Smash It Wild

Genre: Sports (Volleyball) / Turn-Based Strategy-RPG / Roguelike

Players: 1

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Review:

Smash It Wild, released in 2026 on PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch, is a game that combines Volleyball, Turn-Based Strategy-RPG, and Roguelike elements, and I swear I did not just make that up. Players control a trio of anthropomorphic animal volleyball players training and competing in games, trying to become the best.

This game’s presentation uses colorful 2D visuals with a fair amount of personality in the world design and character design, backed by an energetic soundtrack with a lot of electric guitar. Overall, it works well for the game’s general vibe, even if it’s not anything that strikes me as super-memorable.

That’s okay though, because the gameplay is such an odd, unique blend of genres that it’s hard not to be memorable in this respect, at least. Each volley of the volleyball over the net is a player turn, with players aiming the volleyball and choosing a type of strike to take down the opponent’s stamina, cause status effects, push around the opponent’s players, and place hazards on their side of the net. There’s some interesting strategy at work here in choosing your placement and type of attack. Do you focus on making players run as far as possible to get the ball? Placing hazards? Using moves that slam opponents around into walls and each other? There’s some interesting strategic choices here… or at least there seem to be.

That leads to the main issue with this game, and that is that Smash It Wild does a poor job conveying to the player exactly what is going on and why. An opponent who’s out of stamina one turn will have it rejuvenated the next, and it’s not shown what’s causing that. One of your players who seems to have plenty of stamina will refuse to be moved to catch an incoming shot, with no clear explanation why. And not being clear on what’s going on makes it that much harder to formulate any kind of strategy.

Between matches, you’ll have Roguelike-style upgrades for characters, but since it’s not clear how everything works, it’s hard to know whether or not you’re making wise choices. And that’s never good for a Roguelike… or any game, for that matter.

In the end, I respect the creativity that has clearly gone into blending together three disparate genres in Smash It Wild, and it does seem like this game offers a fair amount of depth for players willing to learn the ins and outs of how it all works. But this game does such a poor job conveying information to the player that I think all but the most dedicated players will feel left behind by this game. As a result, I can’t really recommend Smash It Wild.

tl;dr – Smash It Wild combines Volleyball, Turn-Based Strategy-RPG Gameplay, and Roguelike game structure into one game that has some creative ideas and clearly a lot of depth, but unfortunately this game does a poor job conveying information to the player, making it very difficult to play strategically. Because of this, I can’t really recommend this game.

Grade: C

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