Punch-Out!! is one of my favorite franchises of all-time and it simply doesn’t have enough entries in the series or games that try to copy it’s formula. When I found out about Pato Box, it looked like Punch-Out!! with a Mad World-esque art style, I was very interested.

You play as a boxing Duck that just lost a fixed fight, and you are out for revenge against your management team/mob that backstabbed you and set you up to lose. The story is kinda goofy, but you can tell the developer had fun creating it. As you go through the Casino’s floors you will have to punch office chairs into a storage room, dodge gigantic swinging blades, play some casino games and navigate various other situations to spread out the fights. I respect the attempt at a campaign and some of the puzzles, and again, the goofiness is a bit entertaining, but any puzzles and challenges mechanics are similar to what you’ve seen in many games before.

My biggest complaints and problems with the game unfortunately is the fighting. There are 6 fighters, a machine (which is like a rhythm based fight) and a final boss that replays all previous fighters Shang Tsung style. This is by far the most important aspect of the game, and the controls are simply not responsive enough to handle the dodging and quick strikes that are necessary for a boxing game like this. Some of the opponents also had inconsistencies in their recovery time for attacks, they would throw a barrage of power punches and miss, but the opportunity for me to counter them never opened up, sometimes missing a combo didn’t phase them. I can appreciate the attempt here, but I simply would not recommend this to anyone unless they are truly dying for another Punch-Out!! type of game. I grew a whole new appreciation for Punch-Out!! after playing this.

• Interested because of the unique art style and I’m a Punch-Out!! fan
• Made it to the final boss (which is just replaying all of the previous fights) and didn’t feel like finishing.
• Got stuck on some fights, but finished through trial and error
• Felt like the controls weren’t as responsive as they needed to be

• Physical Limited Edition [Asia Import – PLAYasia Exclusive] (Switch)
• Digital Copy (Switch)