Knockout City feels like a game Nintendo would make. The dodgeball-inspired gameplay, and the robust systems it is built upon, brings a truly novel experience to the multiplayer space. It cannot be mapped onto anything that has come before.
Yet, its uniqueness would be squandered if it wasn’t such a joy to play. Pretty much everything, except a weird mapping of the double jump, feels great to pull off. And the meta layer of strategy players engage in to try and determine how to outplay opponents is utterly captivating. All of this is elevated when playing with a team, as the game removes basically any friction to synergy, even if you solo que.
That’s not to say Knockout City is perfect. It’s art style is, to put it kindly, polarizing and the DJ announcer just plain sucks. Coming up against a clan as solo qued players is often a bad time. And a few moves seem to be in need of some balance tweaks. But all this is easily forgiven when actually playing the game is so tremendously fun and refreshing.
Yet, its uniqueness would be squandered if it wasn’t such a joy to play. Pretty much everything, except a weird mapping of the double jump, feels great to pull off. And the meta layer of strategy players engage in to try and determine how to outplay opponents is utterly captivating. All of this is elevated when playing with a team, as the game removes basically any friction to synergy, even if you solo que.
That’s not to say Knockout City is perfect. It’s art style is, to put it kindly, polarizing and the DJ announcer just plain sucks. Coming up against a clan as solo qued players is often a bad time. And a few moves seem to be in need of some balance tweaks. But all this is easily forgiven when actually playing the game is so tremendously fun and refreshing.