its spawn point, holding in 'ZR' locks to your nearest enemy and releasing sees an auto-tracked shot make its way to your chosen target — you don't even need to aim. Catching an enemy's attempt to nail you in return is as easy as watching out for a red indicator around the edges of your screen that means you're being targeted and then timing a press of 'ZL' to catch the ball as it arrives. That's really all there is to it, and with that you're free to blast around the game's five arenas, chucking balls at skulls and racking up points for the win.
Of course for those who want to excel — to form clans and climb the league leaderboards (once they go online) — there are layers here, with a surprising amount of depth to work with and lots of clever ways to turn the tide in your team's favour and emerge victorious as the true kings of pinging people right in the face. The five Splatoon-esque levels currently available in Knockout City are all about verticality and environmental hazards, you see, and as such your 1950s greaser-style avatars can jump, spin, dodge, flip, sprint and even glide around arenas, giving you lots in the way of options as you duck and dive out of harm's way or get up close and personal with your opponents.
Dodging, by holding a direction and pressing 'Y', doubles up as a nifty way to deflect an incoming enemy shot and also serves as a means to tackle opponents, knocking them back several feet and opening up the possibility of chucking them down the nearest lift shaft or off a skyscraper for an instant kill and points on the board. Spinning and flipping by pressing 'A' or 'X' can be combined with 'ZR' for lob and curved shots that help your balls around obstacles and clicking in the right stick performs a fake throw, helping you to screw with an opponent's timings as they attempt to make a catch.
Some of the real fun here though is in rolling yourself up into a ball, or having your teammates do the same, offering yourselves up to one another as projectiles. It's a hilarious mechanic — a really clever idea — but it also has huge tactical benefits. A normal shot with a regular ball will take two successful hits to KO an opponent, whereas using a teammate grants you an instant kill. It's a pivotal aspect to the game and one that successful teams will know how to use at the right time to gain the upper hand. You can also hold in the throw button when in possession of a teammate in order to perform an ultimate shot, tossing them high into the air where they take control of their own descent and land back down in an explosion capable of taking out multiple enemies at once.
Further to all of this is passing between your crew, an element of the game that's being sorely underused at this early stage. For every pass you make to a teammate you automatically gain a level of charge to the ball being passed around, meaning that when you fire it, it travels that little bit faster. Pass it around a few times between your team — up to a maximum of six tiers of charge — and you've got yourself a venomous shot that's all but impossible to successfully catch. Of course catching itself comes into play here, too, and making a perfectly timed catch of an opponent's shot instantly super-charges the ball, giving you a hot rocket to serve right back into their faces.
Obviously, with the amount of strategy you can build into your game through all these little tricks and mechanics, playing against a good team here (a crew who are properly versed in the dark arts of dodgeball) can see you get absolutely rinsed and this is something that's happened to us on a few occasions when placed in a team of randoms where people just point-blank refuse to engage with stuff like team throwing and passing. However, get a few friends together and communicate effectively or even just use the basic emotes included in the game to shout for passes and throws when playing with strangers, and a lot of this potential frustration can be quite easily avoided.
Honestly, if all of this sounds a little complicated, it's really not. Just getting stuck in with the most rudimentary knowledge here is all you need and these extra mechanics and fancy bits and pieces naturally fall into place as you keep blasting away through rounds that feel perfectly paced; short and exciting little matches that have rarely failed to see us screaming at our screens with joy so far. The five stages on offer at launch are an excellent bunch, too, nice and compact with plenty of verticality and a range of fun environmental bits and bobs, from jump-pads to rotating burger joints, busy freeways where you can hop from car to car, tubes that suck you instantly across arenas and a building site built around a great big neon wrecking ball.
In terms of modes, well, Knockout City does arrive in a pretty barebones fashion in this regard, with the classic 3v3 Team KO easily the star of the show so far. Here you duke it out in a best of three rounds format with ten points winning a round, making for delightfully quick and action-packed matches. At this stage you've also got 3v3 Diamond Dash (which requires you to collect a KO'd opponent's diamond in order to fully secure points), a Party TKO mode (which plays with special balls only - a change that replaces the default game's smart strategy with all-out madness), and a 1v1 face off mode (for hard-nut loners). Those special balls that feature in Party mode also appear in vanilla Team KO matches and, for us, this is where they work best, with the odd sniper, moon or bomb ball adding a little variety and spice to proceedings when used sparingly, rather than the complete havoc that results from them being the only option, as is the case in Party TKO.
Rising through the ranks as you play matches in any mode sees you gain XP and unlock a steady flow of slick cosmetics — happily there are no unlockables that affect your core abilities or powers — and you'll even be awarded with the in-game currency, Holobux, (which can also be purchased with real money) to spend in the store on outfits, hairstyles, emotes and all that stuff. There are lots of daily objectives to complete for extra XP, with a Block Party event currently dishing out rewards over the game's launch period and, overall, Knockout City just feels like it's really hit the ground running. Sure, there's not a ton of modes on offer so far but, with more stages and game types incoming, including league play and a 4v4 mode, what's currently available is certainly more than enough to hook us in for now, and considering there's a free ten-day trial on all platforms, there's really no reason not to jump in and see how you like this one for yourself.
