Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive and Dodge | Skitbold: A Dodgeball Adventure Review

There has been a slight resurgence in the last year or so with arcade style local multiplayer games. I’m thinking of Starwhal, Nidhogg, and TowerFall Ascension just to name some of the better ones. Rocket League is mostly online, but still brings the fun chaos of couch co-op. That’s exactly what Stikbold! A Dodgeball Adventure set out to accomplish. A game with a simple premise that is a lot of fun to play with your friends. I have officially added Stikbold to my collection of party games that I have whenever people come over to my place.

Skitbold takes place in the 70’s apparently with its “groovy” dialog and 70’s type of soundtrack. It has a great quirky sense of humor on top of that. There’s a story that involves two women being kidnapped by Satin and our heroes Björn and Jerome have to go after them. It made me chuckle a few times at the overall insanity of everything, and it was clear Skitbold doesn’t take itself seriously. My favorite characters would have to be the honey-collecting hippies or the captain of an oil rig with a personal vendetta against all whales.

The story mode isn’t really to get you hooked with some emotional thrill ride of a narrative. It’s really a type of challenge mode you can play with by yourself or with a friend. It has normal dodgeball games that I’ll get more into later, but it also has bosses that bring variety to the game. Some involve taking down a hippie driving a van that’s trying to run you over, or fighting a giant whale that tries to swallow you whole. Each level also has its own achievements to strive for like hitting someone from a certain distance or never being hit yourself. It’s an attempt to make each level have a little more depth because as it stands, the story mode can be completed in about an hour. It’s a great mode, I only wish it was longer.

None of that would really matter if the gameplay was a drag, but it’s far from that. The gameplay in Stikbold is extremely simple. You pick up a dodgeball, aim with the right joystick, throw with the R2 button, and you can dodge with the L2 button. That’s the main game right there. It’s that easy to pick up and play making it accessible to all types of gamers. However, Stikbold does throw a few curve balls into the mix that make it much more intense for the more competitive gamer.

I mean literally because you can curve the ball after you throw it. This is not a subtle curve with a minor adjustment. At any point after you have thrown the ball you can have it arc off in any direction. This makes it impossible to predict who the ball is really coming for. Once my friends and I started experimenting with this feature the game opened up in a whole new way. Before it was obvious who the ball was coming for, but now you could take a ball to the face without ever seeing it coming.

You can also catch a ball thrown at you by diving directly into it. This has its obvious dangers but will put you in a great position for a counter attack. When you play in teams you can pass the ball to your teammate making for some tricky flanking tactics. You can also smack a person when you don’t have the ball which knocks them back, and if they currently have the ball, they’ll drop it. It didn’t take long for my ground to start curving the ball all over the place, catching it head on, and smacking each other left and right.

Skitbold keeps things interesting by throwing in crazy environmental elements that can make the playing field much harder. One level spurts constant lava that standing in will knock you out. Another has an edge that you can be knocked off of and plummet to your untimely demise. Even when playing on the beach the ball won’t roll as far so you need to account for that.

Every level has some sort of interaction that will give you something else to throw besides the one dodgeball. The gym level has a man selling hot dogs that you can snatch from his hand to throw at other people. Another level has a beehive you can throw to stun another player. It creates even more chaos in an already chaotic game.

It isn’t always easy to describe the fun of a party game, but if you’ve played any of the million Mario Party mini games you understand the concept. A short intense burst of fierce competition that will almost always end with cheers and groans. Some games can last a few minutes of powerful concentration where you and your friends are dodging everything in a pure display of acrobatics. Other games can last less than a minute if one person gets several good throws in a row.

Once you get knocked out of the match you can still mess with the other players from the sidelines. Some levels have you shoot gusts of wind to push players into lava. Another has you controlling a wax machine that can run over players. Just because you’re out of the match doesn’t mean you’re out of the action. From start to finish you will be doing your best to get somebody else out. Even if they got you out first.

Skitbold is a wonderfully addicting game that still feels like it’s missing a few things. While it never claimed to be an online game, you can’t help but wish it was. It would be enormously fun to get into team fights online and have ranks for how good you are. Also for the obvious reasons that getting everyone together in one room to play a game isn’t always the easiest. Sadly it’s not, and that doesn’t make this a bad game by any means. It just means this game isn’t as good as it really could be.

The other biggest issue isn’t really a problem with the game, but with who this will be worth purchasing for. The story mode is fun and you can play bots in quick play. However, it’s very clear this is made to be played with friends. If you don’t have that many people who can come over and play couch co-op with you then this game will lose its shine pretty quickly. It’s another reason online would be great so you could always play real people.

I played by myself through most of the story, but it just wasn’t as fun when I was playing with my friend sitting next to me. Laughing at the whacky cut scenes or shouting at each other when we accidentally pegged one another with the ball. It’s a game meant to be played with friends, and while it is certainly possible to play by yourself. Skitbold will only truly shine as the fun party game it is when you have someone on the couch next to you.

Skitbold: A Dodgeball Adventure has a quirky, entertaining story that provides a variety of challenges, but that’s not why I love it. I love it because of the sheer riotous enjoyment you have playing with your friends. Like the one time I curved one of my throws in the wrong direction and pegged my own teammate getting him out of the match. My other friend on the opposing team grabbed the ball to immediately smack me twice to win the game. I couldn’t help but laugh at how I just caused us to lose as my friend kept shouting at me unable to accept our loss. It wasn’t my shining moment, but it was definitely a memorable one. There are plenty of other cheerful victories and intense showdowns. It’s a chaotic game that’s a blast to play with friends. You may just not have any by the end of it if you play like me.

This review is based off a review code of the Playstation 4 version of Stikbold: A Dodgeball Adventure developed by Game Swing and provided by Curve Digital.