The Electro Bop Boxing League is a stylish atompunk autobattler brimming with delightful charm and playful energy.

I don’t much enjoy sports sims, but sometimes an imaginative spin on a sport will sneak past my guard. Electro Bop Boxing League has spins aplenty. You probably could have stopped at robot boxers, Developer Dob. You didn’t have to give it a swaggering electro swing soundtrack as well. Special moves depicted as old-timey computer punched cards? Soldering limbs back on between rounds with a Repair-o-Gun? Little eggheads in lab coats clinging to the back of my gymrat C3PO as he pounds some would-be Megatron to shrapnel? Referee counts presented as a rebooting sequence? Developer Dob, you are spoiling us!

There’s a demo you can play and I suggest you play it, rather than endure my attempts to riff on boxing terminology. I’ll keep this write-up brief. Electro Bop Boxing League is a musical autobattler with a decent dollop of micromanagement and some joyful atompunk presentation.

The opening hurdle that might turn away a few players is that the majority of commands have to be entered on the beat. This includes: completing the button combos for those punchcards; massaging your various gauges to keep your robot mobile, dukes up, and running at an optimal temperature; and button-bashing your way out of a clutch (here represented as a tug-of-war over which robot gets zapped by the other side’s accumulated static electricity).

The whole world and HUD twitches and jiggles to the score, helping you nail the prompts, but still, I found this exasperating in the demo – until I realised that you don’t have to match the tempo exactly and continuously. Just hitting the odd beat will do.

The robots are beautiful vintage creations – all Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em elbows, caterpillar treads and lightbulb eyes. It feels like there’s some decent depth of customisation here, too, though I wouldn’t put this in the same league as Armored Core VI: Fires Of Rubicon. The career mode sees you unlocking new parts, abilities and passive crew skills from daily manager events. You can also have tourists come view your budding George Forebot to earn some extra dosh, at the risk of them breaking something.

It’s out… soon! April 18th, which is barely a month away. Read more on Steam.