Game Swing’s OddBallers, a riotous top-down dodgeball party game, has been making the rounds for a while now, having languished in various unreleased forms since it was first announced to be “coming soon” long ago. Now it’s suddenly dropped on the Nintendo Switch and, far from the mess we thought it might turn out to be, it’s actually a really fun little slice of multiplayer mayhem. However, it is not without problems.
In Oddballers, players jump into colorful upside-down arenas to shoot balls, chickens, bombs, and a host of other silly objects at each other to emerge victorious. The action is then even more chaotic due to the multitude of environmental hazards; lawnmowers, acid bombs, electric charges and so on, keeping you on your toes as you dash around looking to destroy your friends and/or the game’s bunch of relatively capable robots.
Adding to the fun here is the fact that the dodgeball shenanigans are really just the starting point, and while you hop into a local or online lobby and have some fun, you’ll be going through several different minigames in addition to the standard dodge-le-ball (we’re sure that’s what it’s in French) in order to collect a certain amount of points and grab that golden trophy from your opponents. There’s a surprising amount of variety in the games on offer, with some really quite inventive stuff that’s a lot of fun, especially if you’ve got three friends together to get stuck into couch co-op (online caters for up to six players).
We had a particularly good time with the beekeeping mini-game, where players have to grab jars of honey and escort them back to the delivery point while everyone shoots each other with whatever objects are at hand. There’s a frantic game of chicken gathering, plus sheep shearing, a few different football-style tackles, and even an encounter with a stable boss who randomly appears during matches. There are plenty of minigames to try out in a bunch of different arenas, none of them feel welcome, and the way the game mixes them up randomly means that most match sets manage to throw in some surprises and stay fresh.
There are a few other clever touches, such as how you can bombard your opponents when you’re knocked out by throwing obstacles into the arena with a quick press of the ‘ZR’ button. There are also various random mutations added to the games here and there that mess with the rules and other aspects of the action. We were also impressed that while there are only three buttons for the whole thing – which is beautifully simple to access – there are some more advanced options, such as catching a thrown ball by diving into it and then hitting it straight back to create a supercharged shot.
For customization fans, there’s plenty to get stuck into, with a free battle pass system in action offering endless gear to dress up your wobbly, wobbly Weirds. Oh, and since this is published by Ubisoft, you can also choose to trade in your little round ragball for the Rabbid, a crossover that works well given the chaotic nature of the action at hand. Good job Ubisoft, it’s just a bit of a shame that the publisher is also pushing their Connect service so hard here, with constant reminders to check for gear and rewards along with annoying notifications every time your console goes offline to let you know I’ll miss XP and other benefits while you are not connected. Put a sock in it guys.
But really, this is all self-explanatory, and every now and then you get some nice, unique gear outside of Connect. It’s a service we’re always popping into to grab stuff while playing Ubisoft titles, it’s just a shame they have to put you online to do it instead of getting it into the game the easy way.
What’s more outrageous than all of this, and probably the game’s biggest flaw right now, is that online is either an absolute ghost town or it doesn’t work very well. We couldn’t find any games to play online here, even with Cross-Play enabled, which is a real bummer for people who can’t get a bunch of friends together or don’t like playing against the game’s bots (which can provide some pretty stiff competition on a harder difficulty, so don’t dismiss them entirely).
Away from this glaring issue, there are several other issues to consider. Menus can feel slow, the game takes a little too long to first load, we didn’t seem to be able to use our emotes at all during matches when prompted, and there are some issues including freezing and music issues from time to time.
However, these are all minor annoyances, really, and if the internet somehow gets its act together – or suddenly manages to find an audience, assuming that’s the problem – we’re in for a lot of silly fun with Oddballers. This is a cleverly designed, colorful, chaotic fun game. It’s well priced and offers plenty of modes and customization. If you have several family members or friends who want to join the cooperative, you will 100% be delighted for the asking price. However, those who want to play exclusively online should be aware that this is a total failure, at least during the launch period. Let’s hope he can build a following.
Conclusion
Oddballers is a super fun little multiplayer party game that has tons of modes, lots of inventiveness in its minigames, and a chaotic colorfulness that’s hard not to enjoy. Grab some friends, get in on some couch co-op action, and you’re guaranteed a good time, especially for the asking price. However, keep in mind that the immediate post-launch period online is a wasteland, a complete disaster in terms of finding matches. If you have friends or family on hand to jump in, this is a great way to spend a few hours of fun. For those who don’t, there are very capable bots out there to help you out, but the network mode state at startup is definitely an issue to consider before you buy this one.
