RoboDunk Review

In my opinion, we don’t have enough basketball games on the market. When you think of the sports titles out there, there is always one big hitter within each sport, whether it’s NBA 2k, EAFC, PGA 2k, or so on. Unfortunately, their dominance doesn’t give other contenders a chance to achieve success. When I saw Robodunk I just knew I had to give it my time because looking from the outside in, I was getting NBA Jam vibes from the screenshots. The game has spent quite some time over on PC after launching in September 2023 and finally lands a slam dunk onto Xbox consoles. After quickly glancing and seeing a plethora of very positive reviews over on Steam I was excited to get my hands on this indie basketball/roguelite mash-up.

Basketball With A Mechanical Twist

This game instantly sent me back to 2003 and reminded me of a game called Redcard. It was a football/soccer title that allowed you to break the traditional rules and go in for tough hard tackles and hurt your opponent players to strive for victory. Robodunk has a similar premise in the fact that you can manipulate the opposing team by attacking them in any period of play. The intention is to win the game by scoring the most dunks. I say dunks as you’re not able to shoot freely like your typical basketball game, something I couldn’t shake off for some time.

It isn’t long before the court becomes utter chaos with each team scrambling for success, doing everything possible to block the other from scoring. There is great satisfaction from plucking possession from another player after using an attack and then nipping up to the opposing basket and taking the points. I was fearful of the fact you’re controlling robots, it would feel clunky but it is fluid, fast and fun. It won’t handle at a pace like NBA Jam but it is quick enough to be end-to-end action at any given moment.

Visuals & Audio

With this being a sports game per se, I wasn’t expecting any storyline. You do however get some backstory and detail of particular robots and their teams. Visually the game isn’t going to blow your mind, but it has enough variance and polish to be just fine as an indie game of this nature. Having access to unlocks, different robot builds and colours all adds variance to the aesthetics and feel of the overall gameplay so it does shine in those areas. I enjoyed the soundtrack that much it reminded me of being in a busy arcade with those early 90s machines blasting out. Sound effects do the job with the heavy attacks being felt with the clash of two robots together.

Final Thoughts

I was pleasantly surprised by Robodunk and spent far more time with the game than I anticipated. This was down to the addictive and short yet snappy gameplay loop with plenty to unlock. The development team have done a fantastic job at combining such a familiar experience with classic games such as NBA Jam and Playgrounds yet introducing the roguelite elements within the experience, and it works! Admittedly I would have loved to see some online multiplayer elements here as I feel the game would suit the competitive style of playing against real-life opponents. For those who love same-screen fun though, you’re in luck with 2 player co-op options and also local multiplayer with up to four players. For £12.49 it’s a reasonable price-point for potentially hours of fun, alone against AI or with players from the comfort of home.