If you think the title is little more than a healthy pun, think again; Pulling No Punches means what it says. Politically charged, littered with incendiary themes, and crammed with expletives, this Brazilian indie title is quite the surprise, combining combat with combative opinion.
A scrolling beat 'em up in a retro style, its 2D styling is a wonderful combination of Ren & Stimpy and the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers. Its cutscenes are purposely, brilliantly crude, and the handful of painted introduction stills are so beautiful we can’t understand why they opted for such a blasé title screen.
The top-notch design work extends in-game, featuring a series of visually superb stages that exude effort. One to four players can utilise one of four squat characters to beat up on equally squat, well-animated adversaries. The fighting isn’t bad either, and while initially sluggish and short-ranged, it’s easy to employ mix-ups and smackdown techniques once you become accustomed. Each character has a broad arsenal of attacks, and their repertoire expands as you acquire scattered tomes and earn new moves. What we don’t like is the basic combo denying you a quick turn during its animation process. While the game is solid enough, things like this could have been improved. After the first stage, you reach a linear map overworld where you can purchase items that refill health and super bars with your collected purse of coins.
What stands out most, though, is the game’s overarching narrative. Pulling No Punches is about citizens taking a stand against pandemic deniers not wearing masks, and it’s brutal in its statement. Medical mask-wearing bystanders look on as you go about beating the hell out of caricatured louts: smoking, drinking, flag-waving, vomiting individuals who have been brilliantly rendered but also aggressively stereotyped. Elsewhere, you infiltrate a church, bashing bible-flinging congregates and a minister in need of an exorcism, and later, save vaccination scientists from Nazi flag-emblazoned mutations. The game’s satirising of the reaction to the COVID outbreak and its hard left leanings are obviously divisive, especially now many a question has been raised over government and big pharma’s handling of the pandemic. But, whether the game’s partisan approach makes you feel justified or indignant, there’s no denying the developer's hard work.
There’s plenty of humour involved, and it’s darkly violent stuff. Breaking out of clinches by mashing “f***ing buttons” and clearing the area of “***holes”; grabbing masks for 1UPs and initiating super moves that call for “essential workers” or “social distancing” is both summarily unusual and intriguing. There’s also a Trans brawler character whose hulking male physique and dainty hair bows may not sit well with certain groups.
There’s something weirdly wonderful about Pulling No Punches, though. Its four chapters comprise just over an hour end-to-end, but there’s so much to see that one can’t help but be absorbed by it. Whether the awesome character designs, the blazing f-bombs, the untranslated onomatopoeia of its fisticuffs, or the divisive theme itself, Pulling No Punches is not only a competent scrolling beat 'em up, but has a power of intrigue like few others. Frankly, we’re not sure Nintendo’s board of approval paid much attention to it, and in a world littered with a host of sanitised indie retro-themed games, its daring, politicised demeanour is a breath of fresh air.
Comments 51
Nice to see a game unafraid of alienating the incel gamer CHUDs and bigoted religious nutjobs with its message. I'll be picking this up
Yay...politics... in videos games. I like playing games to avoid real world politics. Hard pass. But super glad we keep pushing violence towards anyone who has a different opinion now a days. 🙄
Seems interesting enough, although this denial of “quick turn” sounds concerning to me. Dekudeals wishlist for now.
Looking up more screenshots, they have a sign that references flat earthers in a stage! They really pulled no punches. With the “flag-waving” references, I’m curious to know the presence of the “Neos” in Brazil, or if that is moreso an American reference.
… Science and violent historical acts executed by a group of people aren’t opinions…
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I'm all in on this game. Between this and Terror of Hemasaurus it's about high time we see arcade-action games making positive statements.
(It's also been really cool seeing so many Brazilian game devs finding success.)
If video games are to be considered art, then there is no reason the medium can't embrace the art of satire.
@TrickySx4
If someone says that the sky is brown, and people tell them that it's blue, the people saying it's blue are NOT being political, or making a political statement. They are making a statement of fact, which that person is denying. If that person then justifies that denial of fact based on a political belief, that still doesn't make the statement of fact political.
