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| Dux, like put up your dukes, right? |
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| I must have seen Sport Sport like, a million times! |
First, I must preface and say that I am a product of the 80's. The movie that I watched more than any other movie in my childhood was Bloodsport. In Bloodsport, Frank Dux, a man who was trained by an old mentor that has recently passed away, comes back home to kick some ass in an underground fighting tournament. Sounds like a hit movie, right? Many martial art flicks from the 80's followed a similar plot. AND THEY ALL ROCKED.
Punch Club is a fighting simulator that pays homage to fighting games and all the glorious action movies from the best decade ever.
The story starts with your father training hard and telling you how important fighting is. Fight is life. He gets killed and you're there to see. You seek revenge, with your fists. You train and manage your time to become the best fighter ever. Do you have what it takes?
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| Punch Club references many fighting games and action movies, as you can see from just this one screenshot! |
You have full days where you can work, train, or fight, to make your fighter happy. You have to work to earn money for food and access to gyms. If you're not training enough, your fighters stats start to drop. Different kinds of training will build up your fighter's strength, agility, or endurance respectively. Leveling up in a certain kind of training will grant your fighter different skills. Leveling up agility will open up more skills that pertain to that stat and not other ones, for example. The best thing to do is figure out what kind of fighter you want to be and work towards that goal.
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| You earn skill points after each fight in which you can use to train your fight to become the brawler he was meant to be. |
Fighting in the game is not a button-mashing frenzy that made many of the games that punch club references great. It's a strategic, thought out process. Each fight happens in rounds and you choose what tactics you want for round. Do you want the to block or dodge? Make sure you activate it in between rounds. Just make sure that you plan accordingly and watch your energy and life meter. Each decision you make can decide whether you go home with the prize money, or a bloody nose.
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| Punch! Kick! It's all in the mind... |
You can move around the map by bus or walking. The bus costs money but doesn't waste time, and walking does the opposite. As you move to each location, random encounters with thugs can happen in which you can decide to test your mettle with a little punchy-kicky.
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| "You look like someone who's about to get his ass kicked, with my fists!" |
Remember when I was talking about how Punch Club is an homage to fighting and action movies? The references pop up so often and done so well that it never feels forced or gets old. They are refreshing especially if you know the source material. It's honestly my favorite part of this game. From slightly altered names that are a sly nudge to their actual counterpart, or parodies of scenes from movies.
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| This crocodile reminds me of some other sewer dwelling karate masters, but I can't quite put my finger on it. |
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| This guy just asked me to punch him as hard as I can. What should I do? |
What makes this game so rewarding is winning the fights. There is so much work that goes into keeping your fighter in top-notch condition for fighting. I lost my first three fights and I could have put the game down and walked away. I didn't.
I trained hard, I managed my fighter to how much time he worked to make sure he had plenty time to train before getting a good night's rest. Now my fighter is working his way up the ranks and can even participate in prize fights. Most importantly, he is winning fights. Father will be avenged.
If you're looking for something fun and different to play, play Punch Club. It's a lot of fun and you can get it on Steam or straight from the developer.
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| Any game where you can pet your cat is well worth the price, right? |
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