I grew up playing a lot of Mortal Kombat as a kid. If I’m honest, I was probably a little too young to play Mortal Kombat on my N64 after school. As I’ve grown up, I still look forward to new entries in the Mortal Kombat franchise every few years and thoroughly enjoy the fighting game genre.
I was extremely excited about Punch Planet after seeing the preview on Apple Arcade. From the trailer and game description, it looked like a substantially large Sci-Fi themed fighting game. I was most excited about the Sci-Fi element since I haven’t played a lot of Sci-Fi themed fighting games that I can think of over the recent years.
Gameplay
Punch Planet is a standard six-button fighting game. If you have ever played Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter, or DC Gods Among Us, you will quickly pick up Punch Planet.
A beautiful anime-style cut scene plays when you first launch the game. The initial frame of the scene looks like it was ripped straight from Blade Runner, one of my favorite Sci-Fi movies. The intro serves to give a very brief introduction to the six playable characters in the game. This cut scene built up my expectations that the game would have an interesting story I could follow along with as I played through the game.
Once the cut scene is over, the main menu appears where you choose one of the four game modes: arcade, versus, training, and survival. Every mode feels like the same thing you have played in any Mortal Kombat game from a decade ago. Nothing feels new or unique in Punch Planet. The developers missed a great opportunity to introduce a new game mode to stand out compared to other fighting games.
Punch Planet’s six characters are pretty standard. You have the right mix of different speed and damage style characters. Agent-G is a lightning-fast character who floats around the screen with ease. Tyara, on the other hand, is a heavy character who is slow but does a considerable amount of damage whenever you land a hit. Most of the characters are forgettable, in my opinion, except for the character named “Dog” who I’m still not sure is a person or an actual dog. More about that confusion later.
Other than the varying speed, the characters feel like clones of one another. I don’t think this makes the game any less enjoyable, but greater variance of moves or weapons with each character would be appreciated. I mostly played the same character, Agent-G, since I enjoyed his speedy movement during fights.
By now, you might be thinking, where is the story mode that goes along with the fantastic intro cut scene. I was pretty surprised to find out that the game has no story mode, and never expands on the intro cut scene or characters. This is the reason why I’m not sure if the character Dog is a person, animal, or something else. What’s worse is that the game’s App Store description even mentions you will play in a “…rich and immersive universe, spanning exotic planets, advanced cities, and alien races.” That short sentence is never explored in Punch Planet as it “currently stands.”
The reason I say “currently stands” is because after doing a little research, I found out that Punch Planet is also available on Steam Early Access. This, of course, means that Punch Planet is still in active development by Sector-K Games, including the creation of a story and the game’s “immersive universe,” according to the developers. My expectations of Steam Early Access games are pretty low. However, I have high expectations when it comes to Apple’s curated Apple Arcade games. It is a little deceiving to talk about a “rich and immersive universe,” but only offer a bare-bones fight game with no story. Maybe the developers were rushing out what they currently had to meet the Apple Arcade launch deadline so that they could kick up a little more excitement for their Steam game. However, by rushing, they gave off a poor first impression of a game they are still working on.
The gameplay of Punch Planet is just barely good enough. There is nothing special that stands out compared to any other fighting game. To be honest, Punch Planet feels like the original Mortal Kombat due to its lack of features and small character roster. However, it isn’t 1992, and the fighting genre has changed a lot since Mortal Kombat’s debut. I find it odd that the developers decided to push out such a lackluster fighting game in 2019.
Controls
The controls for Punch Planet are a mixed bag for me. While playing without a controller, the joystick and six fighting buttons are on-screen controls laid on top of the game. I’m not a huge fan of onscreen controls for mobile games since I always find it difficult to hit each button as I play the game. However, Punch Planet’s buttons are generously sized, and I never struggled to tap a button while I played.
An excellent addition to Punch Planet’s controls is the ability to swipe around the button layout to activate moves. Punch Planet’s developers have not limited swipes to a few standard actions, similar to Marvel’s Contest of Champions. Instead, you can fluidly activate button after button as you slide a finger around the screen without stopping. This is an excellent way to control your character compared to trying to tap on the controls one at a time. If you don’t swipe to activate moves, your fingers will block the enemy as you try to tap around the six-button onscreen layout.
Punch Planet’s swipe controls make the game feel fluid and fast-paced compared to other fighting games I’ve played. Punch Planet also supports game controllers like many other Apple Arcade games. As you might expect, controlling your character with a game controller is a superior experience on a game controller.
Graphics
I love flat design and simple geometric characters in games. Punch Planet delivers on both of these esthetics, and it makes for a unique looking game. It is clear that a lot of work went into making sure every graphic in the game flows together to create a unified experience. Each character has a distinct look and feel. This allows for the characters to stand on their own graphically, even if they don’t fighting control-wise. The design of Tyara and Agent-G stand out the most due to their unique color scheme and striking appearance. Punch Planet feels like playing inside of a Blade Runner comic book on my phone.
One odd thing about Punch Planet’s graphics deals with the iPad version of the game. As you can see above, the game is letterboxed within the overall screen. I haven’t seen this issue in any other Apple Arcade games that I’ve been reviewing over the past month. I’m not sure why the developers chose not to allow the game to fill the iPad’s entire resolution. It’s not a huge issue, but it seems like another example of the game being rushed to meet the Apple Arcade release date.
I think Punch Planet’s graphics are one of its most attractive elements. The flat graphic design makes it stand out compared to any of the other fighting games currently on the App Store or other consoles. I hope that as the game continues to be developed new characters with unique traits and designs are added.
Conclusion
Punch Planet is clearly still a work in progress that is being pushed out on Apple Arcade a little too soon. There are a few things I enjoyed about Punch Planet, in particular, the awesome graphics that help give the game an interesting aesthetic. I think the basic bones for a compelling fighting game are there, however, Punch Planet is missing something to make it stand out. To be honest, I think if the developers added a story element to the game, it would have grabbed my attention and been able to hold onto it.
I am fully aware that Punch Planet is in Steam’s Early Access, which means the developers are still fine-tuning the game. However, on Apple Arcade, Punch Planet is being pitched as a finished and ready for the public game. This is clearly not the case due to the lack of story and “rich and immersive universe” that is promised in the app description. I understand the developer’s urge to jump onto something new like Apple Arcade, which will get a ton of coverage when it first launches to help kick up interest in their game. However, I wish the developers took a little more time to polish this early version of the game.
Ranking
Graphics: 4/5
Controls: 3/5
Gameplay: 2/5
