Wrestledunk Sports

Genre: Sports (Various) / Platformer / Party Game

Players: 1-8 Team Competitive (Local / Online)

.

Review:

Wrestledunk Sports is a family-friendly Sports-themed multiplayer-focused Platformer and Party Game released in 2021 on PC and Nintendo Switch. In this game, players play as tall rectangles playing in simplified versions of some sports, as well as a few fictional “sports” as well.

The presentation here is simple but appealing, with simple 2D visuals with lots of color and personality, backed by an energetic soundtrack that does a good job placing the focus on the action. There’s nothing truly impressive going on here, but this works just fine for a Party Game.

As for the gameplay, it’s split among a few different game types: Wrestling, fencing, volleyball, “smashball”, and “megatonk”.

Probably the easiest of these to describe is Volleyball, which is a simple, straightforward 2D take on the sport that strips the rules down to “hit the ball a bunch, keep it from landing on your side, make it land on the other team’s side”.

Fencing plays in a manner that’s a bit similar to the Nidhogg franchise – you can raise or lower your sword, thrust, perform a jumping dive attack, or as a last ditch effort throw your sword, though if you do so you’ll be unarmed afterwards.

Wrestling has you and your opponents jumping around an enclosed arena and slamming your body down, trying to land on top of your opponent, with a spin move to deflect those coming at you from above.

Smashball is like a cross between Pong and Breakout, with players moving freely through the air and trying to defend their side, with a special charging attack that can plow through the opponent if you have enough time to fill your meter.

Finally, megatonk is sorta’ like a very simplified take on the Super Smash Bros. formula, with you and opponents trying to knock each other off-screen with melee attacks.

These different “sports” are all fairly simple to control, relatively straightforward, have a good amount of variety, and despite being simple offer a fair amount of strategy based on your timing and positioning. Simply put, this is a game I think just about anyone can pick up and enjoy, especially in a group setting.

I should note that this game does also boast rollback netcode and cross-platform play, but unless you bring your own friends, this won’t do you much good, as online lobbies are largely abandoned at this point. Beyond this, probably my biggest complaint is that I wish this game had even more variety – the five game types here do provide some good variety, but the games are all so simple that I think even more variety could have helped to further make up for the lacking depth.

Still, despite the relatively small number of games and their simplicity, these games are overall really fun and highly accessible, making this an excellent game to add to your Party Game rotation. It’s a shame that the online lobbies are empty and that the number of games doesn’t quite make up for their simplicity, but even so this is well worth picking up.

tl;dr – Wrestledunk Sports is a family-friendly Sports-themed multiplayer-focused Platformer and Party Game with five simplified “sports” (both real and fictional): Wrestling, fencing, volleyball, “smashball”, and “megatonk”. These are all fairly simple, yet a surprising amount of fun. This collection could have used even more games, and it has less potential now that the online lobbies are empty, but this is still an excellent Party Game worth adding to your party game playlist.

Grade: B

^{You can support eShopperReviews on Patreon! Please click HERE to become a Sponsor!}

^{This month’s sponsors are Jamie and His Cats, Ben, Ilya Zverev, Andy Miller, Homer Simpin, Johannes, Francis Obst, Gabriel Coronado-Medina, Jared Wark, Kristoffer Wulff, and Seth Christenfeld. Thank you for helping to keep the reviews coming!}