Game #1091: Punch King

  More like Punch Drunk.

 I don't quite remember if I covered Punch-Out for the Wii in this blog, I think I did, but let me get one thing straight... I'm awful at these third-person reflex-based boxing games, and Punch King won't buckle that trend. It's a Punch out clone, and I'm bad at it, which might taint my experience with the game.

 First of all, I want to praise the modes in this game, which is more than I expected. There's an Arcade Mode that actually features a bit of plot, which adds some flavor to the game, even if it's super basic and just translates to a few bits of dialogue here and there. That said, you only get three continues, so if you are awful like me... good luck getting past the second boxer. There's a Survival mode in which you must take down as many random opponents as you can on one life bar, and then there's a VS mode. The game has about 12 different enemy boxers, all of them are either racial stereotypes(Some bordering on racist), some are Punch-Out knock offs and others are both. The Boxers' portraits are a bit ugly, but the sprites are quite decent, a bit too cartoony and undetailed, for their large size, but overall, quite serviceable, and at least they aren't ugly digitized sprites, like the GBA is so infamous for.

 The game is a Punch-out clone, basically, L and R are used to dodge left and right, A and B are right and left punches, couple them with Back on the d-Pad for body blows or Up for hooks. Landing hits without getting hit raises your Star power, once full you get infinite stamina. And you want infinite stamina, because you run out oh so very quickly. Bosses can be cheesed by punching them, and that's why this mechanic exists, so that you must relent at some point and dodge, dodge and dodge in order to build it up. It's super boring. It recharges super slowly too.

 Just like Punch-Out, and I can't stop mentioning that game because it's such a carbon copy, the whole game is about dodging to the right when a left punch comes in, and to the right when a punch comes from the right, so you'll have to learn your enemy's tells in order to properly dodge the incoming attack. Bosses have at least one super move that has special properties that you'll need to learn how to avoid too. There are two key problems with the gameplay. First of all, the controls feel sluggish and unresponsive at times, but even worse... the timing for your dodges is kinda iffy. And the latter complaint is one I found many other people share, so it's not just me being bad. That said, unresponsive controls plus iffy timing make for a rather annoying experience.

 I wish I could praise the game, but... I just didn't have fun with it. I like the fact that it's a Punch-Out clone 'cause there aren't enough of those, but it simply isn't good enough. I'll give it this, they tried, and I feel that with just a little extra polish to iron out the controls could've made it a decent alternative.

 4.0