Knockout City Soundtrack, The Soundlings, 2021
Just about any sport in existence has been immortalised in at least one video game (well, maybe not synchronised swimming – yet). Still, some sports have arguably proven more popular than others once turned into interactive screen entertainment. One of the sports rarely encountered in video games is dodgeball. Maybe that’s because of its inherent simplicity and lack of strategy. However, the same features can also be a strength since they make it easy to transpose dodgeball into new settings and gameplay modes. Case in point: Velan Studios’ Knockout City, which sees teams of players chasing each other through the titular futuristic city, trying to knock each other out by hitting their opponents with a ball. Sure enough, when asked why they went with dodgeball as the game’s core gameplay component, Velan Studios CEO Karthik Bala responded that it was an “intuitive” sport whose concept everyone understands.