Rule No.1, we don’t talk about Punch Club
It’s 2016, a new year, and another year that I’m out of shape. Having said this, I’m also too broke to go to the gym because I need to stock my fridge with the food that’s making me out of shape. I need food for energy, without it, I don’t have the energy to go to work, to workout, to train, but more importantly, my fiance will get upset when I focus my attention more on my job than spending time with her. Punch Club, a boxing/fighting sim, like any good life sim, samples the harsh realities of reality, but the delicate balance of great role-playing systems that makes this street-fighting simulator more badass than my usual day-to-day of fighting crime and just being a top bloke. Unfortunately, becoming a champion is a tedious affair, and one I seldom have time for.
Punch Club combines my favorite part of persona’s life management with a surprisingly deep set of RPG options as you bring your mundane macho man Randy Savage into the martial arts spotlight. It’s about eating healthy, hitting the gym, going to work, grocery shopping, and making friends all contribute toward the ultimate goal of annihilating every other guy who enters the ring, whether it’s on the books, in the street, or in a shady fight club, every guy’s dream lifestyle. It’s a premise that can become quite laborious, but devising an efficient routine breeds a special sort of deserved satisfaction.
It’s an intensely hands-on kind of game, that is, ironically, until you actually start fighting, which can take some time, depending on your life choices.
I enjoyed managing my fighter’s stats and skills, accomplished by focusing on certain workout routines and upgrade paths, because my progress is clearly shown when I enter a fight. Like a fighting coach, I dictate the important stuff outside the ring, what key moves he should use against a particular opponent, but when my guy goes in the ring, it’s up to his AI to use his abilities. Sometimes that’s a huge gamble. Punch Club isn’t a sweet science, relying more on random elements and behind-the-scenes math than skill-based play. Winning, even when you’ve outmatched an opponent, isn’t a certainty, which is sometimes extremely frustrating. The flip side of that is that it feels great to clobber someone who outclasses you in basically every way.
Part of that gratification comes between rounds. The unlockable active abilities like a kick that crushes enemy stamina in one quick blow, or a low-accuracy but powerful punch that occupies a limited number of slots, which brings in a smart, if basic, strategic layer to Punch Club. I loved adapting to my opponent’s strengths and exploiting their weaknesses. See that their stamina is low… bring out the big guns with a more aggressive round than last time. Your fighter hasn’t enough HP to survive the next round, try change out a risky attack for a block or dodge skill. Winning isn’t a guarantee, but Punch Club, like a good fight game, earns its tension from not knowing for certain how the athletes will execute.
These systems are much more complex than its appearance would have you believe. The developer, Lazy Bear Games have put a lot of work into the overall art of the game and with catchy chiptune music, it brings a beloved Super Nintendo retro aesthetic, which plays well with the silly but inconsistent tone. The dialogue is intentionally dumb, usually to emphasize a Ninja Turtles or ’80s action movie in-joke. This is a world reliant on references, which is a shame in that it never has a personality of its own.
Although having said all this, I did lose interest playing Punch Club repeatedly despite enjoying it quite a bit. A few of its jokes genuinely had me in stitches such as the Brad Pitt character homage to Fight Club’s Tyler Durden sent me on a quest to visit his twin brother, a knock-off Mickey from Snatch. But in the end, Punch Club gains very little from its pop-culture references to Pulp Fiction, Jay and Silent Bob, and Bloodsport. These smart references only bolster how good the originals were, so there’s nothing particularly interesting, memorable, or likable about this world.
Over time, the routine of a training regimen and living the life of a fighter wore me down. I found myself stuck in a rut of doing the same repetitive activities until I could chip away at the long-term goal of building a home gym, or increasing my strength stat enough to survive a particularly challenging brawl. Sometimes this lasted hours. Expensive upgrades can prevent degradation beyond a certain point, but it feels like a waste when there are far more seductive upgrades.
After hours of entertaining, hard-won success, falling into a grinding rhythm is severely demotivating. I lost interest in playing Punch Club repeatedly despite enjoying it quite a bit, purely because I struggled to free myself from the same crap, different day routine that I’d found myself stuck in. I changed course, focusing on training and relationships instead of fights, which were easier as I’d fallen in rank due to skipping matches. Eventually, and out of nowhere, Punch Club doubled down on inconvenience, forcing me to take on two opponents in one league fight. The payout was huge, but not easily earned.
Punch Club became a constant, demoralizing struggle that shattered my enthusiasm. I grew intensely bored, frustrated, and eventually bitter. Enduring the grind gradually got me out of my hole, but after 20 hours which consisted of the vast majority spent not fighting with plenty more ahead, I’d have sooner started over and played differently from the beginning than finished my first playthrough. I decided to stop playing altogether.
Craig’s Thought’s:
It’s RPG, it’s The Sims on acid, part Fight Club, Punch Club is deceptively deep, with a rewarding life simulation and RPG systems. It’s bursting with personality, reliant on bygone eras and pop-culture references to establish its lighthearted and fun tone. Punch Club is tedious at times, thanks to an unfortunate level-down systems that artificially extend the road to the championship with grinding repetition, but its upgrades, stat growth, and more compensate with satisfying depth.
