Platforms: Nintendo Switch (reviewed), Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows
Dunk Lords is a self-described “two-on-two basketball beat ‘em up” that starts out by putting you through a quick tutorial to show you the ropes. Here you’ll learn how to do typical basketball moves like dunking, shooting, passing, blocking, and sprinting. There are also a number of features that put the beat ‘em up in Dunk Lords description. These include dashing, uppercuts, and special moves. You’ll also have an energy meter that will deplete as you dash, sprint, dunk, or uppercut. Energy will recharge over time, but without it, you won’t be able to do the aforementioned moves.
As far as gameplay goes, I felt like Dunk Lords had a little too much going on. The game is pretty fast-paced, so trying to remember all of these different moves proved to be a little challenging at times. This fast-paced nature also made keeping up with the action a little tough. Even with indicators around the characters, there were more than a few times when I completely lost track of who I was playing as. Making matters worse is the fact that the game’s camera follows the ball rather than your character, so there would be times when my character wasn’t even on screen and before I realized it, the other team had already scored. All of these issues weren’t complete hindrances, they just took a lot of getting used to and it all felt a bit unintuitive.
Once you know how to play, there are a few game modes you can choose from in Dunk Lords. First up is arcade mode, where you’re likely to spend most of your time with the game. Here, up to four players can play pickup games with their choice of twenty unique characters at one of five different difficulty levels. Each character has their own strengths and weaknesses. Some are good at dunking, some prefer jump shots, and others are three-point shooters. They all also have different stats and attributes that affect things like their strength, quickness, and more. All of the characters also have their own unique special moves that can be used to turn the tide in your team’s favor. These moves can only be used once you’ve acquired a “special star” (by dunking or blocking) and your character can hold up to three of these stars at a time.
There are a number of different courts you can choose to play on as well. Each of these courts have different layouts with a variety of shotpads, which are areas on the court that will grant your character with bonuses if they score while standing on them. These bonuses include things like gaining a special star, earning money, and getting unlimited energy for a short period of time, among others. The most powerful shotpad is the Mega spot that you’ll have to activate multiple times during a game in order to go into Mega Mode. In this mode your character will become huge and nearly unstoppable.
In arcade mode, you’ll be playing four 90 second quarters to see who can score the most points. Between quarters you’ll be able to spend the money you earn during the game to buy a variety of equipment including gloves, armor, and shoes. These change from game to game and there are quite a few different ones. They can alter your shots, passes, speed, and a lot more.
With all the different player stats and specials, inclusion of shotpads, and the variety of equipment, each game in arcade mode really does feel unique. My only gripe is that I wish there was some sort of progression system or things to unlock to keep me wanting to come back and really dig in. While the gameplay can be fun at times, Dunk Lords just isn’t something I see myself wanting to keep playing without having something to work towards.
Outside of arcade mode, there is also a story mode. Here you’ll play as Slice, a new recruit to the Dunk Baby Academy that goes on a journey to find one of his Dunk Lord idols that has gone missing. During the story you’ll be teamed up with a variety of characters as you compete in a number of basketball games. Each game will have different conditions and modifiers you’ll need to be mindful of. These include playing a traditional four quarters or scoring a certain number of points first, as well as things like replacing the basketball with a beach ball and even a couple of boss battles.
The cast of players in story mode are all unique with some pretty cool character designs. It’s unfortunate that the writing for these characters, and the story in general, is just so bland. Story mode felt more like an afterthought than anything else. It feels like it was just included because they wanted to give players a single player option with some sense of progression but didn’t give it much more thought than that. I would have much rather had some sort of progression system added to arcade mode than this half-baked attempt at a story.
The final mode you can play in Dunk Lords is known as Gauntlet Mode. In this mode, one or two players attempt to win four games in a row on expert difficulty with their chosen characters. If you lose one game, it’s over. I didn’t put much time into this mode as my skills are nowhere near where they need to be, but it’s here if you’re looking for more of a challenge.
From an audio and visual perspective, I wasn’t a huge fan of what Dunk Lords had on offer. While some of the character models were kind of cool, most of the visuals felt a little too rough around the edges for my liking and even added to some of the issues I mentioned earlier with not knowing who had control of the ball during games. The music was decent enough, as you’d expect from a soundtrack composed by the brilliant Laura Shigihara (Plants vs. Zombies, Rakuen). Unfortunately, I felt like there just wasn’t enough uniqueness in the tracks and they all just sort of started blending together. The real issue I had with the audio came from the quips that each of the characters made during games. Each of them only had one or two phrases that they would say over and over and over. This got old rather quickly and had me reaching for the volume control.
Dunk Lords is a game that had its fun moments, but it doesn’t quite live up to other arcade basketball games. It really is the perfect example of a mediocre game, with just passable gameplay, a boring narrative, and nothing that really keeps you wanting to come back and play past the first couple of games. If you’re looking for some arcade basketball action, Dunk Lords isn’t inherently bad and is an affordable option, just don’t expect it to keep your attention for the long haul.
