Fist Puncher

Like a roller coaster ride. Except that you don't fall down into the cold water at the very end but directly among bizarre and violent enemies. This is one of the best action-oriented game I have recently played.

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Fist Puncher is a great game with some flaws.

Fist Puncher is a welcome and extended return to the heyday of brawlers.

This is a game that hardcore fans of the genre are more likely to want to spend some time with. Casuals are better off grabbing something like Castle Crashers or Chronicles of Mystara instead, as they are quite a bit better so far as beat 'em ups on the PC go.

Even though its level design capabilities are kind of rudimentary, the game still manages to give its short intense bursts of action some variety, ensuring that you return to it for another round. This, and the lovingly – and knowingly – dilettantish Amiga-style graphics makes this a really solid sleeper of a game. Had Dungeons and Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara not come out shortly before, this would most probably haven gotten more buzz.

Fist Puncher‘s name fits it well. It’s a game where you punch a great many things and will have a lot of fun doing so. While that fun is hampered a bit with navigation problems, when those don’t crop up, it’s impossible to not enjoy yourself.

With some occasionally impenetrable difficulty and lack of online co-op, it feels like quite the disappointment by the time you put the controller down. If the rest of the game had been better designed, could it have risen above its brawler genre constraints? That’s a question to which we’ll never know the answer.

It's hard to overlook the shoddy boss battles and the lack of online co-op, but if you've got a PC set up that allows for couch co-op, you could do a lot worse than taking Fist Puncher for a spin.