Review: Dunk Dunk (Switch)

Recall a time when local arcade party games were everywhere? The late 2000s and early 2010s brimmed with bite-sized, entertaining experiences that you could easily jump into or enjoy with friends. Well, Dunk Dunk rejuvenates that essence in 2025 with an engaging local co-op, action-platforming twist on basketball, making it a delightful time with friends or solo in short bursts, particularly considering its price.

Dunk Dunk is a competitive sports title that adapts the basketball concept (scoring via throwing a ball into a hoop) and presents it on a 2D arena-like stage, reminiscent of Smash Bros. Whether in brief 1v1 or 2v2 contests, you navigate as small cartoon characters against other local players or AI, competing for possession of the ball to shoot or dunk it into the opponent’s goal (a floating ring).

You can seize the ball, toss it, snatch it away, and even stretch your character to block shots. The ability to jump and dash in the air enhances your agility and aids in aiming. The game’s controls and rules are deliberately straightforward, making Dunk Dunk an excellent pick-up-and-play experience.

You enjoy full 360-degree control over your arms, enabling you to execute stylish arm spins, fakes, and pumps. After just a couple of matches, we were executing phenomenally satisfying dunks and throws from across the arena. From complete arm spins to mid-air alley oops where we passed the ball to our teammate, Dunk Dunk’s core mechanics are outstanding, reminiscent of the Wii/Xbox 360/PS3 era of local arcade co-op titles. The arenas are also beautifully crafted, featuring basic open maps alongside intricate stages with switches and randomly appearing walls that can either assist or disrupt your strategy during a contest.

The visuals, sound, and announcer contribute to the game’s festive, quirky ambiance, complete with action cam replays, creative names for various shot types and dunks, and the zany character models available (all unlocked from the start).

However, the gameplay isn’t without flaws; it suffers from an unreliable camera and some visual clarity issues in specific contexts. These challenges emerged while playing on the Switch in both docked and handheld modes, but were particularly troublesome in handheld due to the smaller display.

During 2v2 matches, all four players and the ball can occasionally cluster in a corner or section of the stage, making it exceedingly difficult to discern what’s happening, who possesses the ball, and how to extricate oneself from the chaotic situation. This often results in someone flinging the ball away, with everyone scrambling in various directions. There’s no particular strategy to escape from those instances.

Additionally, the ball can become hard to spot during those moments, complicating the task of identifying ball possession. A highlight or outline around the ball could solve this issue, but such an option is absent.

These challenges are amplified by the camera. While it generally showcases most of the arena, it occasionally zooms in abruptly to provide a closer look at the ball’s surround. However, this is jerky and inconsistent, resembling a camera struggling to focus. At times, it became so frustrating we had to pause gameplay due to our irritation over the erratic zooms and positioning.

Although you can somewhat mitigate this by reducing the game speed to 50% or 75% in the options menu, it also turns Dunk Dunk into a tedious experience and undermines the gameplay’s rhythm and pace. It’s quite disappointing not to have the option to disable these zooms or select a fixed camera.

Apart from the standard local modes and CPU battles, there are several alternative game modes. Regrettably, there is no online multiplayer, which would have enhanced the experience. Nevertheless, the available modes introduce variations to the basic gameplay.

Galaxy Tour has you engage in consecutive matches against the CPU to accumulate fans by winning games and executing spectacular dunks or shots. The more fans you gather, the tougher the matches become. At the end of each Galaxy Tour run, you unlock segments of the mode’s concluding cutscene, which isn’t particularly compelling, but it does provide a form of single-player, linear mode to progress through. This is also where you can find several trials, challenging you to score dunks while avoiding hazards and obstacles.

The other key mode is Mutator Madness, which infuses Dunk Dunk with various modifiers and changes to shake up gameplay. These include items like an anvil ball preventing jumps, a periodically invisible ball, and modifiers that randomly teleport you across the arena during a match.

While somewhat entertaining, we found many of these modifiers to be more irritating than enjoyable. They also appear in Galaxy Tour and other challenges. The lack of clarity—an announcer or text indicating what each modifier is when introduced—was frustrating, as the ball might suddenly change to an anvil, or you could be teleported without clear indication. The abrupt nature of these mutator changes left a negative impression, often detracting from the core enjoyment of Dunk Dunk.

Lastly, there are numerous match play options. You can jump into a competitive tournament with up to 16 players locally or compete in standalone matches. There are also unique challenges reminiscent of the individual matches in Galaxy Tour, alongside Mario Kart-style tournament cups. While not revolutionary, the range of options ensures you can find something enjoyable.

Conclusion

Dunk Dunk presents an enjoyable and budget-friendly twist on basketball dynamics, featuring engaging and fast-paced gameplay that’s easy to dive into. Although some concepts miss the mark, and the frustrating camera and UI clarity may present hurdles, the low entry barrier makes it a fun, bite-sized experience to explore occasionally. Just don’t anticipate this to be the next game that engrosses you and your friends.