"COVID is real" is not a political statement. It is a statement of fact. Groups that oppose this statement of fact might themselves be poltically motivated, but that does not make the statement political in nature.
It's almost misleading to call this game's message "political". it's an anti-political message, strongly supporting the idea that groups that are based in the rejection of established reality should not be allowed to excuse the damage they do by labeling themselves political or religious. Using COVID instead of, say, a social-economic message, allows the game to focus on that message without drifting off into political theory.
These devs seem very talented. It’s a shame those talents are being used on games like this
"Leave politics out of games" means "Every game should be what I want it to be."
The world is full of people who are not you.
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Gamers want games to be accepted as an art, but also oppose any attempt by developers to give their games meaning.
I may have to buy this if only because its existence will p!ss off so many people.
Looks wild. Nice to see such a visceral game come out of Brazil though, I can guess who they voted for 😂
@TrickySx4 "leave politics out of games" says man with Rebel Alliance avatar.
Playable NPCs. Fascinating. Any interest for this game has died suddenly, however.
Everything about this game sounds right up my alley except for the fact that it's a beat em up, which I've played way too many of recently.
I'm still not 100% sure on what this game's stance actually is, and I suspect you actually have to play it yourself to be sure. Perhaps there's a twist, but if it really is a criticism of "pandemic deniers" and people "not wearing masks", then it's rather tone deaf. Regardless, I'm never going to criticise someone for bringing up a subject matter.
Let me just say two things - people talk about "facts", but really there are no such things as facts. The sky is blue, yes, because I can see it myself. Almost every other "fact" has been brought to you by some sort of authority, so don't be so quick to accept them.
Secondly, I don't like division, and actually didn't see much of it myself. The way I see it, the last three years have seen us utterly failed by the authorities, as we each tried to work out the truth and how much danger each of us was really in. I didn't try to push my views on anyone else and I don't know anyone who tried to push their views on me. Don't let them divide us.
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I do agree that games are art and should absolutely be satirical and ideological when they choose to be. But I do think those of us on the left should acknowledge that if this game had been infused with politics from the “other” side, most of us would be calling it beyond the pale. Imagine a game about “beating the hell” out of mask-wearers, activists or caricatures of any religion that’s not Christianity? You may feel that power and privilege make some forms of mockery acceptable and others dangerous, a position I hold myself, but you can’t presume that your definitions of those things are established, unquestionable fact. At some point, the excuse for left-wing critiques being different from right-wing ones moves from well-argued to suspiciously convenient.
We also need to acknowledge, I think, that for complex reasons the majority of people designing games likely identify as liberal more so than conservative and that “politics in games” is going to lean disproportionately to one side for that reason. Again, nothing wrong with that in my view, but the frustration from conservatives is coming from something real.
All that is to say this game’s hard politics look justifiable to me, but we may want to pause before claiming that justification is self-evident.
@BoilerBroJoe
I agree with most of your comment, but will say that bigotry and taking a stance against bigotry are not equal. For instance I see a big problem with being homophobic and hateful and justifying it with a religion, but I see no problem with mocking/insulting someone who is hateful because of their religion. Sometimes you just can't agree to disagree, you have to call it out.
If you're religious or conservative or whatever, that's cool. That alone is not the problem, it's that you push your way of life on others and vote for policies and laws to do so. There are plenty of Christians I know who are actually really chill and keep it to themselves and with their families, and I respect that. You want to live the way Jesus did, that's great but all too often I see it being used as a tool to oppress others and that I'm not okay with.
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@MetalKingShield
Would you carry around some Uranium-235 in your pocket? Why not? You can't SEE alpha radiation. Besides, what's the danger even if radiation is real, given cancer and radiation sickness is just a thing the same elitist doctors who tried to fool people into believing in COVID are trying to make us believe!
But no, obviously you wouldn't. Why do people choose to believe the scientists that tell you radiation is real and the doctors that tell you that cancer is real, but not the same scientists with the same level of education and expertise who say climate change is real or the same doctors that say COVID is real?
