The Nintendo Switch is slowly becoming the home to many wonderful, unique indie game offers, from pinball Metroidvania games to first-person competitive dodgeball games. The latter describes Disco Dodgeball Remix, a highly competitive first-person dodgeball game that pits you against players around the world to be the last one standing in a game of dodgeball.
Originally released on PC 3 years ago, Disco Dodgeball Remix is a really unique game. You play as a robot placed in TRON-inspired arenas where the whole goal is to be the last one standing in a game of dodgeball. The game offers 21 different game modes, including Elimination, Arcade, and Classic Dodgeball, just to name a few. The game gets really insane when you take your dodgeball skills online and play against people all around the world.
Disco Dodgeball Remix is unique in that there isn’t a game like it out there on Nintendo Switch. Dodgeball is a game we all have come to learn the rules of growing up as kids on playgrounds. This means it’s extremely easy to jump into a game and understand fully how to play. The dodgeball mechanics are fun: simply point and shoot. With such a simple way to play, jumping into the various game modes are equally as easy. Classic Dodgeball is exactly like how classic dodgeball in the real world works. Elimination is a battle to eliminate the enemy team, and Arcade mode simply keeps throwing enemies at you till you die. Playing with friends is a lot of fun and is the preferred way to play the game. The bots are fine, just fine, but it’s way more fun when you and your friends are yelling at each other in a game of dodgeball. It should be noted that the game works and plays well on Nintendo Switch. I tried the game in both docked and handheld mode and found the game ran extremely smoothly. This game is not pushing the hardware of the Switch, but in competitive games, having a consistent, smooth experience is the best.
That said, most of the game modes in Disco Dodgeball Remix aren’t that fun. Training and Challenge Modes, while they can be useful if you don’t understand dodgeball, aren’t worth your time. After spending a couple of minutes in either mode, you’ve seen it all and will get bored pretty quickly. That is actually the biggest problem with Disco Dodgeball Remix as a whole. The game is fun to play….for a little bit. After spending an hour in the game, you’ve played it all. Nothing really changes in the various game modes besides some rule changes, and the gameplay, while fun, is the exact same every single game. Having your friends play with you keeps the fun going for a little longer, but if you don’t have friends to play with, then the game gets old really fast. The bots are fine, average AI that plays to the same level as yourself, but there isn’t much to them. They are just color swap copies of your character.
The online portion of the game is fine. Finding a game to connect to was no problem. The developers did really good creating a matchmaking system that allows for people to jump in or drop out of matches extremely easily. The issue is hosting a private match for yourself and your friends is difficult and not explained very well. Even playing the game online doesn’t change the fact that it gets old and boring quick. Is it nice to play with people online in a dodgeball game? Yes. Do I want to play 25 straight matches of the same dodgeball game, albeit with very slightly changed rules? No.
Developer: Zen Studios (porting from PC), 82 Apps (Core Content)
Publisher: Zen Studios
Platforms: Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PS4, PC
Release Date: 19th February 2015 (PC), 22nd May 2018 (Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, PS4)