With regards to performance on Switch, Velan Studios has also managed to deliver the goods here. The textures may have been reduced down a little from other versions of the game but, flicking between this port and our Xbox version, there really aren't any stand-out differences or concessions aesthetically, the colourful mash-up of Fortnite and Splatoon's graphical stylings successfully making the transition to Nintendo's hybrid console. In fact, we'd go so far as to say being able to play this one in portable makes the Switch version the go-to way to play Knockout City. There's also an option to switch between quality and performance modes, allowing you to dial back the graphics in order to raise the framerate from a rock solid 30fps to 60fps. We've tried both and, although it's nice to have the option of 60fps, we have to say we prefer the quality/30fps option as visually things get pretty ropey in performance mode.
With cross-progression and cross-play across all available systems also included from the get-go, Knockout City really does seem to have positioned itself well for plenty of future success and, even as things stand in terms of a slight lack of modes at this early stage in the game's life, we can't help but be hugely impressed thus far. This is one slapstick arcade sports effort that players of every skill level should check out ASAP.
Conclusion
Knockout City is an absolute blast, a colourful arcade sports game that's easy to jump into for newbies with plenty of depth and strategy for crews looking to become the ultimate dodgeball champions. With four modes and five stages currently on offer, tons of unlockable cosmetics, daily challenges and cross-play/cross-progression included from the get-go, this one has hit the ground running and there's absolutely no reason not to jump into the free trial and see how you fare.
Comments 56
Wow, that really is an impressive game right there
Now I'll really have to try the demo, lol
Well, that's a stamp of approval I didn't expect.
I guess I'll have to try it now.
This game looks like it has more charm and thought put in to it than Fortnite or it's pretenders ever could have thought to have with it's smaller maps and no "ring of death" constantly corralling you in.
Might just give this a shot.
Like other said. This is unexpected. I am gonna check it out now.
Played it a bit at the weekend and it's a lot of fun, not sure it has legs at the moment though.
Wow a 9/10? that's unexpected, I thought this was just gonna be some generic Fortnite wannabe, maybe I'll ad it to the list
Unexpected and it looks splatoon folk should get into it. For my part I will stick with single player gaming.
The demo blew me away. Seriously considering a purchase.
I just wish they made it F2P to get more users. A game like this lives and does by its player base.
"Random folk who refuse to communicate" would describe me. I play games to run around and have a laugh. I like to lose all day long as long as the game is fun. Why I never play online games as people hate being on my team. Am I the only one?
> EA.
> Requires Origin Account.
> EA.
Going to pass repeatedly on this til the end of time.
Not shocked here, I downloaded it at the weekend and me and my son had a blast. Such a shame that EA made it, maybe if I only give them a small amount of money then that'll be okay!
@Paraka I didn't need an origin account to play the demo
Didn't expect such a high score, must be fun. Probably won't play it but cool nonetheless
Its a fun game but unless you enjoy getting smashed it's 100% required that you have a mic and communicate with your team.
I was playing on Xbox where its free as part of Gamepass and I used the Club Page to find Teams to play with which significant cut down on the frustration of playing with randoms.
Saying that there isn't a lot on offer and it gets boring after a few rounds as you just grind for cosmetics. I'm glad I haven't had to pay as Its not a game I can myself playing Longterm as it gets repetitive after a couple of hours.
As someone who is usually put off by these arena games, I must say that I’m hopelessly addicted to this one. It just feels so good to play. And even without voice chat, I’ve had some excellent moments of teamwork that, like the review says, are pretty easy to come by if you use the emotes. It’s just buckets of fun.
ALRIGHT! I will play it stop bothering me! EA is going to milk this series, and there then going to ruin it. (I hope not)
@dew12333 @Paraka And i didnt need one when I purchased the full game.
@Enigk no. I do the same thing lol.
I played it for a few hours and I'm hooked. no performance issues to speak of, minimal lag, great gameplay, colorful aesthetic just what I needed after getting sick of fortnite
@dew12333 @blockfight - Curious indeed, cause they were asking for mine and wouldn't let bypass the login if I didn't. Tried for about ten minutes before taking the hint I probably shouldn't.
Honestly this is no surprise, since EA seems to have a number on my Origins account after calling them out for their Sim City debacle YEARS ago. They even banned me from the LoL-clone they made before I even installed the beta they themselves invited me to.
Awesome, we had come a long way from Dodgeball on the NES.
The game is a lot of fun. Been playing the demo and I'll probably be buying the standard version after my 10 day trial.
Rip Torn voice: “If you can dodge a joy con....”
Kinda concerned the playerbase will fall off a cliff once the 10-day free trial concludes, but good the hear the game is a quality title. Velan Studios continues to show great potential.