That's the games message. It explores that question.
It's also a fact that if you cut your head off you will die. If people are telling other people it's perfectly safe to cut their head off, using propaganda and deliberately targeting the least educated and most impressionable members of society, and there is a clear indication that people are cutting their heads off and dying because of this message ... is it "pushing your views" on people to make them stop telling people to cut their heads off?
What about murder? There are a lot of people who want to murder people, why are you causing "division" by telling them not to? We should allow people who want to murder and people who don't want to murder to live together in harmony! If someone came to your house and told you they wanted to kill your family, would you tell them that you don't agree, but you're not going to impose your views on them or ask them to not do it?
This game explores how blatantly and transparently self-serving your argument is and how "people should be free" almost always means "people should be free to agree with me". You should play it! You could learn a lot!
@Phostachio Your comment was removed as the last line was unnecessary.
Discussions are perfectly fine here but please be civil, no need to flame each other
Thanks!
The style vaguely reminds me of those Garbage Pale Kids trading cards from the 90s.
@Phostachio "bigotry and taking a stance against bigotry are not equal"
I agree, and I tried to make that clear in my comment. But too often any kind of nuance or concession to an opposing viewpoint is accused of "both-sidesing". This game is taking a stand against more than bigotry. Bigotry is in there, yes, but it's also lumping a whole lot of other identities that it codes as conservative. And is there really no argument to be made that a game where you beat up Christian congregants might be read as bigoted?
Again, pushing envelopes is fine and important but let's at least acknowledge when an envelope is being pushed.
@DreamlandGem
I appreciate the response. I get a little hot headed about this sort of thing because my father in law died from COVID. He was a longshoreman here in LA and he didn't see COVID as a big deal and often mocked masks and people who wore them. It didn't help that a lot of his coworkers felt the same way and there was a big COVID outbreak at his job. 7 people died. (There are 316,000 employees at Long Beach port) I'm mad at him. My wife still cries about it over two years later. We now have a six month old daughter who will never meet her grandfathers (my own dad died when I was 13).
When you get folks dismissing the pandemic and saying things like "there are no such thing as facts", it's hard not to get frustrated because this kind of thinking is detrimental to a functioning, well-oiled society. Dismissing the findings and advice of experts in their field because "authority", and then go looking for alternative "facts" from people with questionable repute is harmful. When the hard right folks here in my country are banning books, taking rights away from women that their own grandmothers had, etc. it's very difficult for me just to be okay with the whole "let's agree to disagree" mentality. We need to do better.
@BoilerBroJoe
This game doesn't explore if we should support legislative power being in the hands of all people (left wing) or if the government should remain in the control of the entrenched ruling class (right wing). It at no point mentions the French Revolution.
Your use of these terms to imply that it's a political belief to support the fact based research universally accepted by medical organizations that say mask wearing saves lives (as well as the after the fact data that shows countries with high mask uptake did MUCH better in combating the pandemic) rather then a decision based solely on logic, reason, and science is exactly why this game is important. It points out why you shouldn't do that.
Jesus at no point speaks to mask use and COVID-19 isn't mentioned in the bible (Jesus does voice support for apothecaries, however). You do not beat up "Christens" in this game, you beat up crazy activists who are trying to use these two things that it should be obvious to any thinking and rational person are not religious in nature to manipulate others while hiding behind religion.
The fact that it seems that some people have a hard time understanding how opposition to people causing harm to others is a good thing, even if the people causing harm try to say "I'm allowed to cause this harm because I'm a Christian" is why a game like this is so important.
If the game had people beating someone who did nothing wrong other then then identifying as part of a religion, few people would find that acceptable, in the same way it wouldn't be acceptable if the game was about beating someone up for making the personal chose to ware a mask, or for supporting laws based on evidence based science that says masks save lives.
I would really suggest playing it. It explores these ideas really effectively.
