Dunk Lords

This game is an absolute gem! It's a total love letter to the golden era of 90's gaming and culture even - the music, the gameplay, the over-the-top hilarious and zany effects, the aggro silly one-liners - everything together brings back the entire old school blissful feel of that era while also feeling contemporary in its polish and quality. While playing the game you can easily tell that this was a labor of love - the gameplay mechanics feel 'just right', the pacing of the gameplay is perfect, the game is quite challenging but never cheap, and the story mode is varied enough with twists and turns that make it a very engaging experience. The characters are inventive and unique, the one liners are superb (I just love Marlon the bear's voice clips, especially when he goes Mega). I felt so much nostalgia and joy playing through the story mode - which even as a single player experience is worth the price of admission! - and the game really shines playing it with a buddy or in a group, bringing back the couch co-op fun and camaraderie of the old school era. The soundtrack deserves a huge shoutout - from the title song, a chill hip-hop groove filled with ear candy, to the absolute treat at the end credits that is so good I don't want to spoil it - it is all a really fantastic achievement. The blend of hip hop / jazz / 16-bit era tunes accompanying the courts keeps you grooving along, each song being melodically rich and memorable, perfectly accompanying the feel of each of the varied stages. There are too many goodies to list here, and on top of the great intro and credits themes, special shout outs to the miniboss court theme, boss court theme, rooftop court theme - alright there are truly too many to list, but each fit so well and at times I wanted to just stop the action and appreciate the music by itself. I will definitely purchasing the soundtrack to this one once it is available. I can’t recommend this game enough. Story mode was a joyful experience from start to finish, and multiplayer has incredible replayability. The passion and joy of all those involved in making this game comes through loud and clear. A fantastic experience.

Lots of depth and character. If you're a fan of NBA Jam you can't pass this one up! I played it at PAX(2v2) and the crowd really got into it. Has a single player campaign mode and a descent tutorial. Boom Shakalaka!

Absolutely fantastic arcade game! If you like Street Fighter & NBA Jam this game's for you! Tons of depth and replayability, amazing with 2 or more players on the same system.

This game is basically the greatest basketball game there is. 10/5 stars if I could. I have been anticipating this game every PAX and its finally here. Definitely worth 20 dollars. The story mode is great, and by far the greatest is the CO OP - you can have sooo much fun playing with friends, pulling out clutch plays and buzzer beaters. Of course that is not to say that single player is not fun - it most definitely is. It takes some getting used to and the CPU is not an easy roll over which I like because you get a sense of accomplishment when you beat it. Why are you still reading this review? Get it!!

TLDR: basketball, bears, and bops! get it, don't regret it! Dunk Lords offers a really satisfying blend of arcade basketball and over-the-top shenanigans. If you prefer ballin' with a giant bear, an alien pirate with a ray gun, and an anthropomorphic strawberry, as opposed to a pure [strike]boring[/strike]realistic basketball simulation, you won't be disappointed! I've spent most of my time single-player in the story campaign (which also supports local co-op). I found the challenge level to be really good for me. I think I beat about half of the story stages on the first try (not necessarily the first 9 stages but more distributed throughout). The difficulty curve does ramp really fast, but I found there was a good balance between tilting at losses of certain stages and the payoff of figuring out how to outsmart different characters and ultimately prevailing. It really does give a triumphant sportsball feeling when you finally win a match. One match I lost pretty frustratingly 4 times in a row, then I DOMINATED and won by 40 points, and that was so worth it. That was the biggest turnaround, but there were many similar moments of triumph throughout the game. The story itself is just the right amount of ridiculous fighting-game improbable shenanigans that all the characters take for granted, ranging from alien pirates to the supernatural plane. I particularly liked [spoiler]Marlon the Bear[/spoiler] because c'mon, who wouldn't. The soundtrack by Laura Shigihara (Developer/Composer of Rakuen, Composer for Plants Vs. Zombies/many others) is a HUGE highlight. The tunes fit the themes of the courts really well. There are so many nice stylistic touches that are just super satisfying, such as [spoiler]the lobster mini-boss battle which starts with a light sea shanty before ramping up into an all-out battle theme[/spoiler]. If you blended up Mega Man boss themes, hip-hop, and of course a touch of PvZ to taste, then added someone who genuinely cares about the game and making it sound great, well, this soundtrack is an insert-great-sports-metaphor better than that. Most of the OST is instrumental, but make sure you play through the whole story, as the credits song at the end is epic and serves as a perfect reward at the end of the challenging story mode. Like all of Laura's soundtracks, I expected this one to be great, but this one really raises the bar and shows Laura's compositional range. I'll be playing these tracks a lot for motivation. A fantastic soundtrack that adds so much atmosphere to a great game. At initial release Dunk Lords is really solid, and I'm sure the few rough edges are going to be polished out pretty quickly. As far as improvement suggestions, I think there were a couple things unclear in the tutorial, where I had to go through it a second time to catch some of the nuances. Also, (and this may help with the first as well) I would love to just have a practice mode where I could try out moves without an enemy or other constraints (or with a stationary AI). Finally, the dunk slowdown cuts out the music temporarily, which made some of the awesome tracks harder to hear fluidly, particularly the [spoiler]lobster miniboss theme[/spoiler]. I know the silence helps sells the time-stopping effect, so I'm not sure what could be done with that, but that's just a very minor issue I had. Overall a super fun game. I'm looking forward to trying co-op and competitive local multiplayer modes, as I think there's a lot more depth to the moves I could get out of it than just from the story mode. They really slam-dunked this field goal right out of the hockey park!

