Robot Roller-Derby Disco Dodgeball

My usual Saturday night co-op test is simple: can I explain it to four people in under thirty seconds, and is everyone still laughing ten minutes in? Disco Dodgeball passes both. You ride a single-wheeled mustachioed robot around Tron-flavored skate park arenas, hurling dodgeballs at opponents who explode satisfyingly on contact. Throw, catch, ricochet off walls for bonus points, dodge, repeat. That is genuinely the whole loop, and somehow it never stops being funny when someone gets clipped mid-air by a boomerang ball. The mode list is deep for a solo-dev project. Beyond the obvious free-for-all Elimination and team Deathmatch, you get Hoops (fit the ball through a goal rather than just pelting people), Grand Prix (the arena becomes a race track, chaos ensues), and a roguelike-ish Arcade mode where you fight waves of bots and bosses with randomised perk combinations. Power-ups scattered around the arena - jetpacks, homing balls, the comically oversized megaball, laser balls that bypass catches - add a wild-card layer that keeps casual players competitive against people who have put in serious hours. The rule editor lets you stack and remix modifiers, so if you want permanent jetpacks and nothing but boomerang balls, that is a legal match. Split-screen local multiplayer with up to four players was added post-launch via update, which is the answer the couch crowd needed. It requires controllers, and here is the honest caveat: gamepad aiming is noticeably looser than keyboard-and-mouse. The physics feel floaty at first because momentum carries you even when you stop pressing a direction, which takes a session or two to internalise. With mouse and keyboard it eventually clicks into something quite skillful. With a pad it stays a little unpredictable, which is honestly fine for a casual couch session but will frustrate anyone trying to play seriously. Keyboard-and-mouse is the correct answer if you have the setup for it. Online multiplayer runs on player-hosted servers with a public browser and regional listings. The playerbase is small but vocal, servers fill with bots that get seamlessly replaced by real players as they join, and the community has kept a Discord running for organised tournaments. Do not expect populated lobbies at 3am on a Tuesday. Do expect that if you queue during a reasonable hour you will find a game, and if you do not, a bot match with the AI turned up is a genuinely decent substitute given how well the bots handle the momentum-based movement. The lone persistent criticism across reviews is that progression and customisation feel thin - you unlock cosmetic hats, sunglasses, and robot parts, but there is no mechanical depth to chase long-term. If you need a carrot on a stick to stay engaged, this one runs out of carrots faster than its best moments deserve. The lack of any formal ranked mode keeps things relaxed, which suits the vibe perfectly but means it will not scratch a competitive itch. At its price point this is a low-risk buy for anyone who hosts regular sessions or wants something genuinely weird and immediately accessible to throw on at a party. Mac users on Catalina or above should check compatibility before purchasing. Everyone else, queue up the Grand Prix mode first, it is the best introduction to exactly how silly this game is willing to get.

Riley · Scout Team

Sports & racing

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