Knockout City

What to Know

Critics Recommend

Average Score

Total Reviews: 52

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Knockout City restructures dodgeball into a competitive team sport, with varied and fun game modes and tight controls. The game lacks content at launch, but the base experience is strong, and there is a lot of room to grow.

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Critics Recommend

Critic Reviews: 52

Critics Consensus

# Reviews: 52

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Critic Reviews for Knockout City

Critic Reviews

Score Distribution

52

Reviews

Average Score - 81/100

81%

Ranges

4.5/5 stars

Connor Sheridan (GamesRadar+)

Velan envisions a game full of rival Crews, each developing their own infamous aesthetics and playstyles, and I’d love to be part of something like that. But that will only happen if Knockout City can carve out enough of a niche in a very competitive online space to cultivate its own online community. I don’t know if that will happen right now, but I can say that Knockout City feels unique to play, look at, and listen to. It’s not the first time dodge ball has been recreated in video game form (props to Kunio-kun and the rest of the Super Dodge Ball gang), but it is a unique fusion of arena combat and the original gym class contest of champions. Most importantly, it’s a hell of a lot of fun to play.

May 21, 2021 |

Full Review

Velan Studios put an impressive amount of work into a confluence of themes and mechanics that all work together in harmony for a symphony that resonates with a rubbery thwack. Everything feels polished to a degree that is rather monumental for a day one launch, and their plans to support Knockout City for the foreseeable future will ensure it stays downloaded on my hard drive.

May 24, 2021 |

Full Review

9.5/10

Chandler Wood (PlayStation Lifestyle)

9/10

Chris White (God is a Geek)

It feels like a lot of care has been put into Knockout City. The gameplay offers a satisfying loop, and the amount of customisation is staggering. As time ticks on, Knockout City could prove to be a big hit.

May 21, 2021 |

Full Review

Connor Sheridan (GamesRadar+)

4.5/5 stars - (Read Review)

Chandler Wood (PlayStation Lifestyle)

9.5/10 - (Read Review)

Chris White (God is a Geek)

9/10 - (Read Review)

**Read all 52 critic reviews on the desktop version of VSG.

Read the Reviews (52 total)

