You’re left watching rounds play out and hoping that they go your way, though that doesn’t mean there isn’t a strategic element involved –between rounds you can change up their move set as a means to preserve energy, defend themselves, or even hit an assault as a means to end a fight quickly. Because of this, it’s often best to focus on one particular stat and base your character around it – do you go for all out assaults with strength, try lasting the rounds with stamina, or simply try to out-manoeuvre your foe with agility? Trying to balance all of them out is a tricky (and unenjoyable) task, so simply dedicating yourself to one stat is the way to go.Īs far as fighting itself is concerned, you simply equip your fighter with moves and they battle it out themselves. However, Punch Club is fairly brutal as far as stat degradation is concerned, and you’ll slowly see all three offensive statsdwindle awayif you progress through days without working at them. It almost takes an RPG-like approach in a way, with the player dictating which stat most of the work goes into.

As you improve and expand upon them through training, you’ll open up a skill tree that’ll allow you to unlock extra moves and abilities. To become a better fighter, you need to keep upgrading your core stats,which are strength, stamina, and agility. Of course, there are only limited hours in a day, so you’ve got to balance out earning money, training to fight, and keeping yourself happy during your quest for revenge. This isn’t an easy task though and requires both dedication and the patience to manage almost every aspect of your life. Punch Club puts you in the shoes of a fighter who not only wants to become the best in the world, but also find out who murdered his father when he was younger. Is this a good thing? It can be, though it is guilty of feeling too much like a grind as you guide your fighter through his pop-culture fuelled adventure.

I mean, everything is there – the over-the-top fights, the 16-bit visuals, and the quirky personality.Ī closer examination will reveal that it’s something completely different though, with the game instead more of a time-management-fighting sim than anything else.

Looking at Punch Club, it’d be easy to think that it’s a beat ‘em up that’s come straight from the 90s.

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