Nintendo World Report

You bet on the wrong fighter if you put your money on this one. This game was rigged.

How do I start? I really wanted and tried to like Punch King. From the screenshots, it looked like a Punch Out sequel, what with the Little Mac-style boxer and all. However, all that legacy and longing to be a Punch-Out game or even a respectable boxing game went out the window upon play. So many problems line up from the start, it's hard to find redeeming qualities in Punch King.

The graphics are a mixed bag, the characters are kinda pixelated and ugly, while the backgrounds are pretty good as far as photorealism goes (That Buddha looks nice.) Animation is kinda jerky, leaving some punches near impossible to dodge. About the characters themselves, they seem to follow the Punch-out shtick of having some sort of ethnic theme to the boxers. However, these boxers lack the character that the Punch-Out have, and some border on being stereotypical, like the Sumo wrestler from Japan (Come on, try harder). There is also something odd about Tiger Armstrong (your fighter) himself, who appears to be a white man on the box, is black in the cutscenes, and kind of Hispanic in the ring. It's as if Full Fat could not decide a race, so they elected to choose all of them.

Sound is also a mixed bag The actual sounds of the punches are like movie punches like *THWACK* and stuff, not realistic sounding but kinda funny. The music is somewhat bland. They could have tried a lot harder here. Those who make it to the Mexican Boxer will know what I am talking about when it comes to music.

Now up to here, remarkable, or even decent gameplay design and execution could save this game from being just GBA filler, but unfortunately this is where the game falls shortest. The game has the basic model of a Punch-Out style fighter, with a stamina meter, a knockout punch meter, and a health meter. The stamina meter detracts from the game greatly, as sometimes both you and your opponents will have used all of your meter up, and just be standing there bobbing up and down waiting for it to fill up at the slow rate it does. The knockout meter does not give you a super duper knockout punch, oh no. It just lets you punch without losing stamina. Why they call it a KO meter is a mystery. The design itself is simple, knock the other guy down until he stays there. Easier said than done. Much easier. The hit detection on this game is absolutely horrid. Many punches that seem to hit nothing actually hit you. There are times when your fighter will be completely off the screen because the other guy is jumping around, and he will punch at nothing and somehow succeed in connecting to you, who has just magically appeared in front of him to take his punch. Punches that seem to connect will not register. These two facts make some of the boxers special moves impossible to dodge. There is no point to make a strategy in this game, because even if you try to dodge right after he telegraphs his punch, he will still hit you. The game now becomes a slugfest to beat the other guy before he can make his unblockable special moves, of which some, like the Sumo wrestler's, knockdown instantly, making the game cheaply difficult and a crapshoot to actually beat the game.

Control is actually very responsive and the best feature of the game, although there is sometimes a little lag between press and action. Nonetheless, the quality of control is of no consequence, for the game's hit detection mars any control you do.

There is a lot of potential that went to waste here. They "could have been contenders," so to speak, and I attempted to enjoy this game, but there was too much wrong with it. If you must play it, rent it or borrow it from the unlucky soul you would become should you buy this game. Not recommended at all.

Score

Summary