Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked)Remember when local, arcade party games were a dime a dozen? The late 2000s and early 2010s were filled with bite-sized, fun, and digestible experiences you could hop in and out of or sit down to play with friends. Well, Dunk Dunk revitalises that spirit in 2025 with a fun local co-op, action-platforming twist on basketball that is a good time with friends, or on your own in brief sessions, especially for its price point. Dunk Dunk is a competitive sports game that takes the concept of basketball (scoring points by throwing a ball into a ring) and places in on a 2D arena-style stage similar to Smash Bros. Either in short 1v1 or 2v2 matches, you play as little cartoon characters against other players locally or against the computer to gain possession of the ball and shoot or dunk it into the opposing team's goal (a floating circle). Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked) You can grab the ball, throw it, steal it, and even extend your body to block a shot. There is also a jump and air dash to give you a bit more manoeuvrability and launch yourself in the direction you are aiming in. The game's controls and rules are extremely simple by design, making Dunk Dunk a great pick-up-and-play game. You have full 360-degree control over your arms, meaning you can perform fancy arm spins, fakes, and pumps. After a match or two, we were pulling off incredibly satisfying dunks and shots from across an arena. From full arm spins to mid-air alley oops where we passed the ball to the other player, Dunk Dunk's core gameplay is fantastic and really evokes the Wii / Xbox 360 / PS3 era of local arcade co-op games. The arenas are also fantastically designed with your basic open maps, and more complex stages with switches and randomly appearing walls that can aid or throw off your strategy in a match. Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked) The presentation, audio, and announcer all add to the game's party-like, wacky atmosphere with action cam replays, fancy names for the different types of shots and dunks you can perform, and the bizarre and off the wall character models you can choose from (all of which are unlocked right from the beginning). However, the gameplay isn't flawless and is let down by an unpredictable camera and some poor visual clarity in certain scenarios. These occurred when playing on Switch in both docked and handheld modes, but are especially problematic in handheld because of the smaller screen. When playing in 2v2, occasionally, all four players and the ball can be clustered up together tightly in a corner or section of the stage, making it incredibly hard to see what is going on, who has the ball, and how to get out of the jam everyone is in. It would always result in the ball being flung away by someone, and everyone going after it in different directions. There's no real strategy to get yourself out of those situations. Accessibility Features GameplayAssistsControlsVisualAudioContentFull Accessibility Report Data by Family Gaming Database Additionally, the ball can be hard to see in those moments, making it difficult to work out who has possession. The ability to put a highlight or outline around the ball would easily fix this, but no such option is here. These issues are exacerbated by the camera. While it usually showcases most of the arena, it will occasionally zoom in rapidly to try and show what is going on around the ball more closely. But this is jerky and unpredictable, like a camera lens trying to find focus. It was so frustrating at points, we had to stop playing because we grew so irate at how random the zooms and positioning were. While you can sort of resolve this by slowing the game's speed down to 50% or 75% in the options menu, it also makes Dunk Dunk a real drag to play and kills the momentum and pace of the action. It's really disappointing not to have the option to turn off these zooms or choose a fixed camera only. Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked) Beyond your classic local modes and CPU fights, there are a few other game modes. Unfortunately, there is no online multiplayer, which would have been nice. But the other modes here offer twists on the basic gameplay. Galaxy Tour sees you compete in several matches against the CPU in a row, in an attempt to gain fans through winning matches and scoring fancy dunks or shots. The more fans you have, the harder matches become. At the end of each run through Galaxy Tour, you unlock more of the mode's ending cutscene, which isn't exactly a captivating reward, but it's cool to have some kind of single-player, linear mode to work through. This is also where you can find a few different kinds of trials, like tests of platforming skill that task you with scoring dunks while avoiding hazards and other obstacles. Captured on Nintendo Switch (Handheld/Undocked) The other main mode is Mutator Madness, which sees Dunk Dunk add a whole load of modifiers and changes to the game to shake things up. These include things like an anvil ball that stops you from jumping, a ball that becomes invisible every few seconds (forcing you to keep track of it), and modifiers that randomly teleport you somewhere in the arena during a match. It's fine, but not particularly engaging, and we found most of these modifiers to be way more annoying than enjoyable to toy around with. They can also appear in Galaxy Tour and some of the other challenges. The fact that these changes are just thrown in and changed up in the middle of a match is also frustrating. There isn't an announcer or text telling you what each modifier does when they are introduced while playing. Instead, the ball will just change to an anvil, or you will be teleported randomly, with only a tiny symbol signifying the modifier is active. The abruptness of these mutator shakeups left a sour taste in our mouth, and we often found playing with them spoiled the core gameplay of Dunk Dunk. Captured on Nintendo Switch (Docked) Finally, there are a few different ways to play matches. You can hop in and play a competitive tournament with up to 16 players locally or compete in individual matches. There are also specific challenges that are similar to the individual matches in Galaxy Tour to try, as well as Mario Kart-style tournament cups to complete. Nothing groundbreaking, but enough options to find something you will enjoy.