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Metascore
73

Mixed or average reviews - based on 30 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
7.1

Mixed or average reviews- based on 153 Ratings

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  • Summary: Train hard, fight crocodiles and find love. Earn your place in the Punch Club ranks, and discover who brutally murdered your father, in this choose your own adventure boxing management tycoon.
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 30
  2. Negative: 1 out of 30
  1. Jan 14, 2016
    90
    Lazy Bear Games have created a retro themed-world that is wonderfully entertaining and simply must be experienced by gamers far and wide.
  2. Jan 24, 2016
    80
    The final score-card on Punch Club is that it packs a huge amount of game into a tiny little package. This game, despite its cutesy appearance, is actually a pretty deep and sophisticated recreation of a struggling fighter’s life.
  3. Apr 6, 2016
    80
    Punch Club is not a game for everyone. Fans of the genre will love it, but a certain repetitiveness makes it not recommended to those looking for adrenaline and action in a videogame.
  4. Jan 22, 2016
    75
    Truly an homage to the glorious eighties, Punch Club is an interesting project with a good challenge level, partially ruined by passive fights and a repetitive campaign.
  5. Apr 6, 2016
    70
    25% point-and-click and 75% sports manager that starts out light-footed and turns into a heavy slugger towards the end.
  6. Jan 22, 2016
    70
    While it wasn’t at all what I expected, I found myself enjoying it more than I probably would have, had it been the brawler I anticipated.
  7. Feb 4, 2016
    40
    In a nutshell, Punch Club acted like a stamina-fueled boxer and wore me down. Over time I found myself loathing the training process I originally felt happy progressing in. What started as a fun progression from nobody to star became a tedious task of increasing numbers that may or may not affect the outcome of a fight.

See all 30 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 10 out of 32
  2. Negative: 7 out of 32
  1. Jan 18, 2016
    10
    Nice game! RPG with elements of the sandbox. FIGHT CLUB in 16 bits! Nearly.
    Well it is killing time. It's nice to kick ass to those who stand
    Nice game! RPG with elements of the sandbox. FIGHT CLUB in 16 bits! Nearly.
    Well it is killing time. It's nice to kick ass to those who stand in your way a champion!
    Better some AAA projects (you know ;D).
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  2. Jan 15, 2016
    9
    This game is... I don't know how to describe it. Oh wait, I think I can describe in just one word: awesometacular. Really creative game. It'sThis game is... I don't know how to describe it. Oh wait, I think I can describe in just one word: awesometacular. Really creative game. It's really addictive, I could play it all day. It has some flaws though. It's flaws include it's lack of logic and reality. Other than that, this game is great. It's not popular YET and it has no fanboys YET; therefore making it great. Expand
  3. Nov 17, 2022
    8
    Топ Инди мира, сюжет - кайф, прокачка персонажа - кайф, пиксели - кайфеееее.
  4. Aug 1, 2020
    6
    Интересно ровно на одно прохождение. На 2, желание полностью отбивает гринд.
  5. Nov 27, 2016
    5
    I spent the weekend playing Punch Club. While the game starts off fairly fun, the amount of grinding involved in the game quicly becomesI spent the weekend playing Punch Club. While the game starts off fairly fun, the amount of grinding involved in the game quicly becomes apparent and show's Punch Club's true nature.

    A "boxing sim" in the loosest terms possible. You are a struggling street fighter on a quest to avenge your murdered father. The game is pretty simple, work to earn money, use that money to buy food and access to the local gym and train your stats.

    I wouldn't have nearly as many problems with Punch Club's level of grind if it weren't for the awful decision to include stat regression as a game mechanic. If you are not constantly training your character, their stats will decrease and by quite a bit. Even when you are TRAINING every new day your stats will decrease, so even if you spent 24 hours in the gym, the second it's a new day, you'll lose progress.

    This in itself wouldn't be such a big deal if you could continue to build your stats at a speedy pace, the issue with this game though, is while you will eventually have access to some limited new equipment to train, none of it is ever really better then the older stuff. You'd think as the game progresses, you'd be able to unlock better gear to really get into shape, but that isn't the reality.

    The game takes inspiration from classic movies like Rocky, even going as far as taking names and character concepts from the movies. There's even plot point that closely resembles the films. What the game actually lacks are the amazing movie training montages.

    I think that this was a real missed oppertunity for the developers. There should have been some sort of training montage mechanic that allowed you to really boost your stats. I don't know why they didn't include it, as it would have fit in really well.

    The game also misses the chance to grow your character in other ways. You'll never buy better clothes for yourself, or cars, or nicer homes. You'll always take the bus, or walk and while you may "move into" nice homes, they aren't yours and you get changed by your promoter to live there.

    In the end, while Punch Club has some cool ideas and concepts, it focuses too much on the numbers and not enough on fun and campiness of the actual movie genre they were trying to emulate. If they would have fleshed the game out a little more, added more for the player to do, it would have been much better.
    Expand
  6. Jan 29, 2016
    5
    It reminds very much of Mafia Wars, it is a grinding game with a bit of humour about old action movies. I had kinda enjoyed playing but thatIt reminds very much of Mafia Wars, it is a grinding game with a bit of humour about old action movies. I had kinda enjoyed playing but that is because it as it takes on the ocd side of me and this will not leave me with any nice memory for the future. I don't want to encourage anyone to develop this kind of games, you don't need to be intelligent to beat this management game. Expand
  7. May 3, 2020
    0
    After first positive impression you realise that this game is clearly made for mobile devices and casual players.
    Gameplay looks like this.
    After first positive impression you realise that this game is clearly made for mobile devices and casual players.
    Gameplay looks like this. You make decisions just by pressing apropriate buttons. By buttons I mean graphical representation but in reality you could realise such game as buttons and progress bars.
    Most time spend in game is only by watching main character working out and fighting and this is like 10 hours of watching progress bars. I guess developers could just instantly present results of fights and workouts but story is so shallow that you could end up the game in 1 hour. Game is broken by design, management of money, your stats, possible paths of skills, everything is not consistent because you have to always invest into agility. Skills are gimmick in this game. All in this game is designed to make your progression slower the higher you get. Grind intensifies later and after all of that ending is just disapointing and stiupid. Yes I finished and cant recommend. Purchased for $2.49. Do not overpay for this mobile game.
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See all 32 User Reviews