Developers: Game Swing, Ubisoft Mumbai
Platforms: PC (Reviewed), PS4, PS5, Switch (Reviewed), Xbox Series X |S
Genre: Party
Publisher: Ubisoft Entertainment
OddBallers is a bombastic, dodgeball-inspired multiplayer party game. The developers of this game are Game Swing, Ubisoft Mumbai, and Ubisoft Pune, and the publishers are Ubisoft Entertainment. Games that are similar to OddBallers are Rubber Bandits and Boomerang Fu. OddBallers is also very similar to the game Stikbold made by the same indie developer Game Swing. This review was done for the PC and Switch.
OddBallers is a multiplayer game, but it does not necessarily mean you need; to have someone in your party to play. You can connect online through the Ubisoft Online services to connect with other players around the world. What’s great about OddBallers is the fact that it is cross-platform. This allows players to play with other players from all different devices the game is available on. When in the main menu of the game, you can play online where you can connect to other people’s servers or host your own and make it public. If you are doing couch play, you can easily play locally with the people you are playing with. And; this game can be played with up to 6 players.
The controls for this game are relatively easy to work; with. For the PC, it is easy to work around the controls as most of; the controls double up on different actions as well. For instance, to dodge, you press space; but with movement, you can use space to catch the dodgeball as well. What’s good about the game is that before starting your game, you; are brought into this lobby area where you can do multiple things, from learning controls to buying items from the shop or customising your character. Now when you load into a minigame, the controls are shown beforehand with a preview of how the mini-game; works which allow you to familiarise yourself with the controls. We found that the controls were a lot easier to play with on the switch rather than on the PC, but in the end, the; controls work smoothly on both devices and are not complicated.
The visuals of this game incorporates a top-down, birdseye view of the map. The visuals all include a cartoony style. What I enjoy about the visuals of this game is that there is a charm to the cartoon look and feel of this game. With there being so many effects going off on the screen when playing through the game, the way they look makes the game seem even more chaotic. With the addition of the charm, there is also this humour that comes with how the game looks. The characters have weird stances or look weird, but it’s done on purpose to make the game look; more exciting. With the visuals comes a great deal of sound effects and music that is played throughout the game. What I really enjoy is the loading screen into the mini-games with the player’s names and their characters presented with funny stances; this is something I find to be a little detail that makes the game go a long way. I find myself capturing screenshots of the loading screens and the winning podium because they are little touches you can post to celebrate your victory. The different sound effects also make the game much more fun and alive, thrilling in a way, as the cartoonish look doesn’t go far without the bombastic sound effects. This includes things like propane tanks or TNTs exploding. Even the little chickens running around through the map have this annoying little sound that just makes you want to grab them and throw them. Like most multiplayer party games, this game brings a well, captivating cartoonish fun and exciting feel to it.
What I like about the soundtrack of this game is that it changes depending on the different lands/worlds you play. There is a very distinct selection of music that plays to fit with the theme of that world. For instance, you take the first world you play, which is the barnyard/farm-themed one; most of the music includes chaotic country music. Not just that but the items and the mini-games within each world are unique to their own theme. As for the barn one, you find mini-games like capture the chicken; or bounty (where you collect stars as a sheriff’s badge), which are games that fit within the country farm life theme. In addition to the unique minigames, there are also many different maps for the mini-games, which adds great; variety. This way, it’s less boring to play; the game over time as there is a change between the maps.
There are multiple things in this game that make it to be less boring over time, meaning it’s a game that can be played for a very long time without growing old. The more you play the game, the more XP you unlock, and this allows you to unlock items and coins that you can use to buy and customise your characters. Because the game is published by Ubisoft, I enjoy the addition of rabbids as a character in the game as it fits with the chaoticness they embody. There is also an option to set the game lengths to short, medium, and long lengths to create a variance in how long you want to play the game as well. The more rounds/mini-games you play, the more XP you get. The shop has a variety of items you can buy to customise your character to your liking.
I tend to; enjoy many multiplayer party games, and this one is different from others in many ways. The idea of dodgeball seems so fun, but I like that there is so much more than just dodgeball happening. You are even able to pick up the chickens and use them as dodgeballs. To add even more of a chaotic mess to the; game, there are rules that get drawn which can set different things, from reincarnation as an animal to having butter fingers where you are not able to catch the ball. Something about this game that reminds me of a mechanic from Bomberman is when you die, you go around in this outer ring and drop traps to sabotage the players remaining in the game. To make it even more hectic and all over the place, this is just the way to do it. I had such a blast when playing this game with my friends; we were yelling on top of one another and were; extremely competitive. What I also liked about the minigames was that there were some that were team involved that made a; great competitive laugh.
RoCo, another person we played this game with, had a little something to say for himself about the game, “Playing OddBallers with my friends was a super fun and very engaging experience. The controls take a little while to get used to, especially the catching mechanic, but other than that, it’s pretty easy to use. What I really appreciated in the game was the sabotage mechanic to mess with the still-active players in the ring because it creates a variable or opportunity for spectators to win even though they’re out of the current round. Overall, I would definitely play again when I get the chance to.”
Now if you want to play a multiplayer game with friends online; or locally through the comforts of your couch. Grab up to 6 players to have fun with the most instance, chaotic dodgeball you can ever imagine playing. With a great; leaderboard system and many unique maps, worlds and minigames, this game is great to have a laugh with your party! Want a game where you can have bombastic fun, then; go check out OddBallers, which is available for PC, Xbox, PS4/5, and Switch.
Overall: 8/10
This is S & S. We are world game explorers. We play games. We have played over 10,000+ games! We travel, we write reviews AND we play more games!!!!