@SoapMonkey
Agreed. I haven’t bought an EA game in a long time but it’s only because none have really appealed to me. I have an idea why the company is disliked, though. Bottom line, I downloaded the trial and it’s a blast. It feels fantastic to play, it’s great fun, and I’ve had no performance issues (except for one crash when starting up). It’s fun to the point that I’ll almost certainly buy it, but comments here are scaring me that they’ll be no one playing when the trial is over or that the game will be somehow ruined. That would be upsetting since this is a multiplayer game.
Oh, so it's not f2p, but it does have micro transactions (Are they at least cosmetic?)?
I think between Fortnite and Splatoon 2 (neither of which I have played recently), I'm fine.
Wow, talk about pleasantly surprised. This game looked dreadful during the Nintendo Direct, but sounds like it's actually quite good.
Still, come on EA, get Mass Effect trilogy on the platform.
Was just a tad interested in the game and gave it a shot to play with my brother who was loving it. It was really fun. I like the colorful art design and retro futuristic theme. Gameplay is simple to learn, but hard to master with some deep mechanics and strategic elements, like positioning and team work. Music is awesome as well.
I went ahead and purchased. The core gameplay loop is so fun to me that I can see myself putting tons of hours in this game, which will probably be worth the asking price. I wouldn’t worry about a losing player base after the free trial considering it’s cross platform and there’s nothing else similar to this type of game yet.
@Paraka I have an Origin account but didn't see an option to use it and didn't want to create another account with EA so gave up and uninstalled it.
Great game. Highly recommend. Hopefully people can look past their EA bias and just see if they enjoy it.
@TryToBeHopeful Yep, all the micro transactions are exclusively cosmetics. Feels very Rocket League, to me.
@TryToBeHopeful
This is my only issue and the reason why I don't want to play this game. Yes, other games have MTX but at the very least, games like Fortnite, Ninjala, and Apex Legends are completely free to play so they'll always have at least a few players.
Meanwhile, games like this that make you pay to get into it, and still have extra in-game purchases annoy me. This game should at least be free if they're going to offer such purchases.
It does look great, but without offline options I'm not interested.
@CodyMKW Would be funny if they surprise us and say oh hey we changed our mind and decided to make it free 2 play.
@UmbreonsPapa If you have an Xbox or PC you can test the Full Game with Game Pass Ultimate (or Game Pass for PC) as it is part of EA Play (first time a game gets added Day 1 there). if you only have Switch. Go for the Demo or watch a extended gameplay
@JR150 @UltimateInkling Technically "it is" if you are a EA Play or Game Pass user (which is a better offer than buying the game and the route most people will take to get this game). But yes, it should be free. But you know how Nintendo behaves with Free to Play titles on Switch (specially with EA after that backstab with the Wii U). The Switch Tax Exists (which is higher than normal on MTXs than games)
@blockfight This is a EA Origins title so technically EA is only publishing but the game is how the developers wanted
I'm actually happy this sounds like it's turned out great. Dodgeball is loads of fun. I'll have to check the demo out at some point.
@GrailUK hurry up, there's only a few days left of free play.
@JR150 this game should be free? The entitlement of some people.
I love dodgeball but I didn't know how good this game would be. I may give it a shot.
>EA
Well, there goes my interest.
Ive played a fair bit of it on ps5 and its meh.
Too bad nobody will be playing this after a year or so
@BaronMunchausen Nah I think the game will be fine. The gameplay is actually solid (and so original) and the price is decent. I think this game will have a good future. Maybe not as big as Splatoon but bigger than ARMS I'm sure. And if it turnes out EA will spoil the game (which I doubt) you will have already had your moneys worth as long as it lasted But to me it feels like a game thats been made with passion, therefore I feel good about it. Screw those negative pansies anyhow I'm buying the game!!
@BaronMunchausen the game is on GamePass for Xbox users and since its crossplay those people at least will always pad out the player base. But this game is reviewing so well and most people are loving it I can see it lasting a long time. €20 is very cheap too for a new game of this quality.
I had a go on Switch and have to agree, this game is a hoot and really well made.
@SoapMonkey
Well said!
@blockfight
Agreed!
No Princess Charm, no game for me.
This is a hot mess, strongly disagree with this "review"...I am done here. Bye
Keen to try this tonight on Switch and Xbox game pass. I feel I’ll probably enjoy for a few hours before going back to Rocket League but I hope I’m wrong and it hooks me for longer. Gameplay reminds me a little of Arms.
@Paraka I was thinking about this and I thought to myself that I have got a origin account that I set up years ago, I have also probably agreed for accounts to be linked with the nintendo account. I hope they don't talk to each other too much because then EA will realize that all my details I gave them were rubbish and were merely to get past something.
@dew12333 - That may be a case too, and with EA on some track record with me I just often keep my Origin "account" in a state of quarantine.
I hoped this would be good. I liked the original trailer but as usual the negative nelson brigade showed up with bells on...glad they were wrong (again).
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