Pro Jank Footy Screenshot
Image: Powerbomb Games, Tinker Town & Umbrella Gaming

Alright, I admit it, I do not understand Aussie Rules Football. I barely understand regular football. No, please do not try to explain the offside rule to me; my brain will cry. Fortunately, I don't think you need to understand much of anything to enjoy Pro Jank Footy. Coming to us today from Australian indies Powerbomb Games & Tinker Town, it's a throwback to that classic era of larger & louder-than-life arcade sports games with a pick-3 roguelike twist - every goal scored lets the celebrating team change the rules.

It honestly looks like a lot of daft fun. Arcade sports games of that era tended to be anarchic, often-confusing experiences where just about anything could happen on the pitch, and this one just leans into that concept. Score a goal, and maybe you draft your Dad's Car onto the pitch, power-sliding randomly through players. Maybe a giant DVD player logo bouncing around and causing havoc. And of course, you can just summon a dog that really wants to play, because there's no rules against a dog playing football. Or was that basketball? It's some sport ending with 'ball', at least.

Interestingly, Pro Jank Footy boasts some legit comedy writing chops, with the writers behind unhinged pulp adventure parody Danger 5 handling the words for this one. A good call, as there have been so many comedy games that fall short - having a great mind for technical game design does not mean that you're necessarily good at getting laughs. I'd hazard a guess that most of the writing comes into play in the single-player Season mode, which adds deckbuilding mechanics to the mix, with your options expanding with each oddball team defeated.

To top it all off, the game seems to be doing well with the user-review crowd on Steam. There are some complaints, but they're mostly about initial online multiplayer matchmaking issues or the (optional) CRT filter being a bit too aggressive. Nothing that can't be hammered out in a patch or three, and while the online side is being hammered out, at least the game has good old-fashioned local multiplayer.

Pro Jank Footy is out now on Steam for £12.45/$15, with a 10% launch discount running until August 26th.