Super Punch Patrol (Nintendo Switch)

Powah Dunk | September 17, 2020 | Review | No Comments

Super Punch Patrol is the latest title from Bertil Horburg, the mastermind behind the Gunman Clive games and Mechstermination Force!. Dropping the guns for fists let’s see how this plays out!.

Super Punch Patrol is easy enough to describe as the pure essence of scrolling beat em ups. The genre is having a healthy come back as of late with Streets of Rage 4, The Takeover, Rogue Justice and Battletoads, Super Punch Patrol is here to offer a nice alternative to them and won’t deplete your wallet either!.

Graphically Super Punch Patrol is a little weightier than that of Gunman Clive’s minimalistic look but still pulls it off. It looks just like the developer has magic sketch pad which brings his creations to life, it has such a fantastic visual flair you can’t help but smile when you start it. There is also a subtle colour scheme in that your heroes are blue, enemies are red and the scenery is colourless, simple but effective.

The soundtrack is about as addictive and engaging as you would expect from the genre, there are some fantastic ear worms in here but nothing really Streets of Rage worthy, hardly a knock considering the composer!.

Super Punch Patrol has 3 playable characters which cover the usual characteristic for the genre, balance, strength and speed. Each character has another 4 costumes you can unlock through play.

The gameplay involves you walking to the right, or skateboarding in 1 instance and punch/kick/throwing fools dispensing street justice 80s style. Food is hidden in barrels on the street in the form of birthday cakes as are gems for points. You have a special move which damages you but hits hard and has a decent AoE which is what you need when surrounded.

The game is around an hour long which is standard really for a brawler, has several difficulty modes and supports local 2 player co-op, there are also online leaderboards if you’re into that kind of thing. While it doesn’t have an over abundance of different content it is standard for the genre and much cheaper than its kin!.

Aside from some hefty damage scaling in the difficulties there isn’t anything bad I can say about the title. Sure it’s not the most original outside of the art style but the core content is great and for a fraction of the asking price of other titles like it you can’t really go wrong.