I grew up with a lot of sports games, especially in the era where the action was exaggerated and arcade-y to the max. When I wasn’t playing NFL Blitz, I took a liking to NBA Jam‘s ludicrous presentation and huge fun factor any chance I could find a cabinet. Midway took those licenses and ran with them, and I’ve been aching to play a game like it for so long now. RoboDunk looks to capture the hard-hitting, dunk-tastic gameplay with a roguelite spin, and even if machines are dishing out the mayhem, it’s gearing to be a violent sports affair. Can this game recapture the glory days of NBA Jam?

The core gameplay of RoboDunk captures the intensity and fast pace of NBA Jam. Instead of NBA players, you assume the role of robots. This is presented in a unique style where your characters move in a vastly slower framerate than the camera to make a compelling visual effect. The big twist here is that you cannot shoot the ball. The only way you can score is by dunking the basketball.

Thankfully, your ability to score is through a risk vs. reward system of determining how massive your dunk is. The longer you hold your jump button, the more points you can score. At the same time, if you hold the button down too long, you’re a sitting duck for your opponent to ram into you. If you can get a handle on the controls, you can pull up your shield to block incoming ram attempts, but it’s super tricky to nail the timing just right.

RoboDunk gets its Roguelite influence similar to how Tape to Tape does. You’ll get subtle small boosts to your robots, and get to pick which robot to apply them to at the start of each round, of which there are a few for each match. This means that by your last round, you’re as strong as you’re going to be. On the flip side, so are your enemies as they get the same opportunities to get upgrades and wipe the floor with you.

Even on Easy difficulty, the AI is no pushover. You’re going to have to pull out all the stops to get a good lead and not give up a ton of points if you happen to make a mistake like ramming without hitting or missing with your bots’ ammunition on their way to the basket. The give and take in this game makes its learning curve steep, but if you’re willing, you can slowly but surely master it.

I felt that after a few hours, I saw all that RoboDunk had to offer for me. There wasn’t much of a reward to the grind and I didn’t feel myself getting more proficient at the game at any point. I did face off against my partner and had a blast with the multiplayer.

However, it felt like a slog having to face off against the AI that knew my every move and laser-focused its ammo on me on defense but couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn on offense. With some difficulty balancing and a more interesting premise, this would be an easy recommendation, but RoboDunk isn’t ready to dethrone Tape to Tape as the premier sports roguelite as of yet.

A PC review copy of RoboDunk was provided by Jollypunch Games for this review.

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RoboDunk

$14.99

6

Score

6.0/10

Pros

• Great Art Style
• Fun With Friends
• Nice Variety Between Bots

Cons

• Lacking Depth
• Frustrating AI Difficulty
• Boring Story