Outlet	Author	Score	Date	Quote	Read
Areajugones	Miguel Varela	7.6 / 10	05-21-2021	‎Knockout City is a fun multiplayer video game that takes advantage of a well-designed playable section, and very accessible mechanics that work wonders. As it is a game as a service it is inevitable that doubt will arise whether it will be able to have enough personality to be considered a success, and even if the base is good and the developers have great plans for the future, there are certain superficial elements that deserve to be explored in greater depth.‎	Read review
Atomix	Rodolfo León	80 / 100	05-26-2021	Knockout City is an addictive dodgeball arcade game that manages to stand itself apart by delivering quick, fun-paced gameplay. Unfortunately, right now there´s not much content out there.	Read review
Attack of the Fanboy	Diego Perez	3.5 / 5 stars	05-21-2021	Knockout City is an absolute blast, even if it doesn’t have many reasons to return after players have had their fill.	Read review
But Why Tho?	Jason Flatt	8 / 10	05-23-2021	Knockout City is, indeed, a knockout. It’s absolutely a blast, and despite some small issues, it’s an entirely creative and sharp concept and execution. I only hope the fun lasts after the initial buzz and free play period dies down.	Read review
Checkpoint Gaming	Tom Quirk	8 / 10	05-31-2021	I have played many online multiplayer games in my time, but Knockout City has made a better first impression than most. With its easy-to-understand mechanics, along with the complex mind games involved in almost any interaction, it is very satisfying for quick play sessions. Despite some technical issues and a lack of single-player content and diverse game modes, what is there at launch is a lot of fun so far.	Read review
Critical Hit	Darryn Bonthuys	8 / 10	06-02-2021	Knockout City is both easy to pick up and deviously simple in its design, hiding a layer of complexity behind more casual gameplay that fans will discover the more they become invested in it. There’s some standard launch-month polishing left to be done still, but Knockout City lands more hits than misses with its high-stakes gameplay and cunning combat, resulting in a multiplayer experience that’s both fun and intense at any given moment.	Read review
Daily Mirror	Jasper Pickering	4 / 5 stars	05-21-2021	Knockout City is a fresh take in the sphere of competitive gaming that takes a simple idea and runs with it leaving for some incredibly memorable online encounters though not necessarily for all the right reasons.	Read review
Destructoid	CJ Andriessen	8 / 10	05-27-2021	I’m shocked with how well Knockout City turned out. It’s easily the biggest surprise of 2021, something everyone should give a go while it’s still free to try.	Read review
Digital Chumps	Nathaniel Stevens	7.9 / 10	12-07-2016	Velan Studios’ Knockout City is a fun game that anyone can pick up and play. It has everything it needs to be a go-to competitive game that is destined to find its way regularly on an Esports schedule. If the promised content is consistently delivered, then it will certainly stick around for years to come.	Read review
DualShockers	Kyle Knight	7 / 10	05-21-2021	Overall, Knockout City is a quirky game that players will find most enjoyable when teaming up with their friends. It struggles with pacing from time to time and could do with some quality of life improvements such as POI names for competitive callouts, some form of a mini-map to locate teammates, and a menu overhaul. However, it balances elements that players will feel familiar with whilst also successfully putting an individual spin on things.	Read review
Eurogamer	Vikki Blake	Not Recommended	06-02-2021	Velan Studios transposes the sport of dodgeball into what’s a fun, friendly shooter that bears no arms, though it currently lacks legs.	Read review
Everyeye.it	Giovanni Panzano	7 / 10	05-21-2021	It took only a few hours spent in the company of Knockout City to understand how it is a title with great potential and concept able to capture the attention of users belonging to all age groups due to immediate and fun gameplay. It remains to be understood how much and how it will be supported by the developers, but the premises leave us optimistic about the future of the game, especially since it seems that the disastrous launch of Rocket Arena has taught EA a lot.	Read review
Game Informer	Brian Shea	8.5 / 10	05-21-2021	At launch, Knockout City lacks in content, but it makes up for it with a strong base game and a ton of potential to grow in the future	Read review
Game Rant	Noah Vaca	4 / 5 stars	05-25-2021	Knockout City is a genre-defying take on the team-based multiplayer game, where players are not just teammates, but also tools and assets for one another. And although Knockout City struggles to find an identity, the game’s ability to excel in accessibility while holding a high skill-ceiling makes it easy to pick up and even easier to keep playing.	Read review
