Smash it Wild

If you can dodge a wrench…

Smash it Wild, developed by Goblinz Studio in collaboration with Ernestine, is a rather unique tactical sports roguelike, taking the fundamentals of volleyball, dodgeball, and having that work around the roguelike progression of that one more run. Roguelikes often succeed on their addictive qualities, giving you increased incentives on jumping back into them time and time again. It’s a formula that has been part of some of the best games ever made.

Smash it Wild is a solid title, one full of charm, color, and character, but it lacks that addictive quality to keep me coming back. Progression outside of a run is fairly minimal, and can be a tad too slow to really feel like you're making a dent in future runs to make you feel stronger and able to really throw down when the challenge starts to increase. That said, there is still a very good game here that does excel at being fun, engaging, and providing that tactical feel of min-maxing your team to victory. 

Smash it Wild is built around a series of tournaments. You have a set team of three that you'll eventually be able to replace with a few other teams, but I ultimately kept with my Penguin, Polar Bear, and Fox, because I felt we had something special. The Arctics were my team through most of the game, but teams like the Elysians, Shamans, and Radiants all offered a ton of unique abilities that certainly teased a changing of the guard from time to time. 

Games are won when you've scored two points, and then pushing through a calendar of events, rewards, and training sessions, all equipped to increase your stats and boost your overall skills. For my chosen team, the Arctics, it was doing what I could to boost their skill of placing ice on the field. This skill allows me to continue to attack several times if I targeted a frozen area, boosting this skill was paramount to my success. The Shamans, for example, place totems around to reinforce their teammates, while the the radiants create off-field zones where players can score. 

While winning will net you currency, such as gold and inspiration, you can use this to make your team better for the run as losing will set you back at the main menu and you'll then start all over again. While you do earn a different persistent currency used to unlock skills, either passive to the whole ordeal, or built around your specific team, I felt I wasn't earning it fast enough to really make a dent. These are represented as Common Contracts or Team Contracts. Common Contracts have unlocks such as unlocking new relics, starting with more gold, or free rerolls at the store. Team Contracts are team specific, but are the same three options; unlocking a relic, an epic passive, or learning a new attack, albeit individually unlocked per team. 

Smash it Wild is strictly about the sport, as there is no story mode or narrative, meaning your attachment to your team is purely visual or based on their abilities. There is an announcer that pops in every now and then, but nothing toward your team. Teams are made up of various animals, such as Foxes, Frogs, Dogs, Bulls, Deers, Eagles, Turtles, and Birds. The art design is very charming, with each team dressed up based on their team synergy. 

Each team is built of three characters that serve certain classes to balance out the team. Some are built to tank, dish out damage with a powerful spike, or rely on positioning as you'll need to cover the court so the other team cannot score. And since positioning and defense are key, you'll want a strong team that is balanced to meet your needs. And with being able to purchase and equip items, as seen below, you can tip that balance even more in your favor, or make up any gap you may have had.

Each match takes place on a grid-based court. Each turn has you positioning your players and then choosing a skill to power your shot. For my team, the Arctics, I would focus on placing patches of ice on my opponents side, which allowed my Fox to fire off consecutive shots, once I unlocked this move, draining the defense and positioning of a single player in one turn. Limiting your opponent's ability to cover the field is crucial to winning as mobility is what keeps you active. No mobility, and you cannot reach the grid slot to stop the winning shot. 

When an opponent acts, you can choose which player to react to the shot based on their mobility. This will illustrate how much defense they are losing and how it will impact the rest of the match. When you can see a green ball icon on the court, you'll know you can score the point to end the round as no one on the opposing team can make the move to stop the shot.

Depending on your shot, ability, and skills, you’ll hit them hard and affect those around them, or knock them back and often into other players. This causes the gameplay to be heavily tactical as you want to maximize the amount of damage you inflict to the other team. This has you balancing between defense and offense as you think of up plays, materialize traps out of thin air, and set up the opposing team for failure as you out think and out play them. 

As you progress through the calendar, different options will show up. Often, and this is highly recommended, do everything to boost your gold earning and sparks of inspiration, as you’ll use those currencies to have a chance to upgrade your team, boosting their resistance, mobility, and strength. This is crucial in the more difficult cups as it is easy to be outmatched very early if you are not prepared. 

I’ll point out that many may look to Smash it Wild as a typical sports game, but it really isn’t. The sport is layered on top of the presentation and gameplay, but the real game here is one of a tactical nature with much behind the scenes and utilizing the builds you have made for your team during that run. This makes Smash it Wild not feel terribly accessible to newcomers to this type of game. There is a short tutorial, but it will take you several matches to really understand how all its mechanics work. This is a game where they expect you to fail a lot, as you learn and experiment with the mechanics and rules of the game. 

As this is a roguelike, success can often feel like that of hoping that RNG is going to bless you with the right skills and calendar moments to really improve your team. I made it to the final page of the second tournament only to get some lackluster options that resulted in a game over as my team just wasn’t prepared for that final battle. This is a constant in any game in the genre, so Smash it Wild isn’t doing anything wrong here. 

What does sting a bit is there is no versus option to play outside of the roguelike mode. So sure, I get what this game was before I requested code and before I installed it, but I really wish there was some sort of multiplayer mode, or an online versus as you take on other players. I’ll stress that this doesn’t impact my score as it’s sort of just wishful thinking on my part rather than a real drawback. Still, I could see people buying this game without really investigating what it is and then realizing it doesn’t have any sort of multiplayer, given it is a “sports” game, to a degree. 

Smash it Wild is a fun, colorful, and charming game, with plenty of character to its cartoon visuals. Each court is nicely detailed, and the cast of characters across each time is wildly fun. The game’s visuals also help in detailing your shots, their effects, and all the visual language signs to make an important play that could win you the game. 

All that said, while Smash it Wild looks like a sports title, it really isn’t. This is a tactics game wearing the skin of a volleyball/dodgeball scenario that is designed around stats, movesets, abilities, and your skills. It looks the part, but the depth here might not vibe with some players expecting a tad more sport out of it. Regardless, the pair of studios here certainly has something special here that could be worked on to heighten and develop the systems around its roguelike qualities, creating a balance where sport and skill are proper teammates. 

Developer - Goblinz Studio / Ernestine
Publisher - Goblinz Publishing.
Released - April 16th, 2026
Available On - PS5, Nintendo Switch 2, PC.
Rated - (E) - No Descriptors.
Platform Reviewed - Nintendo Switch 2.
Review Access - A review code for Smash it Wild was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.