Punch Club | Cheerful Ghost

Punch Club on the Switch is a Solid Port of a Fun Game

Travis gives this a solid "Rad" on the Ghost Scale

This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.

Travis gives this a "Rad" on the Ghost Scale

This is fun, with very few issues, and is well worth your time.

TinyBuild was kind enough to give Cheerful Ghost a key for this game for our review. Thanks TinyBuild!

In Punch Club, you play as a boxer trying to make his name in the ring, and in unlicensed fights. And you fight mutant alligators. But while it may seem like a boxing game, it's really not. It has more in common with tycoon games, and the old Dope Wars games that came out around the turn of the century.

You essentially have to manage your sleep/energy/hunger/etc while making sure you have enough time to get to matches, and making sure you have enough money to do what you need to do. You can select the stats you want to improve by the different exercises at the gym, and... Read All TinyBuild was kind enough to give Cheerful Ghost a key for this game for our review. Thanks TinyBuild!

In Punch Club, you play as a boxer trying to make his name in the ring, and in unlicensed fights. And you fight mutant alligators. But while it may seem like a boxing game, it's really not. It has more in common with tycoon games, and the old Dope Wars games that came out around the turn of the century.

You essentially have to manage your sleep/energy/hunger/etc while making sure you have enough time to get to matches, and making sure you have enough money to do what you need to do. You can select the stats you want to improve by the different exercises at the gym, and you need to pick skills for your fights that match well with the stats you're strongest in, but you don't actually get to control the fights.

And that gameplay loop really works. It's a satisfying resource management game. The only issue I had with it was that the default may be a *little* too taxing. There's an easy mode that's just way too easy, but the normal mode can get frustrating early on.

That frustration dies down after a couple hours, though, but crops back up sometimes when you really don't want it.

I also really wish we could actually control the fights. I feel that this addition would provide a nice action break between the grindy-by-design life sim parts. I'm not complaining about that grind, it's a fun game loop and it pays off, but some variety would help here.

Overall, however, this game really works and I definitely recommend it.

As for the port: I played this most on PC, as that was the original (along with smartphones) and I wanted to compare the two. But the Switch port really holds up. Everything runs perfectly smoothly, and looks as you'd expect. The controller mappings feel natural after only a couple minutes. The only issue I have with the port is that, while the game runs on iOS and Android with touch controls, there's no support in the Switch version for the touch screen. The controls are great but some repetitive tasks like moving around on the map and selecting your skills in fights could be greatly improved and sped up by using the touch screen.

This is, however, a minor complaint. I may actually prefer the Switch port because this just feels like a curl-up-on-the-couch-with-a-handheld game to me. This is odd, because I don't prefer handheld gaming, but I recommend playing this one in handheld mode. It's the same controls either way but it feels more personal and engaging that way.

If you have a Switch and want a fun, low-pressure game to play to take a break from stomping goombas and gliding around Hyrule, this is a great game to have.

Punch Club Brawls It's Way To The 3DS

Punch Club dropped on 3DS recently and publisher Tiny Build was nice enough to gift me a copy so I could try it out. If you haven't played Punch Club or are unfamiliar with the game it's a fighting tycoon game where you train your character and manage his stats such that you improve over time to rise in the ranks of the local boxing and underground fighting scene. Like all tycoon games that focus on core stats you have to science the right numbers to progress through the ranks to level up your abilities to fight increasingly tougher and tougher foes. The story included in the game wraps the whole game up well and gives you a nice incentive to progress. Ultimately if... Read All

Twitch Prime Continues It's Rewards With 2 Free Games & Twitch Game Launcher

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Amazon recently debuted it's new Twitch Prime service that allowed existing and new Amazon Prime users a free Twitch subscription and some fun Hearthstone DLC. Since I already had Amazon Prime and play Hearthstone signing up for the free stuff made sense. Amazon mentioned that there would be monthly benefits to Twitch Prime and this month they are releasing some free DLC for Watch Dogs 2 and giving away Punch Club and This War Of Mine: Anniversary Edition. If Amazon keeps dropping free games and premium DLC every month it really makes the prospect of Twitch Prime a much sweeter deal. With that the free games don't seem to be Steam codes like you might expect.... Read All

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 11/02/2016 at 05:54am

I found out about the newest Prime free stuff in what seems quite a while ago. None of it interests me, though, so I don't really have any intention of grabbing any of it. Let me know what you think of it if you grab any of it.

As for the launcher, yeah that kind of sucks. Why are there so many game launchers? Ugh!

I have created a Twitch account because of Twitch Prime. I subscribed to two of my favorite YouTubers there and added Ark to my interests. Other than grabbing the Hearthstone stuff, I haven't done anything else with it. I haven't even watched any Twitch videos.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/02/2016 at 06:04am

I'd recommend trying out Pumch Club as it's a really interesting fighting sim.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 11/02/2016 at 06:18am

I might figure this out before you reply, but where do I download the launcher from?

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 11/02/2016 at 06:26am

Ok, I think it's like last time. I look at my channel and on the left is a "FREE WITH PRIME" list. I don't see the new stuff there now, so it might not yet be available. I imagine when it is there it will lead you to download the launcher. That's just an assumption (and hope) though.

Oh and can we get our Twitch usernames on our CheerfulGhost profiles just like we have Steam, PSN, etc.?

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/02/2016 at 02:19pm

Yeah good call, I'll add that to our profiles.

AdamPFarnsworth wrote on 11/02/2016 at 03:08pm

Just a random thought about Twitch. I've been watching it lately really late overnight (I am working in a Red Cross disaster shelter in North Carolina and have the 8pm to 8am shift, so I have a lot of free time). I've not found a ton of actual games that I enjoy watching, but some streamers do other things, like karaoke (sometimes they're pretty bad singers, which just makes it more fun lol). I enjoy the players who interact with the viewers and have found it can be a lot of fun :)

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 11/02/2016 at 09:56pm

@Jon heck for that matter, why not add Bethesda.Net and Origin on there, too? LOL

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/03/2016 at 02:56am

Oh, I thought Twitch would have a public profile available for users, apparently it doesn't.

Currently we only show other public profile links on someones Cheerful Ghost profile page. For instance, my StarCraft II and Diablo III pages are public, so we link to them.

Our Battle.net tags and stuff aren't public so we don't link them up on the profile page. We need to figure out a good way to share this private account stuff with people you want but so far we haven't built anything for that.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 11/03/2016 at 03:32am

Ah, I see. Well really we don't need to link everything. There's no need to make things more difficult for CheerfulGhost. What we can't or don't link can be asked for or advertised, such as my name on pretty much everything is GregoPeck. :)

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 11/10/2016 at 04:11am

I see the Watch Dogs 2 content, but none of the others.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 11/10/2016 at 04:18am

I found the Twitch Launcher download link here:
https://help.twitch.tv/customer/portal/articles/2574721-twitch-prime-game-code-redemption-and-installation

Which points to this direct link:
https://launcher.twitch.tv/TwitchLauncherInstaller.exe

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/10/2016 at 04:40am

Yeah, I don't see the other stuff either. Maybe you need to install the launcher to get the games?

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 11/10/2016 at 05:07am

I did that and it said "no games." So maybe the other stuff will come later, I guess.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 11/10/2016 at 05:56am

Yeah it might be an eventual rollout for the whole month?

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 11/19/2016 at 02:01am

This War of Mine is now available!

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 11/24/2016 at 05:48am

Punch Club is now available!

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