Gameblog	Alix Dulac	8 / 10	06-08-2021	We probably have our game for the summer with	Read review
GameGrin	Danielle Winter	6.5 / 10	05-21-2021	On the right map with the right team, you’ll encounter some fantastic PVP moments. Though tonally it’s more miss than hit, Knockout City is at least worth trying out; but without much variety of content as of review, I’d wait until the game reaches its potential.	Read review
Gamerheadquarters	Jason Stettner	7.7 / 10	06-03-2021	Knockout City is a blast, filled with some wild and wacky over the top dodgeball action.	Read review
GameSpew	Richard Seagrave	8 / 10	05-21-2021	Knockout City has surprised me. It has all the ingredients of a successful multiplayer game: an enjoyable core gameplay mechanic, a high skill ceiling, and the promise of continuous and meaningful support. It’s the type of game I could easily see becoming a popular esport. If you’re after a new competitive online game to play that’s fun and rewards teamwork, be sure to give it a try. If you’re an EA Play or Game Pass Ultimate subscriber, you don’t even need to pay anything for it. Velan Studios has taken the simple concept of dodgeball and turned into one of the most original and enjoyable multiplayer games I’ve played in quite a while.	Read review
GameSpot	Alessandro Barbosa	8 / 10	05-28-2021	Knockout City’s surprising depth coupled with its approachable mechanics make it an engrossing new multiplayer offering.	Read review
GamesRadar+	Connor Sheridan	4.5 / 5 stars	05-21-2021	Clever and unique dodgeball battles make this an easy pick, especially during the free trial.	Read review
Gaming Nexus	Eric Hauter	9 / 10	05-23-2021	Knockout City is a rollicking good time, restructuring dodgeball into a competitive team sport that anyone can enjoy. Appropriate for all audiences, there is plenty of fun here for casuals and the hardcore crowd alike. Knockout City leaves plenty of room for the game to grow and expand, making it a solid platform for success as a living game. Bright, cheery, inclusive fun.	Read review
GamingBolt	John Cantees	7 / 10	05-26-2021	Knockout City brings more to the table than you might expect, but still leaves a couple of much-needed ingredients at home. As a result, its fate as a multiplayer game is unclear.	Read review
GamingTrend	Travis Northup	90 / 100	05-30-2021	There are few games that have ever made me scream in anger or shout with unbridled joy as often as Knockout City and I absolutely can’t stop playing. It’s a near-perfect team multiplayer game packed with strategy, heart, and an incredibly impressive level of polish. Even if it’s a bit buggy and lacking in content at the moment, I can’t recommend it enough.	Read review
God is a Geek	Chris White	9 / 10	05-21-2021	It feels like a lot of care has been put into Knockout City. The gameplay offers a satisfying loop, and the amount of customisation is staggering. As time ticks on, Knockout City could prove to be a big hit.	Read review
GotGame	David Poole	9 / 10	06-03-2021	Overall, Knockout City is a blast to play. It offers a unique dodgeball game that’s easy to jump into and have a good time. It takes a little time to get the timing right, but once you get used to catching and master the different ball types, you can dominate the playing field.	Read review
Guardian	Simon Parkin	4 / 5 stars	06-05-2021	There’s sublime fun in jet-cleaning a town, and a dodgeball-themed knockout contest has one eye on the Olympics	Read review
Hardcore Gamer	Kyle LeClair	4 / 5 stars	05-27-2021	Knockout City is easily one of the most pleasant surprises so far this year, managing to turn a game of dodgeball into an addictive and high-octane multiplayer brawl with a unique Zeerust twist in its aesthetics and silky smooth gameplay that anyone can get into. Hopefully it still ends up being a success after the current trial period, because it would be amazing to see just how massive and fun of a city Velan Studios can eventually make.	Read review
Hey Poor Player	Andrew Thornton	4 / 5 stars	06-08-2021	With style to spare and refined gameplay, Knockout City knows exactly what game it is. That happens to be an excellent, highly addictive, online slugfest.	Read review
Hobby Consolas	David Rodriguez	76 / 100	05-21-2021	Knockout City manages to stand out as a multiplayer in the field of gameplay thanks to a different, but familiar premise. Its accessibility invites everyone to participate, but it is in other aspects where it stumbles. A series of business decisions relegate his formula to something fun, but one that could have accomplished much more.	Read review
