Review: Robodunk

Basketball has never been better in video games than it was in NBA Jam. Unless you count Acclaim’s run in the game around the millennium, which unfortunately makes up most of it, but when NBA Jam is NBA Jam, it’s the best. It’s just unfortunate we haven’t seen it since (holy crap) 2011.

It’s expensive (I assume) to license the names and likenesses of NBA players, so while RoboDunk lacks flesh, it has it where it counts: dunks. 

RoboDunk (PC, Switch, PS4, PS5 [reviewed], Xbox Series X|S)
Developer: Jollypunch Games
Publisher: Jollypunch Games
Release: September 25th, 2023 (PC, Switch), January 21st, 2025 (PS4, PS5 Xbox Series X|S)
MSRP: $14.99

RoboDunk lifts the brutality of NBA Jam’s 2v2 gameplay (technically built off of Arch Rivals) but puts its own twist on it. Most prominently, there is no shooting. I mean, some of the robots have firepower, but they won’t throw the ball unless it’s to pass. The only way to score is to dunk. To make up for the lack of three-pointers, you can charge your jump, and the higher the charge, the higher the jump, and the more points you gain. 

Like NBA Jam, violence has no repercussions, so you’re encouraged to throw elbows and shoulders to dislodge the ball from your opponent’s grasp. Alternatively, when you have the ball, you can also throw up a temporary shield around your robot that shocks anyone who tries to touch your ball. Each bot has its own special weapon that works on an ammo system. Some will drop turrets, others shoot lasers, and some just have a different type of tackle. You get money for doling out punishment, so there’s no reason to not make the competitors go home in tears.

RoboDunk’s central mode bills itself as a roguelite, which essentially means that you take on runs, progressing through harder and harder matches until you eventually fail and have to start over (though you can pay to start from a more advanced stage. With the money you earn from matches, you can buy more bots, upgrade them, or unlock new perks that appear randomly before matches.

The core gameplay is solid. It’s as brisk as its main influence, never really stopping gameplay as you push toward the enemy net and get pushed back in return. The charge-dunk system provides some good risk and reward, as charging up your jump leaves you exposed but allows you to pile on the points faster.

Each match in the roguelite mode has different modifiers, including what hazards hit the court, such as rolling spike logs and random meteors. They also run at different lengths and for a varying number of rounds, making it important to actually look at the setup before diving in and adapting to what’s in front of you. Taken entirely based on the core gameplay, RoboDunk is simple but entertaining.

The actual roguelite framework, however, I’m not all that hot on. It’s presented as a progression where you’re given a choice of three matches, each of which offers two semi-permanent perks and features different rulesets. While this works from the perspective of being a roguelite, it takes away from its feel as a sport. It feels like progression only in the literal sense, but it doesn’t feel like you’re accomplishing anything meaningful.

More importantly, however, the perks are over-crowded, and money comes so damned slowly. You get a payout depending on how high you score, how hard you hit, successful shielding, and your use of weapons, and then this is subtracted or increased by the difficulty of the match. On a good match, I’d see around 50 of the in-game currency. This can be boosted by choosing bots that you don’t use frequently. As the robots sit on the bench, they’ll gain a percentage boost, so you’ll get a higher payout. This is actually an interesting wrinkle since it means you won’t just stick to one robot and pour all your upgrades into it.

However, since you’re spending money on new perks, new robots, and upgrades for those robots, actually making meaningful progress feels extremely slow. What’s worse is that the difficulty modifier is extremely small, so it never feels like you’re getting adequately rewarded for winning harder matches. It really deadens the drive. There’s less compulsion to push harder and further since it feels like everything is at a constant rather than a curve.

There’s one complaint that I feel weird about, but I think I can explain it: robots have no place in basketballs. Hear me out. Part of what made NBA Jam’s more outlandish elements more effective is the fact that you were watching real NBA players dunk from great heights and hit the floor. It’s less effective with robots. I completely believe they’re capable of superhuman dunks because they’re not human. I have no idea whether or not getting shoved into the concrete would hurt these particular machines. Visual feedback was used to communicate impact, but because there’s no skin in the game, I always felt a disconnect in watching things unfold.

The robots themselves, and even the arenas, are supported by a surprising amount of background lore, which does a lot to flesh things out. There’s a lot to do and discover, but it struggles to feel worthwhile. It never really feels grounded. Being able to connect is a key part to enjoying sports, not just in video games, but in reality.

Having another player join you really helps things since, rather than being a random assortment of machines, it’s you and your chum playing basketball. As multiplayer often does, it lessens the complications caused by the slow progression and adds more meaning to the matches. You can also strategize better with one player handing defense and the other going in for the dunk. Co-op also demonstrates how well all the mechanics work together.

And that’s kind of the bottom line: RoboDunk works quite well on a functional level. Its dunk-centric basketball is a quick, enjoyable snack. Its toy-like aesthetic and minimalistic stop-motion animation is effective. However, the framework just doesn’t support it quite right. Barring my (possible superficial) thoughts about robo-dunkers, the roguelite setup doesn’t provide a compelling experience. It’s a decent game to pick up and play, but it’s not the slam dunk it should be.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}