Punch Club Review

The Verdict

In the end, Punch Club looked like a fun, light-hearted sim game that ended up being a way better game than anticipated. It could do with a bit more in the way of interactivity, but it does present itself as a fighting simulator and not a straight forward fighting game. It delivers a lot more than it advertises, so these gripes are only so big.

Punch Club was more than satisfying for what it was selling. Anyone with a love for 80s/90s pop culture will find a number of laughs, and those looking to basically be Rocky Balboa’s 16-bit cousin will feel right at home.

The Positives

• The graphics are amazingly nostalgic of the Super Nintendo era. With references and Easter eggs that harken back to a better time. Sounds, music and animation feel straight out of the 90s and yet the mechanics are refreshing and new.

• On the subject of mechanics, they are surprisingly deep for an indie game. While indie games are great, many tend to find one fun gimmick and hope that they carry the rest of the game but Punch Club was introducing new elements to the game every 10 minutes or so, making it seem much more robust than expected.

• With the size of the skill trees and the need to focus on one or two stats, the game lends itself to multiple playthroughs. One build may focus on strength while another focuses on stamina and agility. These builds play pretty differently and bring different experiences. There are also multiple rings to enter in the game, ranging from a ring fight, to a street fight. Each one has their own positives and negatives, but not all of them can be tackled at the same time.

The Negatives

• Fights are a little less interactive than would be desired. Players select their carefully trained skills and put them in the repertoire of moves they can use in that round. Then they watch what happens. This isn’t as boring as it may sound, as a fight can go from a piece of cake to a knuckle sandwich in a matter of seconds. However, a bit more interaction would really help make this game shine. Perhaps it could use selectable special moves with cool-downs a la World of Warcraft that need to be timed perfect to take out an opponent. Maybe some mini-games to time hits correctly that get progressively easier as the player levels up.

Remember Rocky Balboa and his infinite sequels? How about the Ninja Turtles? Street Fighter? Punch Club is the 80s and 90s mashed into a Super Nintendo-style sim game. The developers, tinyBuild Games, are the same minds behind No Time to Explain and SpeedRunners and their love for references and good content shine through with their latest title.

Punch Club starts with a typical 80s movie intro. The main character’s dad was a ring fighter who was met with a bitter end when thugs shot him in the street in front of his child (You). Time passes and the child grows up with one dream: To take up his father’s mantle as the ultimate fighter, but you start out at rock bottom. The player must keep themselves fed, work for money, work out at the gym and enter ring fights to climb the ladder to number one.

Fighting in the ring consists of rounds. Before each round, the player’s moved are chosen. To start, the choices are quite limited, but there is a robust, branching skill tree that eventually shows the complexity of the fighting in Punch Club. Even working out is a specific task. Different work outs raise different stats, which there are three of, and these stats can be used to unlock certain skills. In the world of Punch Club, a middle of the road fighter does far worse than one who focuses on a certain skill.

The three stats in the game are strength, stamina and agility. Raising these stats allows different skills to be unlocked, but they also help in fights differently. Strength determines how hard a character hits their opponent. Agility determines their ability to dodge attacks. Stamina is its own bar that shows how tired a fighter is. Each move takes stamina, so the more stamina a character has, the more they can hit or dodge. These skills can be trained, but they also are lowered over time, much like a real fighter who gets out of shape, making Punch Club a pretty realistic simulation in a way.