IGN	Jarrett Green	9 / 10	06-02-2021	Knockout City’s fantastic spin on dodgeball combat has surprising depth, making it one of the best team-based PvP games in years.	Read review
LevelUp	Drishnar Abigaíl Labastida	7.5 / 10	05-25-2021	Knockout City is a balanced title and a fun game to play: victory or defeat is defined by your skills and not classes, perks or anything that gives players an advantage above others. Even so, with its current game modes, there is little motivation to keep fighting dodgeball style.	Read review
Luis Alamilla	Luis Alamilla	9.5 / 10	05-21-2021	Knockout City is shockingly, and I say this because it didn’t win me over until I got my hands on it, one of my favorite games of 2021. It finds a great balance between crafting a fun adrenaline rush experience that feels so well thought. It’s a budget-friendly multiplayer game with ease of access through a free trial and being on game pass, performance is solid across all platforms, it doesn’t dive deep into microtransactions and it’s overall a fun time without the toxicity of most modern online shooters. Outside of 1 or 2 bad online connections and perhaps a bit wider player pool game modes, I’m very happy with Knockout City and I can’t wait to finish editing this so I can get back to playing.	Read review
Nintendo Enthusiast	Dominick Ashtear	8.5 / 10	05-21-2021	Disclosure: The author of this article was sent a press mailer. This did not affect the review in any way.]	Read review
Nintendo Life	PJ O’Reilly	9 / 10	05-24-2021	Knockout City is an absolute blast, a colourful arcade sports game that’s easy to jump into for newbies with plenty of depth and strategy for crews looking to become the ultimate dodgeball champions. With four modes and five stages currently on offer, tons of unlockable cosmetics, daily challenges and cross-play/cross-progression included from the get-go, this one has hit the ground running and there’s absolutely no reason not to jump into the free trial and see how you fare.	Read review
NintendoWorldReport	Joshua Robin	9.5 / 10	05-29-2021	I’m floored by how much I enjoy Knockout City. Despite the first trailer for the game being a bad way to sell the concept of the game, I always thought it looked good. I never would have guessed that Knockout City would be excellent. I haven’t had this much fun with my Switch or any other game console this year. Velan Studios has made an outstanding experience in Knockout City.	Read review
Paste Magazine	Moises Taveras	8 / 10	05-21-2021	It’s inexpensive to boot and simple to keep up with, making it markedly less of a chore to log into, have fun with for an hour or two, and hop back out of unlike most service games. It’s got a fun style and look to it that makes it all the more inviting, and solid enough mechanics to master that I feel satisfied coming back to practice. Straight up, it’s also just fun as hell to play something that isn’t so grim or serious, making Knockout City a success in my eyes.	Read review
PC Gamer	Morgan Park	90 / 100	05-28-2021	Knockout City punches above its weight as a complex and uniquely fun competitive brawler.	Read review
PCMag	Jordan Minor	3.5 / 5 stars	05-25-2021	From its neon graphics to its tactical mechanics, Knockout City’s take on multiplayer dodgeball is over-the-top in all the right ways. It just sits in an awkward limbo between free and paid games.	Read review
PlayStation LifeStyle	Chandler Wood	9.5 / 10	05-24-2021	I can’t get enough of Knockout City. Velan Studios put an impressive amount of work into a confluence of themes and mechanics that all work together in harmony for a symphony that resonates with a rubbery thwack. Everything feels polished to a degree that is rather monumental for a day one launch, and their plans to support Knockout City for the foreseeable future will ensure it stays downloaded on my hard drive. Every once in a while, a special game comes along that redefines the rules; that finds a unique concept that nobody knew they wanted, but that everyone ends up loving. Knockout City is one of those special games, a passion project built on originality that will surely go on to be bigger than anybody could have initially imagined.	Read review
PlayStation Universe	Callum Self	8 / 10	05-24-2021	Whether you’re a fan of multiplayer games or not, it’s hard to not recommend Knockout City. Velan has developed an exciting and refreshing take on an often overlooked sport, with varied and fun game modes and tight controls that lead to matches you will remember long after finishing. Right now Knockout City is great and I am excited to see where it will go in the future.	Read review
