Even more than thirty years after its original release, Punch Out! is still one of the best arcade boxing games in the world. At least I think so, but I doubt I’m alone. The mechanics are simple enough to grasp without being overly complex, and the cast of characters is bursting with personality. There have been plenty of attempts to bring a similar experience to mobile with varying degrees of success, and the latest attempt is a game called Prizefighters by Koality Games and it looks like it has some serious promise. As you can see below the character models are highly inspired by Punch Out! but so are the mechanics. Games will revolve around left and right high punches and mid punches and blocking or dodging, as well as learning your opponents’ moves to know what to react to. Check out these early gifs.
The touch controls also sound really well-designed. Here’s the developer explaining them: “The screen is divided up in half horizontally and vertically so that there are four total inputs. The left side of the screen controls your left arm, and the right side controls your right arm. Tapping the top half of the screen will target the face, and tapping the bottom half will target the body. These are your basic attacks and are quick to execute.
Holding your finger in any of these quadrants will ‘charge’ up your punch for a strong attack. For example, holding your finger on the top and right side of the screen will charge up an uppercut for the strongest attack in the game. Because these punches take longer to pull off, you’re more vulnerable to a counter attack by the opponent and can result in a stun, so be cautious of when to use them. They also consume more stamina than a basic attack.
You can guard your face by holding down two fingers anywhere above the horizontal axis, or guard your body with two fingers below. Dodging is executed by swiping either left or right. If you get knocked down, tapping the screen will get your fighter back up."
Prizefighters will also add an RPG-ish progression, where you’re able to create your own boxer and then upgrade their abilities in various ways. There will be a meaty-sounding Career mode where you start out as a lowly up-and-comer and must battle your way through 29 of the top boxers to bring yourself to the top of the world rankings. Opponents are randomly generated so no career is the same twice, and along the way you’ll battle against three champions in your pursuit of obtaining the world title. This is in addition to a more pick-up-and-play Arcade mode and an online multiplayer mode that’s planned for a later date. It all looks really great to me so far and there’s TONS more information about Prizefighters in our forums. Plus an open beta test will be starting up soon so head over to the forum thread and check out more about the game and throw your hat in the ring for potential beta testing.