@BoilerBroJoe
I think without context the fact that you're beating up Christians would be bigoted, but in the context of the game I think they're taking a stance against the Christians that are saying "God will sort it out" and it "it was their time to go, God has a plan for them". My father in law's own family was saying that to my wife when he died from COVID. If God's plan was for a man to die at 55 years old alone in a hospital room, so he couldn't be there at his own daughter's wedding or see his granddaughter be born, then that's a cruel God I want nothing to do with. It could have been prevented, but thanks to his and his coworkers dismissal of COVID and their faith that God will protect them, he died.
@Phostachio I'm so sorry for your loss ❤️ I've also lost family due to COVID so I do really feel your frustration 😔
I'm sure you'll appreciate from a moderation side of things, all we ask is to be respectful when chatting with each other
Thanks so much for your understanding
I like to see games about hate and attacking your neighbors because they are different than you.
@DreamlandGem
You've got it, I'll rein it in moving forward! Thank you for your work here, you folks run a great site and I'm sorry that I'm probably one of the regular hot heads in the comment sections.
Clearly (though unsurprisingly) this is dovetailing far beyond the scope of a comments section. If I gave the impression I'm opposed to this game existing or what it's doing, that's not the case. I'm just saying I understand how some others might be, and how they might see it as more than just a stance against bigotry or a thoughtful commentary on science-denial. If I haven't articulated that well enough up to now, I probably won't be able to.
@Phostachio I'm very sorry about your father-in-law. It's a reminder that this is heart-breakingly serious stuff and that it hasn't gone away. And I hope my comments don't come off as disrespectful of that fact.
@BoilerBroJoe
No you’re cool, you’ve been super respectful and I’m glad we had this discussion. When I comment in places like this, even if I’m responding to one person, I have a tendency to go off the rails a bit and kind of address everything and everyone else at once. That’s my bad and something I need to work on. Nothing against you though, I wish more folks were as level-headed as you.
@HeadPirate I do not disagree with you. But I think Nintendolife has a clear political preference which is just really sad. They delete comments that are against the narrative. Some people make actual good points. But they only support one sound. Even this comment may be considered extreme just for stating my opinion which is not the same as theirs.
@mr12calvin
Might I ask what narrative it is you speak of?
@mr12calvin
I think the idea that you are simultaneously arguing that YOU should have an unquestioned and irrevocable right to express you option openly on a private website that is owed, paid for, and operated by private citizens while they should be completely forbidden from expressing their own opinions or bias, and how it should be considered completely unacceptable for them to express that opinion and their personal freedoms by deleting comments is something you should give some serious thought and self reflection towards.
I can 100% guarantee you, without any hesitation, that I have had more comments deleted from this website then you have. The difference is that I completely support their right to delete my comments. It's their board. If someone from Nintendolife came to my website and posted "THIS PERSON SUCKS" ... I would take it down. Because it's my website, and I strongly disagree with that statement.
Nintendolife is under no obligation to display or indorse the opinions of anyone other then themselves. We are guests here. That's how freedom of expression works. The part everyone seems to forget. Sometimes you have to support the right of people to tell you to STFU.
And, just in fairness, I don't think I've had any of my posts lambasting Nintendolifes sometimes questionable journalistic integrity or my direct criticism of the site deleted. It's general only when my comments are overly combative. So it's probably not the "good ideas" that are the problem, but the way people are expressing them.
@HeadPirate
Completely agree with this, goes double for me. Also, I think Nintendolife and I are on the same page politically, and that still doesn’t stop my comments from getting deleted because, as HeadPirate says, my comments can be overly combative.
Why are people making this comments section about them rather than about the game? Maybe there should be a 3 comment maximum per person per article.
At any rate, I usually scroll while reading to where I can see screenshots rather than ads, but not this time. That is some vile imagery.
Also, they missed the opportunity to call this one Streets of Plague.
@Phostachio If you aren’t aware of the narrative maybe I shouldn’t even explain. But maybe you’re just not sure what I’m referring to because of I wrote it.