Welcome to the world of Dunk Lords. A world where an anthropomorphic strawberry isn't the strangest character you'll meet. A world where every disagreement is settled with an extreme game of basketball. A world that is completely ludicrous but somehow makes perfect sense. As someone who is neither a sports aficionado nor a sports game aficionado, I probably wouldn't have given this game a second look. But when I learned Laura Shigihara was doing the soundtrack I new I had to check it out. I'm so glad I did. I played through the story mode in one sitting, to the detriment of sleep. I just couldn't put it down. The artwork, game play, and music come together perfectly to create a fantastic world that kept hooked. Though to be honest, It took me a bit to get going - it's not a type of game I have much experience with, and thus the first few battles took far longer than they should have. But then something clicked. There were definitely battles that gave me trouble later, but even when I was frustrated I was still enjoying every minute of it. The last battle took me an embarrassing number of attempts, with my difficulties being compounded by the lack of sleep. But I refused to be defeated! I'm looking forward to trying the various other modes, and perhaps replaying the story in co-op mode. Oh, and that soundtrack? Amazing. It was good when I was playing, but I was really focused on the game. Listening to the soundtrack later, and then watching someone else play, I was able to more fully appreciate how each song perfectly fit the theme of the stage. The music definitely enhances the hype. And this game is non-stop hype, right through the credits and that incredible end theme. In summary, I came for the sound track and stayed for... everything.

soundtrack: dope dunk animations: dope style: dope controls: dope gameplay: ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ dope 4 player vs: ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ dope online: wack i really wish this game was online. i know proper rollback netcode is hard, i dont blame small indie devs for not implementing it. this game is otherwise P E R F E C T. i had a lot of fun playing with friends over parsec. a proper nba street/nba jam type game that's actually fun and works online is still just a dream.

What is Dunk Lords ? Well, what a disappointment, Im someone who really like to keep searching for a long time the steam catalog during a sale looking for some underrated indie I never heard about that is cheap and fun and that may provide something I may not get from an AAA game, Dunk Lords taking a fast look into the images and videos on the store page made it look like a simple basketball indie game and with its cartoony and colorful visuals I expected that I would get a fine sport game that would be fun and easy to get into, the sad thing is that this game just feels off, the controls are unresponsive and messy, the gameplay lacks a lot of polish and it feels way faster than it any right to be so every match becomes a confusing mess that is hard to keep focused into, the maps are too small for the chaotic gameplay they present here and as soon everyone get their upgrades and special moves it feels like a very unbalanced ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ where every character can hit the ball multiple times without being able to stopped, even the moves responsible for taking the ball back from an opponent or blocking their launch feels useless and unresponsive, it all comes to the a rush to who can "dunk" faster so it feels like a half-assed indie basketball game, I didnt expect it to be a topnotch mario-like sports game with colorful visuals, powers or silly stuff happening like many other similar games does, it actually even does have that but doesnt put it into any good use, I just expected it to be fun and the game isnt, it just feels poorly designed, unbalanced, and messy, so I cant recommend it at all.

This game is what happens if you mix NBA Jam with Looney Tunes, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Works surprisingly well over Remote Play Together as well if you want to B-ball with someone distant from you.

+1 🏀