Review: Smash It Wild
- Guilherme Ribeiro
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Get ready to play volleyball in a different way.
THE GAME
Smash It Wild is a volleyball roguelite developed by Goblinz Studio and Ernestine and published by Goblinz Publishing and Maple Whispering Limited. Assemble your team of three different animals and enter a volleyball tournament to decide who will become the champion team.
MY IMPRESSIONS
Smash It Wild blends turn-based tactics with a turn-based sport, which works well for the presented concept. Unlike traditional volleyball, here you only need to score one point to win the set. Naturally, scoring that point is more difficult than usual. To score, you'll have to deplete your opponents' stamina, which functions like their health bar. Defending an attack and moving consume this bar. Therefore, what you'll usually want to do to guarantee a point is to completely reduce the stamina of all opposing players to ensure you score, but this won't always be necessary, as you can reduce an enemy's stamina to a point where they can't reach the attacked square due to lack of stamina points, for example. So, a turn always works the same way: there's an order in which each player can act, alternating between teams. You select your attack, which can create disadvantages for the opponent, select where you want to attack, which can be an empty square or directly on an opponent, and then execute the attack. In the defensive turn, you select which player on your team will receive the ball, knowing how much stamina they will lose based on the movement factors required to reach a square, the resistance attribute that reduces stamina expenditure, and the enemy's skill damage. Every movement, before it's made, whether attack or defense, shows the result, including effects, remaining stamina, and movement potential. In championship matches, you need to win two sets to be declared the winner. Winning a set always gives you the option to choose an upgrade for one of your players.
The game's art is quite beautiful, with a cartoonish style and cool volleyball animations, each animal acting exactly like an animal player, if I may say so. Between matches, you'll have random event days, and you can only select one to occur. On these days, you can train new techniques or stats, receive relics, buy and receive equipment, or participate in random events. Unfortunately, the game is not available in Brazilian Portuguese at the time of this review, which may make it difficult for some people to understand how skills, equipment, and relics work. Speaking of which, starting with skills, each team will generally be themed, such as the first team presented having an ice theme and their skills benefiting from reduced movement and freezing houses, for example. Equipment serves to add more advantages to the character equipping it, and can even be improved, adding another layer to your strategy. Finally, relics add a passive ability to the entire team. There are three tournaments that are unlocked gradually, meaning you have to win the easier ones to unlock the next ones. By winning a tournament, you receive points that can be used for improvements that will be permanently applied in your next games, because as the game is a roguelite, when you finish one tournament and start another, you start everything from scratch. I believe that Smash It Wild's greatest strength in keeping players engaged is its increasing difficulty with each tournament, as the initial tournaments are somewhat too simple. However, I understand that this might be to help you understand the mechanics of the specific team you've selected. It's an interesting idea that will appeal to those who enjoy fast-paced tactical games.
ACHIEVEMENTS
The game doesn't have that many achievements at the time of this review, but they will require the player to experiment with each available team, exploring their themes to the fullest, since many achievements are based on the game's mechanics. This, combined with achievements for winning all three different tournament levels, means that players aiming for 100% of the achievements will have to work hard tactically to achieve it, but it's entirely possible.
CONCLUSION
Since I really enjoy volleyball, the idea of Smash It Wild immediately captivated me, along with the beautiful artwork. Initially, I thought the game would be more dynamic because volleyball is a high-scoring sport, but I soon realized it would be dynamic in another way, since you only need one point to win. Scoring is very rewarding because it means your strategy worked. Despite this, I don't know how far the replay value will extend, given the limited number of teams and tactics. Still, it's a very interesting game and great for playing in short sessions.
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