Punch Club

Punch Club reminds me of Game Dev Tycoon, but with a story, and more options of going about things. The game’s mechanics are very simple, you have three different skills to level up: strength, agility, and endurance. The game will explain what each thing does if you can’t already tell. You go to a gym and work out whatever skill you want to raise. The game does screw you if you don’t work out every day as your stats will lower from the stat decay system. So if you don’t stay in shape, you will lose a lot of fights.

So, in Punch Club you are the son of a legendary boxer who was shot by a mysterious man with a red eye while out walking. (note: the red eye part is very important to the story.) The game doesn’t explain what happened to your mother, but she is not present in the story. You, being a little kid, are now all alone. The officer that comes to tell you of your father’s death takes you under his wing and acts as a father figure to you. Now you aspire to be the greatest boxer ever to avenge your father’s death, and that was only in the first cutscene when you first start the game. The rest of the story unfolds as the game progresses.

This game is full of pop culture references like Batman, the Rocky movies, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Indiana Jones. The references and jokes break the tension of all the fighting, never ending training, and the worries of running out of money. They bring a level of joy and humor to find something that is just completely out of place and you finally get to take a break and enjoy what you have just found, and Punch Club does not wait to start throwing easter eggs at you. There are tons inside your own home, and Mick’s place, which you have to go to within the first five minutes.

Punch Club is more than likely my favorite indie ever as this is my favorite genre of game. The bad thing is that everyone tries to make these types of games, but they don’t add anything new or give you a reason to come back besides to unlock everything. That only works for Roblox Tycoons. If you are going to create a full game based off of this and charge around $10, you need to give us a reason for us to continue playing, and that is exactly why Punch Club stood out to me.

Most of the time the fights you participate in are normal. If you’re clearly better, you kick the shit out of them. If they are much better than you, you get your ass handed to you. If it’s an even fight then it goes right down to the wire and is normally decided on who gets tired first, sort of like real life. If no one is knocked out after three rounds it goes to whoever landed more punches. It’s pretty fair and understandable, although I will say some of the fights you lose are total bullshit. The person will be down to one punch and you still have quite a bit of health left, but then you decide not to dodge, and then the other guy activates Ultra Instinct, becoming untouchable.

Punch Club was developed by Tiny Bear Games.