Polygon	Owen Good	Recommended	05-21-2021	Charging up a shot is still essential, as that makes it faster, and therefore harder to catch or dodge. A lot of successful Knockout City plays, for me, came down to knowing how long to charge up a shot. At certain close ranges, additional power is unnecessary. But there I was, in close-quarters range, laying on my right trigger out of … instinct? blind faith that a stronger attack is better? … while my unarmed opponent caught a lucky rebound and immediately bullseyed me. Other times, I fired way too early from a longer range, which often ended in my shot getting deflected in midair by someone else’s throw.	Read review
Push Square	Stephen Tailby	9 / 10	05-25-2021	Knockout City is a brilliant multiplayer brawler. Its well-balanced, skill-based gameplay is a joy, providing players with surprising depth just beneath the surface. While the number of maps and modes on day one is fairly small, the fun factor means this doesn’t really matter, and updates will bring extra content to the game post-launch anyway. With a ton of customisation options, rewarding progression, and constantly engaging matches, this is knockout by name, knockout by nature.	Read review
Rapid Reviews UK	Jordan Campbell	4.5 / 5 stars	05-23-2021	Admittedly I was sceptical about what Knockout City would be like looking from the outside in. As an adult, it is difficult to take games with cartoon-style graphics seriously sometimes, I’m looking at you Fortnite. The truth is when titles like this are developed properly and pushed in the right direction they can be a massive success. Being old enough to recall the 2004 hit movie Dodgeball (which was hilarious by the way), I often wondered how well this ideology would transition to a video game.	Read review
Screen Rant	Cody Peterson	4 / 5 stars	05-26-2021	Knockout City is in a strong place to capture the hearts of both casual and competitive gamers alike. Its cutesy graphics hide deeply rewarding dodgeball-throwing mechanics that never fail to be both entertaining and engaging. Once ranked leagues and other gameplay modes pick up steam it will be interesting to see how many gamers jump on the bandwagon. Player engagement is always difficult to predict, but as a product, Knockout City has a chance to be a truly special game based on its mechanics alone.	Read review
Shacknews	Donovan Erskine	8 / 10	05-21-2021	I was thoroughly impressed with Knockout City. Velan Studios has created a dodgeball game that has solid mechanics and is really easy to pick up. The skill ceiling is also incredibly high, making room for some really competitive gameplay. With a plan to heavily support and add on to the game over time, Knockout City is a welcomed addition to the sports game pantheon.	Read review
Sirus Gaming	Conrad Huang	8 / 10	05-25-2021	Overall, despite the issues it has, Knockout City has lots of potential with proper updates for many gamers and can reach great popularity as well. I highly recommend this new game for all gamers who are trying to look for something that will change make their heart beat faster than expected and who are trying to test or challenge themselves in competitions.	Read review
SpazioGames	Marino Puntorieri	7 / 10	05-21-2021	Knockout City is a fun gameplay experience, but how (and if) it will find a long lasting place in the crowded games as a service market is yet to be seen.	Read review
The Games Machine	Gabriele Barducci	7.6 / 10	05-27-2021	Knockout City, as it stands today, is a very entertaining online multiplayer game, easy to learn but not without its own compexities. Future growth is alway fickle and hard to predict when it comes to online games, but Knockout City might be able to carve out its own niche.	Read review
VGChartz	Lee Mehr	6.5 / 10	06-14-2021	Certain issues are tough to dodge, but Knockout City’s nuanced foundation still shows promise.	Read review
Wccftech	Kai Powell	7.5 / 10	06-07-2021	Knockout City plays with some interesting ideas to turn Dodgeball into a simple competitive shooter, but it’s clear Velan Studios has spent more time building a robust microtransaction system than appealing content.	Read review
We Got This Covered	Josh Nichols	4.5 / 5 stars	05-25-2021	Knockout City is a different kind of multiplayer experience in a sea of looter shooters and crafting systems. It’s not just different though — it’s a special game that’s only going to get better as time passes.	Read review
Windows Central	Zackery Cuevas	4 / 5 stars	05-21-2021	Knockout City is a simple concept that feels great to play, both alone and with friends. It’s the kind of live service game you dream of	Read review

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Game Info

Game Description / Storyline:

Team up and duke it out with rival Crews in Knockout City™, where EPIC DODGEBALL BATTLES settle the score in team-based multiplayer matches. Throw, catch, pass, dodge, and tackle your way to dodgeball dominance!

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