KungFu Kickball [Xbox]
Developed by WhaleFood Games - a one-man game company helmed by Jonah Wallerstein - KungFu Kickball is a football X kung fu mashup, where you can play with and/or against CPU characters, friends, and strangers in a battle of who can score the most goals. To score a goal, you must hit the ball into your opponents bell, with a very satisfying chime.
With a few different game modes available, you’ve got Arcade, Versus, Training (which has a Tutorial as well a Target Practice - which is much harder than you’d think!) Custom Match and Tournament which are all available for Local Play; and Online Play has Quickplay 1v1/2v2 as well as options to either Host or Join a game. Whilst waiting for a game in Quickplay, you can Practise while you wait, which is a pretty useful thing to include.
Arcade mode has three difficulties, Apprentice, Teacher and Master, each of which will unlock a new character for you to play as, with them getting progressively more difficult - and thus making it more rewarding to gain these new characters after all your hard work. Each of the modes feel very similar with not too much variation to them, which is a shame. The fun definitely comes from the fast-paced matches, and playing against other people, whether they are friends or strangers. As we’re reviewing it pre-launch, we’ve found it to be quite difficult to get a game of Quickplay with anyone else online, however I expect this to change come launch.
The controls feel a tad floaty, and your chosen character will slide around the levels, making things quite hectic when everyone is trying to get near the ball - but once you learn how to control the characters well, the whole ‘quick to learn, hard to master’ thing becomes apparent. There’s only a few simple buttons to remember, with X being to punch, as well as to kick when holding in a direction, B to do a tele-dash, which zaps you forward (crucial if your opponent manages to get a good run towards your bell!) as well as a special attack, which is done by holding X and A before releasing simultaneously. A few things kept throwing us off, including powering up your kick, which is done by holding in X - which for some reason would always trigger a kick prior to the hold being recognised, which isn’t great when you want to powerfully kick the ball, and end up giving it a small tap before the powered up kick builds up. Likewise, the special attack seems to only be able to be done in the air, making it a lot harder to pull off successfully when trying to hit the ball - but comes in useful when there’s a lot of players in your way!
The art direction, done by Juno Mendiola, is absolutely gorgeous and the game opens with a really well done cinematic to briefly introduce you to some of the characters. There are eight to choose from, with five available at the start and an additional three characters to unlock. They each have their own benefits, such as The Assassin being a little quicker than others, and the Drunken Boxer having his own fighting style, so it’s good to try out each to see who you like playing as. Each of the six playable levels are unique in their layout, with some having various blockades to make it harder to reach the opposing team’s bell, and others having little bumps in the terrain that will catch the ball. The Desert level even has sandstorms that appear from time to time, and this obscures the view as well as putting pressure on the ball, making it go shorter distances when kicking, or veering it in one direction independently. The soundtrack by John Fio is really enjoyable to listen to, with tracks ranging from ones reminiscent of Dragon Ball Z and other anime, to more rocky tracks - but they are all consistently excellent, and work well with all of the levels.
Overall, KungFu Kickball is a fun game in short bursts. It doesn’t take long to work your way through the Arcade mode - although it does get pretty challenging on the harder difficulties - and the Tournament mode doesn’t change things up too much, so the most fun you’ll get out of this is as a party game and playing with/against other people, as this is where the competitive side will take over (our kids have already been screeching at each other over how quickly a game can change in someones’ favour). So if you’re looking for a fast-paced ‘hard to master’ game to play with friends, you can pick up KungFu Kickball for £12.99 on the Xbox Store (with a slight discount bringing it down to £10.39 for a limited time).
In the end, we decided to give KungFu Kickball the Collecting Asylum rating of 7.5/10.
Are you interested in KungFu Kickball? What do you think of it?
Let us know in the comments below!
- V x
Thank you to Blowfish Studios for the KungFu Kickball Xbox review code!
