What Stikbold! is
Stikbold! A Dodgeball Adventure is a top-down action sports game built around dodgeball, made by Game Swing. You throw balls at opponents, dodge what comes back, and try to be the last one standing. The physics-based hits and player-controlled hazards make rounds swing hard and fast, and the game leans into that with a colorful, arcade-style look. Matches can end with a salty BAM, and a knocked-out player can take revenge from beyond, so nobody sits idle for long. The whole thing runs on a 70s disco soundtrack that keeps the pace up.
Playing together
This is a local multiplayer game first: up to 4 players on the couch, either free-for-all or in teams. Six levels each bring their own theme, challenges and hazards, and you can trigger hazards yourself, since playing unfair is part of the fun. On top of the main matches there are four mini-games, plus a new level and four more hectic mini-games added in the Couch Overtime update, so a group can switch formats when one mode starts to wear thin. You can also change the rules to reshape how a session plays, which helps when one group wants chaos and another wants something tighter. Remote Play Together is supported, so friends who are not in the same room can join a session.
Before you start
There is a story mode you can play solo or in co-op, and it is how you unlock the full roster of quirky dodgeballers and earn achievements. Expect the difficulty to come from the hazards and the physics as much as from the other players — rounds are described as occasionally hilariously unfair, and that is intentional. The game is tagged as family friendly and party oriented, so it suits mixed groups, but the competitive edge is real: it is meant to test friendships. Give the rule-changing options a look early, since personalizing the match setup is the easiest way to keep a group playing the way it likes.