The narrative as in the direction everything is heading. The agenda the people have that put monopolies onto things. Everything is paid for by people, organizations, groups etc. Funds come from somewhere. Some organizations, groups etc have put so much money into certain things (such as media). Ofcourse as a big investor, you would not want anything to be told in your disadvantage. This world functions on monopolies. The people with monopolies create a narrative. And many people just easily follow and defend it with their lives, unable to grasp such a concept.
And this site does the same thing. Protect a specific narrative. Just copy and accept the most common story. Be politically correct and consider everyone who thinks differently dangerous or crazy or what not.
It’s your right to think whatever of this, ofcourse. But this is what I’m referring to.
@Thomystic I’m actually curious about the game now haha
I would like to get it and see how they portray both sides. The controlled ‘Right wing extremists” that think covid is fake. And the “Left wing boostered Karens calling the police if you don’t wear your mask correctly. Opinions aside, I think I would enjoy it. It’s just The play. People will pick a (controlled) side and fight one another. Do I get to be a double mask wearing karen that can fight conspiracy theorists, or do I get to be a ranting trump supporter. I imagine this game make a lot of fun of everyone. And I would just like to see how the put it in this game.
How much is this game? (Advice price)
I remember in the old days there would be a price given with articles and commercials. I wish they would still do that.
@HeadPirate “Sometimes you have to support the right of people to tell you to STFU.”
Yeah, no thank you. People want equal rights. But only if it fits them. That’s what you just said to me. But that’s the exact thing you’re stating here. Eh.
Also, I do not support either party (The so called “Boostered double mask wearing karen. Or the “Covid is fake, vote Trump!”)
Since I disagree with you, I must be a ‘Opposite of what you vote” lunatic or extremist.
Honestly they should disable the comments on this one this section is a warzone. Personally speaking I just think the game looks really ugly I’ve never understood the appeal of a art style like this. So just looks alone it’s a skip from me tho I do enjoy beat ‘em ups.
Considering the existence of studies that have concluded masking ultimately didn't really do anything to negate the effects of the pandemic, and how no one really bothers to mask up anymore, this game's premise is particularly laughable to me
This is not for me and it doesn't have to be. The game is honest in what it is saying, so there's no risk of unknowingly buying it and therefore it's no problem.
@PikaPhantom Can you link these studies? I'd be interested in seeing them.
Also, could it be that no one really masks up anymore because the vaccine has been widely available for for a couple of years now, which might have something to do with infection levels plummeting in areas with high rates of vaccination rates? Just a thought.
@mr12calvin
So if I came to your house, put up a sign saying "the person who lives here is a murderer and you should set his house on fire", then stood on the sidewalk trying to get people to do that, you wouldn't ask me to leave? If you wound, then you support your right to tell me to STFU (I also support your right to tell me to STFU). But you don't supports Nintendolife's right to tell you to STFU.
Your core misunderstanding is simple:
Vote Trump is an option. You can disagree or agree with this and still be a rational human. You should vote for Trump and you shouldn't vote for Trump are both valid viewpoints, although most people will only agree with one or the other.
COVID is real is a fact, supported by every medical expect. If you disagree with this, you are literally a lunatic. You are flat out a crazy person, the same as someone trying to convince people that the sky is falling or that we've been invaded by lizard people. As soon as you make a statement like this, you forfeit your right to be treated with the any respect or seriousness. You are insane and unwell. Period.
I think gravity is real and I don't think gravity is real are not equivent statements. Only one is a valid viewpoint.
Again, this game would do a fantastic job of illustrating the difference between these viewpoints. I would recommend you spend some time playing it instead of talking about it.
@mr12calvin Just chiming in here to clarify. We only remove comments that go against our Community Rules
As you can see from this comment section alone, we allow for conversation with different opinions to take place as long as it remains somewhat on topic, civil and respectful
Hope that clears things up ☺️
@nessisonett the dev team voted against the far right candidate. The PC version when released (before our elections) even had people wearing the brazilian football team jersey as enemies (and sadly that is the current symbol of the far right militancy).
I don't know if this was changed, but there is not picture on this article showing that.
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