'Thunder Ray' Looks Like The Perfect Spiritual Successor To Punch-Out

It looks great! What will be interesting is how much of the gameplay they copy / disguise. Is that massive mouth attack simply Bear Hugger's hug that you have to duck? Still, defo one to watch.

Considering Nintendo seems to have no interest in continuing the Punch-Out!! series anytime soon (it's going on 15 years since the last one), I welcome any and all wacky takes on the boxing genre.

This one looks decent enough.

Very cool! Hype!

At this rate all of Nintendo IPs that they aren't using are now getting revive through these indies. The fact that indies are making these as Punch-Out inspiration instead of any other boxing titles (like Ready 2 Rumble for Sega Dreamcast and Greatest Heavyweight Champion from Sega Genesis) from those eras means Punch-Out is the definitive way to play arcade boxing. It looks like Nintendo IPs are going to have their own genre of games soon.

As long as it clears the low bar that was Wade Hixton's Counterpunch.

It's a interesting concept if all else fails, even if the game suck in the end they had the right idea

Great art style.

Holy moly!!!! Before i watched the video i was like, oh another inspired game... But then i clicked on play! Man day one! Looks amazing.

very nice.

hope it will also get joycon controlls

The gameplay might be good, but this art style ain't working for me, unfortunately.

Looks rad. In love with the animation.

This looks great; I can't wait.

This looks great. The last good punch out-like I played was that one gladiator game in the wii that was surprisingly good. I never tried the one we got on switch with the duck and the black and white backgrounds. I’m looking forward to this and the doughboy paper Mario clone.

I think Arms seriously hurt the chances of a new Punch-Out on Switch. It was a good experimental title that tried to capture the Splatoon-like audience, but I would have preferred another outing with Little Mac

Looks right up my alley. I like the grittier and over the top art style. I hope there’s a decent # of unique opponents included. The ones included in the video seem to suggest it. Lots of promise, so to the wishlist to keep an eye on how it reviews.

That artstyle is crazy cool.

Looks really nice. Was hoping for pixel art when I saw the article title, but that is some top-notch hand-drawn. If they nail the gameplay I'll be all over it.

And yet...it acts as another timely reminder of money left on the table by Nintendo. A brand spankers Punch Out might not have the mass appeal they're looking for, but I think a remaster of Punch Out Wii is long overdue.

Nice! Could very well be a great ode to the classic SNES-game!

Very nice nod to Intergalactic Power Punch!

Why Punch Out style?? 😣
Why don't ARMS or K-1 style?? 😩

oh why oh why this game looks more like a successor to Power Punch II than Punch Out...

Looking forward to it. Arcade archives’ Punch Out and Super Punch Out are great but I need a new kind of game, even its fundamentally the same formula but that can be argued for many genres such Street Fighter and King of Fighters. Or the Metroidvania formula. Or how about Rogue/Rogue lite? Or how many other games that play like Enter the Gungeon.

Some comments as to why another punch out style game when not many get made, but then crickets when the next roguelite gets released.

@Serpenterror see "Kart racers"

I really like that art style, I also see that you can customize your boxer, I might have to double dip this game, switch and maybe steam.

I have mixed feelings about it. It could be good but the simplicity of Punch out and its maddening skill set could easily be smoothed over and just become a one and done game. Punch out could have used better physics but what they had was well implemented.

@fpcreator2000
Its very much the imitation game. Companies many times do not innovate, they imitate a once popular game. I get that there are economics to consider but I miss they day when my peers took more chances.

@Zidentia agreed.

@Manly
I personally don't like Punch Out boxing style as you just only hit and Dodge, not moving around like ARMS or K-1.

@Art427 Now that's a throwback nod I was thinking of when I saw this.

I wonder if it'll be better than Pato Box?

Did they just get an AI version of Don LaFontaine’s voice for this trailer? The art looks great, but that voice work for a debut trailer is not the best first showing.

This looks really good, really digging the art style. Hopefully its good as it looks.

@MeloMan lol, you mean that game where the art director looks like he doesn’t have basic notions of design or depth? That game where everything looks in the same depth field in a b/w environment with stuff that looks drawn by a 5 year old?
Yes, anything is better than Patobox, it’s one of the worst indies I’ve ever played if not THE… it’s the very definition of shovelware.

This art goes hard but the sound design sounds pretty cheap

Really liking the artstyle.

@YoshiF2 I don't think you know what shovelware is but it's not Pato Box. You might not like the visuals and you might have felt let down by the gameplay but it clearly had a vision and a goal and a lot of effort went into it, whether you felt like it hit those targets or not.

Shovelware are cheap cash-ins like the 'That's a Cow' or 'AA Clock' that are currently being churned out with different "editions" each week. Minimum effort designed to trick the more casual markets. A game that says "lets make Punch Out! with MadWorld visuals and have it star a muscly duck man" is not aiming for that same target, quite clearly.

@Ogbert one thing is comparing it to Madworld just because it has black and white visuals, which is oversimplifying things… but the art direction is totally terrible. Everything is in the same plane where you need depth for a game like this to work.
The art direction is terrible, stuff get muddled with other stuff, things look cheaply drawn and animated. I’d argue about the “lot of effort” … or at least a game for a really amateur studio.
Maybe shovelware wasn’t the correct term… I’d rather say… a $2 garbage bin game.
I’d argue that, yes, the idea of a good game was there, but next time, fire your art director and get some designer with actual talent or studies.

@YoshiF2 I honestly disagree with you here. I think the art style is fun and the depth works just fine. It's not to your taste and that's absolutely fine, you don't have to like it.

But you also don't have to be quite so aggro and insulting towards it. You didn't like it, move on, be kind, be respectful.

Reminds me of that GBA game Wade Hixton's Counter Punch.
If you ever get a chance to pick that one up, it's pretty fun.
Redneck Punchout.

@Ogbert nah.. i don’t have to be respectful towards the developer for a single reason… I met part of the team at some conventions and one person in particular is a total douchebag.
And I’ve got some dirt on the higher ups via some of the workers there on the work conditions, abuse and treatment of the team, which I won’t mention now, but will when/if there’s another release.
This is unrelated to the game’s “quality” but is worth mentioning as a reason not to defend neither the studio nor the game.

@YoshiFR2 Well without context of any of that you don't come across well in your comments either to be frank about it.

But I actually didn't say be respectful to the devs I just said be respectful. As in here, to the other commenters, to the fans of the game, but yeah also to the devs. Just because you say the high ups are bad (extremely common) and one dev wasn't nice to you doesn't mean the rest deserve to be treated badly.

Two wrong don't make a right, be the bigger person etc.

@Ogbert you can tell me where I’m being directly disrespectful to anyone here, not a single commenter. Just because my opinion doesn’t align with yours doesn’t mean I’m being disrespectful to anyone.
And no, it wasn’t to me, it was to his own team in front of every attendee.
And, again, no…. If we are talking about quality I can dish my opinion just like you. No, the art direction is crap and it affects the gameplay as it just clutters the screen with whatever flatland unstylish junk the director decided to add, as simple as that.
We are done here, won’t waste any more of my time.

@YoshiFR2 If I repeatedly, aggressively, trashed a game you like just because I didn’t like it, that’s not respectful to you and your opinions now is it? As I said you’re welcome to not like it. That’s absolutely fine and valid. Just be respectful about the way you express it. It’s pretty simple. You can just say “it didn’t gel with me, I didn’t like the art and felt it hindered the experience”.

Anyway, I don’t want you to waste any more of your time making you feel the need to reply to me. If you haven’t understood what I’m saying by now it’s either willfull or beyond you right now. I think the former, few are truly the latter. Enjoy whatever you’re playing right now and hopefully next chat we can talk about something we both enjoy!

A simple remaster of Punch-Out Wii would be welcome... I always wanted to play that game more, but with a proper controller.

Also, would prefer a new Ready2Rumble.

I want this game now, looks like the Punch-out sequel we never got

Can’t we get even one boxing sim game rather than one over the top boxing game after another. Ridiculous as fans are starving for a boxing sim

@Zidentia It’s my generation’s fault (80’s baby) LOL The nostalgia is inspiring many of my contemporaries to make their favorite games. I believe this is the case.

Not gonna lie, a fighting game rpg were you gain levels through fighting oppontents but you move in an overworld and visit towns was my dream and now I got Street Fighter 6. Living the dream.